I picked up an old edition of Reader's Digest - September 2009, page 79. The article is entitled "Perils of a Good Thing"
   To summarize: "Almost 60 percent of women reach for antioxidants, such as vitamins C or E, when notified of breast cancer .  . they may be doing themselves more harm than good.
  "Antioxidants sop up free radicals in the body, but that may interfere with . .  radiation and some forms of chemotherapy, which generate free radicals to damage cancer cells.
  "We don't know the effects at this point."  So, we are now warned.

"Down Off the Cross" October 2016, Reader's Digest

Wife and I were constantly aware that cancer was walking with us, but she never seemed to address it as a threat or enemy. I don't recall her ever attending a 'cancer survivor' walk, nor an "I survived cancer" workshop, or joining a survivor group. We moved through each phase, living as normally as possible, and expecting others to treat us as normally as possible. To the bitter end.
  That leads into the Reader's Digest article. A series of quotes: ". .  I found that only a small part of the cancer experience is about medicine. Most of it is about feelings, faith, losing and finding your identy, and discovering strength and flexibility you never knew you had.
   "The other thing I learned is that I didn't have to take on "cancer survivor" as my identity, even though there were forces pushing me to do that.
   "I felt like being a cancer survivor was taking over my life. . . . We know that the way to cope with . .  (a) life changing experience(s) is to find meaning, (which) we have to decide. . . Perhaps we make one small decision that makes a big difference in our lives.
   "What if we lived in a world without survivors? What if people decided to claim their trauma as an experience, rather than taking it on as their identity? It could mean the end of being trapped by our wounds and the start of defining ourselves by what we are becoming."

Still Grieving for Mate

When asked by others what I'm doing these days, I reply, "Chasing Wife."   Now, I realise that after a few weeks, the chase is futile. Yes, I know.  But, how futile is washing dishes, sweeping floors, changing linens on beds and cleaning the body?  Futility is in the eye of the beholder, and, for now, I prefer futility to reality.

Our Initiation into, and a smattering of our experiences in Cancer Land

    Almost ten years we started our adventure into cancer land. My mate learned that she was blessed with breast cancer. We waded through a complete mastectomy, with lymph nodes, chemotherapy, and then radiation. From there, we have cried, laughed, whimpered and whined, prayed, laughed some more, and sat - lots of sats.
    Sharing our adventure has long niggled at the corners of my consciousness. I believe I'm ready. So, let's hop aboard the train as we swing and sway through ten years of hospitals, doctors, miles of travel, treatments, success, and failures.