shifting prioirities

I have a new post up at MyBreastCancerNetwork.Com. It will also be my last for a while:

I am very grateful for the opportunities I have had here at MyBreastCancerNetwork.Com to further extend my reach, to share my stories and reassure so many women that a diagnosis of metastasis is not without hope. For so many of us, metastatic breast cancer is treated like a chronic illness, one that must be managed but through which we can live active, healthy lives.

However, as I have written before, when metastatic breast cancer is well managed, the stories one tells can start to be repetitive and even boring (Another clean scan! No new signs of cancer! Today, I felt like a normal person!). And while I vigorously embrace the lack of drama in this part of my life, I also find myself lacking in inspiration.

As I have said often to friends in the last few weeks, blogging about my life with metastasis means to be constantly tapping the same vein. I am feeling a bit drained (I also just finished the final edits on my book, “I’m Not Done Yet,” which is being published by Women’s Press and due out in the spring of 2009, and that has no doubt contributed to my ‘cancer fatigue’).

It’s time to spend more time writing about other parts of my life (my blog is called Not Just About Cancer for a reason) and even to play at making stuff up, along with other creative pursuits. I have a puppy that needs training. And I need to spend more time on the activities that nurture my body, as well as my mind.

After I wrote this post, I had my spouse proof read it (he proofs almost everything I write before it goes online). He said that it was fine. Except that I mention the puppy and not my spouse or kids.

He said (while laughing at me), "It's like saying, 'I'm retiring to spend more time with my dog.'

I chose not to change that line. In my defense, I have have not been neglecting the needs of my family to write for MyBreastCancerNetwork.Com. I did, however, have to remove the puppy from the dining room table, as I wrote yesterday's post. I clearly need to invest more time in training.

You can read the rest of my "goodbye for now" post here.



An example of the 'other creative pursuits' in which I wish to engage. Taken at the a family Bar Mitzvah this past week end (photo: A. Wayne).

Cross-posted to Mothers With Cancer.