In the exactly four years since I found out I have cancer, this has not been exclusively a cancer blog, but I have written a lot about it. Since you probably missed some (and also because I've forgotten much of what I wrote), I'm listing links to every post I've made on the topic. Let's start with December 2006 (when I didn't know what I had) through December 2007. See part 2 (2008), part 3 (2009), and part 4 (2010–2011) too.
December 2006:
January 2007:
- In preparation for the colonoscopy I'll be having...
- Please excuse the salty language
- Road trip!
- Mystical comfort from Richard Dawkins
- Forgetful and distracted
- Blowout! Clearance! Everything must go!
- Still in the woods
- Why I'm getting cancer treatment now
- Thanks to Gillian for this one
- Worlds in collision
- It's getting to me now
- Derek's talkin' about cancer on CBC Radio
- A podcaster's impression of live radio
- I'll be calling this Day Zero
- Audio from my CBC interview is up
February 2007:
- What do other cancer patients think?
- Planning the accident
- Losing it in the best way
- No, dammit, I don't know the surgery date yet
- I'm confused
- Miracle cures, and being afraid
- Careful what you wish for
- Filling the binder, moving the bed
- I have tentative surgical dates and a plan
- And today's wild swing of the pendulum is...
- Getting prepped
- Not a new thing
- Time set, purge begun
- That was fun—or not
- One down, one to go
- Thoughts and congratulations
- Ouch
- Zonked out
- Tough morning
- Up and down
- How to make cancer treatment go better
March 2007:
- Pain management
- One more day
- Let's reset that timeline again
- Tidbits from a sick day
- Three things
- Bring it the hell on
- A piece of advice
- On the conveyor
- All guns blazing
- Accelerated treatment is a good thing
- Busy days
- Thanks to the late Stephen Jay Gould
- Last day before chemo
- Daffodils and IVs
- Avast! A toast to bevacizumab!
April 2007:
- Side effects or not?
- Appearing in CBC Radio again today
- Nap tub
- How many springs?
- If you missed my CBC interview, here it is
- My CBC interview featured on "BC This Week"
- Another rough night
- Much better today
- Scheduling and meeting friends
- Tomorrow is the new Day One
- So far, not too bad
- Not much new to report
- That weekend sucked
- Started out bad, got better
- Morphine is my friend
- Dipped in metal
- Chemo crushed
- You never know what you're gonna get
- My day
- Not a recommended weight loss plan
- CBC TV's 2006 cancer documentary
May 2007:
- Bony butt
- Gonna be a sleepy one
- I hate weekends
- Off the grid
- Two notes about the B.C. Cancer Agency
- Going with the evidence
- Adventures in toileting
- Coming out of my shell
- So much
- Going all the way
- Memories of Cannon Beach via art therapy
- The Vancouver web geek community is real
- I'm not brave
- Major repairs
June 2007:
- Paying the price
- Here's how to help me out
- Sometimes I lie
- Small pleasures and pains
- Radiation side effects last a long time
- I'm an idiot
- Cancer benefit concerts in Ontario
- So how'd we do?
- Generator
- Mixed messages again
- Dead man walking?
- Let's put it this way
- Attention seeker
- Gonna be on CBC Radio again on Friday
- Party tonight, interview posted, rock tomorrow
July 2007:
- I'm totally spent, baby
- My favourite places, and when to take me there
- Having surgery, off the grid till mid-July
- Hi from the hospital
- Kickin' it old skool: pen and paper
- Back home and moving slowly
- A new record
- Taking it to the strip
- Morphine withdrawal side effects are not so good
- Hey, so where'd you go?
- I'm home
August 2007:
- So tired
- Nose crater battle scars
- Know your limit
- A slow month
- Outings have their price
- Thrown about by Bourne
- The next best thing
- Relief
- Turning the corner
- Corners
- Crash
- Fame in the U.K.
September 2007:
- More chemo in October
- I slept all day today
- My wife's birthday
- Buses and risks
- More sedation tomorrow
- That wasn't all that bad
- Video of my appearance at Gnomedex
- Family and friends
October 2007:
- The Blue Fox pushes me over the line at last
- Bandages and partners
- How a Portacath works
- Gearing up for more chemo tomorrow
- How's that chemotherapy?
- Hiccups as a side effect of (hic!) chemotherapy
- Owies
- What's the metaphor?
- Waaaay belated thank you
- Death and childhood dreams
November 2007:
- Paying the price
- Staying warm and dry
- Why 2007 continues to suck
- Stylin' with age
- Warming the cockles of geeks' hearts
- Chemotherapy side effects
- I'll let you guess how I'm feeling today
- Shopping time
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I've read every single one - many several times ove. I've passed them on to friends and family; posted them on boards I'm a member of and ruminated over the content more than I would ever care to admit. And I know I'm not alone.
Hi Derk, how do you get your WordPress to insert all those specified posts into a single post like that? I wanna do that sometime!
Also, have you ever thought of making an infographic?
I wish it were some amazing programmatic trickery, but I actually simply dragged the individual permalinks from my web browser into my text editor (BBEdit) manually, then marked it up by hand too, i.e. it just took a lot of work and time, which is why I only did 2006-2007 to start. Oh, and I'm using Movable Type, not WordPress, but that makes no difference.
Also, if I did make an infographic, what would it be? A pie chart of how many posts I mention vomiting vs. diarrhea, perhaps?
this post chronicles events before the diagnosis so it should technically come first
https://www.penmachine.com/2007/01/why-im-getting-cancer-treatment-now.html
anyone with those symptoms needs to see a doctor ASAP
I too have a blog that stretches back years and some of my posts seem to have ongoing themes (in my case adoption records). I'm kind of proud of some of 'em and I was thinking of the best way to sorta present it all in one package and I thought an infographic might be fun! Last week I spent seven hours making vector images of courthouses for the infographic... and they still look like crap... oy!
Ned/mytrade, while that post talks about stuff before my diagnosis, I wrote it well after, so I'm leaving it in the order they were actually published. Trying to re-sort things otherwise is just asking for trouble.