Brian Blum

The societal expectations around learning you have cancer are to fight.

Uncertainty anxiety tends to follow a U-shaped curve. You worry a lot at the beginning, forget about it in the middle, then worry again at the end.

The body produces dopamine when it’s engaged in something pleasurable. Going out to eat releases dopamine, which, in turn, increases joy, happiness, and satisfaction.

'During the six weeks I was hospitalized – and the months before and after – I needed Jody. And Jody needed the Village.'

The six weeks I was hospitalized represented for me a kind of “coma of denial,” in that I had been denying the gravity of my story without even knowing that my story was as grave as it was.

If it is my misfortune to have to be hospitalized when missiles from the Middle East come a-calling again, I only hope that by then, my CRE will have resolved.

To my surprise – and initial disappointment – there were no hallucinations forthcoming. I was definitely in an altered state, just not what I’d anticipated. And then I couldn’t shut up.

Compare consciousness to a radio. You can smash the radio and the music stops, but that doesn’t mean the music came from the radio.

"Nearly every conversation – be it in person, via WhatsApp, or other types of Internet communication – is not really about me. It’s about consoling you."

For both of us, a sinister countdown had started.