Living

Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” is about threats to the environment, but you can apply some of the lyrics to a range of losses in life. Specifically, I’m thinking of...

The summer of 2019 was--and remains in sweltering southwest Tennessee--a difficult one for this skin cancer patient. I’ve been debating about chalking it up to a seven-year-itch type situation. It’s...

Family picnic, a day at the beach, golf outing, ballgame, you’re there, it’s hot, you’re roasting and you forgot to lather up in SPF50. Maybe you ran out of sunscreen...

Typically, receiving good news can make us feel great. Ecstatic, even. Like all is right in our world. But there are other times that receiving good news doesn’t always make...

Talking today with Robert J. Kaplan, MD, my dermatologist. Dr. Kaplan is in private practice in Memphis, Tennessee and currently treats me for a skin ailment (side effect) caused by...

I woke up this morning with a sick feeling in my stomach. I didn’t have any other symptoms-no fever, no body aches, no sore throat. I thought about it for a few...

EXT: the three letters that I did not want to see. In the film business, this means that the scene is an exterior shot. It’s filmed outside...in the sun. EXT...

It’s 2019, and receiving mail isn’t nearly the event it was when most of us were kids. Remember waiting anxiously on a letter from a friend? How vividly do you...

Play in the sun on better courts, or play in the shade on less desirable ones? Controversy has consumed our Monday tennis group. One wants to play in the shade...

If you’re familiar with medical marijuana, then you’ve likely heard of RSO, or Rick Simpson Oil. Yet, for those who aren’t into medical marijuana and its benefits, it is probably...

At the end of June, I had my six-month skin check with my dermatologist, Dr. Keller. I had a small area on my face that my doctor wanted to treat...

It’s 7:30am and you overslept again. You scramble and remember that it’s casual Friday and you can wear shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and you do. You find your keys...

My “new normal,” a phrase often used in cancer circles to describe life in survivorship, completely took me by surprise when I exited treatment.  It happened both times I experienced cancer! I...

If you use hair ties, you might have the same problem with them that I have. They seem to disappear. As many times as I buy a colorful package of...

Flashback to the summer of 1985: the Florida sun is bright, the beach is calling, and our family vacation is in full swing. My sister and I are spending the...

It’s that time of the year for many of us in the snow belt. It’s classic car show time. Mustangs, T-Birds, expensive imports, all varieties of convertible leave the hibernation...

In 1988, I was diagnosed with melanoma. I had just returned from a year of working in London right after finishing my college degree in Los Angeles. I had thought...

At a conference in late August, I was asked by a colleague about my Stage IV melanoma diagnosis. He was surprised, maybe a little dismayed, by the calm and almost...

There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel of steamy, summery heat and humidity. September is here, and we can all, literally, breathe a little easier. Fall...

I have the gift of gab. And I absolutely adore my next-door neighbor. Those two things combined led to an unexpected (and unwelcome) result for me recently. It was a...