The Dust Busting Chronicles: Cleaning My Way Through Ovarian Cancer - Tapa blanda

The Dust Busting Chronicles: Cleaning My Way Through Ovarian Cancer details the horrific and life-altering battle against ovarian cancer during a harrowing 19-month period. The story relays the logistical challenges of a life-threatening disease, and explores poignant moments of hope, anger, frustration and defeat. The story begins with the author packing up her life in New Jersey, after the loss of her life partner, Lyse. The ensuing chapters disclose the cancer experience in compelling detail. Chemotherapy treatments begin, and the couple adjusts to a regimen of infusions, disabling side effects, and a mountain of pills. Cheryl's obsessive-compulsive disorder grows in scope as Lyse's medical challenges put a strangle hold on all areas of their life. The story gives the reader an intimate view of the dark side of the author's coping mechanism and the stress that accompanies her rituals. The first chemotherapy regimen results in a good report, but several months later, the couple receives discouraging news. Two more chemotherapy protocols follow and both yield disastrous results. The final three weeks of Lyse's life, spent at Holy Name Hospital, were dramatic, tender, and passionate. The concluding chapter is a matter-of-fact but moving account of accepting things, even death, as they are, loving so deeply it's painful, and coming through on the other side. Those of us left on this side will move forward, alone, but having loved in such a way that that is all we truly remember in the end.

Winning first prize for Haiku in a college poetry contest, Cheryl graciously accepted her $100 and then folded the verses and tucked them into a box of books to be stored. She went on to pursue a career as a music therapist, working with geriatrics and mentally-challenged adults. She continued writing Haiku, and even some short essays, roused by the poignant moments found in stagnant hallways and brightly lit activity rooms of the nursing home. After migrating to the world of business, Cheryl enjoyed a career in project and client-support based services, spending the last seven years of her twenty-two year tenure in management. During her years in the corporate world, Cheryl quietly struggled with the demands and symptoms of her obsessive-compulsive disorder. Symptoms of worrying and cleaning, kept mostly under wraps, became oppressive and debilitating during the months of her partner's illness. This period of crisis transformed her OCD from a familiar coping mechanism into a venomous guerrilla. During the worst of her partner's illness, Cheryl sought treatment for her own affliction. This allowed her to continue providing Lyse with undivided love, devotion, and management of her medical needs. Almost three-and-a-half years later, Cheryl is living a quiet and contented life in Wilmington, North Carolina. Living through her partner's battle, and ultimately losing the love of her life, has reshaped her perception of life. At the end of the line, what matters most is how we've loved. Cheryl may be reached at milsandmom@yahoo.com.