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Cancer Diary: Life, Liberty, and Covid

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  Excerpt from the pre-publication manuscript: Chapter 13 HOW DO WE USE OUR FREEDOM? “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” --Aung San Suu Kyi   ·        When the lockdowns began in March 2020 to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, “to flatten the curve,” we were shocked at this drastic measure. It underlined the seriousness and deadliness of the pandemic. We imagined the shutdown opening after a brief time. My friends and I exchanged humor and cartoons to help us cope with the shock and avoid panic. (The joking has slowed, almost to a standstill.) One cartoon was prescient of a coming attitude and agenda shift. It was a cartoon of a smiling Jim Carrey saying, “Hope they allow us off lockdown by July 4 th …so we can celebrate our freedom.” ·        His humor carries a stinging truth. Disillusionment has set in on a national scale. The lockdown was eased, but COVID-19 cases rose and States are closing down businesses and gatherings again. We are

Cancer Diary: Some Doctors Will Not Recommend Hospice until Too Late

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  I like to follow the blog of Barbara Karnes , hospice nurse par excellence. Much of what she has to say to hospice nurses about end-of-life issues in general apply to caregivers of cancer patients in particular. Her latest post, " For some doctors, it just isn’t in their tool kit to stop trying to treat,"  reflects our experience very well. Only when Carl fell and needed four people to lift him and get him to the hospital and x-rays showed complete take over by cancer of four major organs along with blood clots in his legs and lungs did the doctor suggest hospice (although he also expressed a willingness to continue treatment -- a different treatment -- if we wanted). We chose hospice, but the period of time was short. Carl returned from the hospital and went on hospice August 7. He died August 16. I have always wished that the doctor had put the hospice option in front of us much earlier, perhaps even at the beginning of the 5-month period during which the doctor tried eve

Excerpt from Understanding the Seeker (Quinelle): "Understanding the Seeker's Approach to Life"

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  The Quinelle series of books, based on  Understanding the People around You , focuses on individual personality types. The excerpt below is from  Understanding the Seeker: Socionics in Everday Life . Want more information? Read the books! Start with Filatova's book, then turn to Quinelle's books that break out the individual styles: Understanding the Analyst Understanding the Critic Understanding the Entrepreneur Understanding the Seeker ---- at least three more coming in 2022 (Romantic, Performer, Professional) Understanding the Seeker’s Approach to Life What is the Seeker? The Seeker is an Intuitive Thinking Extrovert (ITE). As such, he or she is a combination of the three expressed traits and the unexpressed trait, Irrationality (emphasis on the Jungian definition, not the English-language lay definition). Filatova describes the Seeker in the following way: The most attractive feature of Seekers (ITEs) is their enthusiastic look, as if they are oversized children a