Comments for I Don't Remember at http://www.lauradavis.net , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.lauradavis.net Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:36:05 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.lauradavis.net/Blog/i-dont-remember.html#comment-166 You might not remember me now, but I remember you and your writing still always touches the heart! My daughter went to Kindergarten at the same idyllic tiny school and large orchard where your children did & we often talked about writing and life as we met during passing moments. Today, you came into my consciousness again through a fluke and friend of friends. I read about the upcoming workshop in SC and tweeted it & many happy memories flooded in, making me wish I could attend that March 5th event with the always fascinating SC crowd. I'm sooo sorry to read about your bout with Cancer & happy to hear it is now 2 years into your past. My stepfather in Capitola and & my aunt are enduring cancer battles & chemo for the last few years, so I know how that impacts a family. We have been on an open ended, non-stop world tour as a family since 2006, so finally I am writing my book, I think. Ha! I've actually written enough words for several books through our blog and have enjoyed the creative outlet. I'm in my 50's and certainly not the same "self-starting dynamo” I was in my twenties, but I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. My memory for some things have never been good. When my mother taught me to drive at 16, she was astounded the first time because I had never noticed that cars drive on other sides of the road. ;) I tend not to retain information that I don't feel important at the time. I have to do lots of compensating because I crushed my knee & broke my femur 17 years ago while running in the redwoods. I'm somewhat mobility challenged, so that does impact our trip and my whole family. We see the world primarily by foot & mass transit, so always working around my walking limitations. Last summer I had a bike wreck on the Danube & broke/had surgery & pin put in/paralyzed my rt dominant arm (hopefully temporarily). Thus I write this with 1 handed, lefty pecking as nerves heal slowly. These things slow us down, but they don't have to stop us. I'm not crazy about aging, especially with this new handicap to add to my collection, but, I sure like it compared to the alternative! ;) Sending waves of love from our tiny Med village to you and yours! - soultravelers3 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:15:10 +0100 http://www.lauradavis.net/Blog/i-dont-remember.html#comment-163 so lovely to have people write back; to know you're out there reading and thinking and feeling.... - Laura Davis Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:25:04 +0100 http://www.lauradavis.net/Blog/i-dont-remember.html#comment-162 Hi Laura, I lost my thyroid to thyroid cancer nearly 3 years ago...and though the doctors like to call it a "good cancer"...ie. usually highly treatable, I feel like I am still looking for pieces of my brain. I have a 6 year old...so sometimes I wonder about "mommy brain"...I'm 48, so I wonder if I'm perimenopausal. Some of it could have been the anaesthesia, which I just learned can take well over a year for your body to recover from. I do know that over the years, until around the time of the cancer my memory was getting better and better as I did emotional release work and healing. When I was younger my memory was just awful. When my mom died when I was 27 I couldn't even make appointments and remember them for over a year...a combination of exhaustion and grief. Now, I'm trying to figure out a way to settle in to the new me...while still hoping that I'll once again feel as sharp and competent as I used to. Nobody warned me of this, nobody talked to me about this..it's a sort of hidden aspect of some cancers, I think, that people don't really get...I mean I'm so very grateful I'm alive, but I do grieve that loss...and like you, it's not just memory, but also drive...Sometimes I wonder how much of all this is that my brain is still shaken by facing my mortality in such a big way... I am so glad you are writing! Denise - Denise Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:21:04 +0100 http://www.lauradavis.net/Blog/i-dont-remember.html#comment-161 Can't tell you if it's coming back. Don't know if it's fallout from cancer treatment, menopause, or a combination of the two. Can say it's a challenge, can say it nourishes compassion (for a younger, ignorant all-knowing self, and the current humbled self). In the mean time, thank you for a long forgotten memory, of sitting naked with my lover on a broad, low branch just above the rushing Yuba River, a scrabble board between us, the cares of work and study far away in the valley below, and we two blissfully a happy. I'm reminded by my lover that it's probably too late for me to go to medical school. But you've shown me a way to mine my memory and shape the fragments into something beautiful. - Mary Wieland Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:17:39 +0100