Palliverse welcomes a new contributor today. Elizabeth Caplice is an archivist on hiatus. She has Stage IV colorectal cancer, and writes about cancer, and how it intersects with life, particularly in younger adults. Elizabeth has shared a recent photo, to show that “stage IV cancer looks far broader than just some elderly hands with a cannula in them.” (Try doing a Google image search for “palliative care”.)

We recommend Elizabeth’s excellent blog  Sky Between Branches and her Twitter feed. As always please leave responses in the “Comments” box below.

Today, I saw my oncologist, and got dealt more bad news.  Stage IV cancer life is mostly bad news, and you come to expect it.  The cancer has spread, again, after only two weeks off chemotherapy – which I needed to take due to my blood count consistently dropping to dangerous levels.  He gently told me that if it was in my bones now, it wouldn’t be shocking, because I was diagnosed with Stage IV rectal cancer a year and a half ago.  I have done remarkably well.  Continue reading →