Chemo Brain (It's a Thing)

Usually after my second of third bag of chemo

I get Chemo Brain. Some people call it Chemo Fog.

Everything becomes fuzzy and foggy and disconnected.

I can’t focus. My vision gets blurred.

I can’t recall words easily and I can’t type a sentence

With owt tie ping tuns uv typors.

This is all very bad for a poet and a writer.

(I should have been a Gigolo.)

Even my walking is affected.

I’m wobbly, off-balanced, uncertain, as if I’m teetering

on a tightrope above the lion cage without a balancing pole.

Going up and down stairs is a challenge.

(I’ve tripped a few times; please don’t tell my wife.)

The good news is it doesn’t usually last longer than a week.

I wish you sunny, fog-free days full of blue skies and sunshine.

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About the author:

In the fall of 2022, I was diagnosed with stage 2 B-cell, non-specified, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system. Over the next six months, I endured six grueling hospitalizations for chemotherapy and immunotherapy. On February 6, 2023, I rang the bell on the Oncology ward. I’m cancer-free. Throughout the ordeal, I wrote poems. I include a handful below to share with your readers. They are original and unpublished.