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Kenneth B. Lourie

Stories by Kenneth B.

Opinion: Column: “Enough Already”

As my late mother would have suggested after reading four consecutive weeks of Kenny's column being on the same subject: the second degree burns on my feet, I am finally moving on.

Opinion: Column: Hopping and Hoping

As I approach my four-week anniversary of "the burning," I do so with cautious optimism that one day soon, I'll be walking upright once again and doing so without the assistance of my walker.

Opinion: Column: Definitely on My List

As the month of May was swept away with the last of the network-season's original programming, those of us still in lockdown and quarantining had our own reality to embrace: there was nothing new on network television.

Opinion: Column: Time to Kill

(Again, not a cancer column. Given the title, it would be a pretty gruesome reference to my life in the cancer world if it were.)

Opinion: Column: I'm the Big Winner

(Not a cancer column.)

Opinion: Column: And the “Scancer” Is...

And the "Scancer" Is... ...stable, with a side of shrinkage, however modest.

Opinion: Column: Wait. What?

After each individual appointment with my oncologist, either virtual or in person, all my prescription needs and my next round of appointments are scheduled while I wait.

Opinion: Column: Navigate This

(All these times are approximate – or they're not.

Opinion: Column: The Masks are Off...

...and I suppose life is back on, especially for those of us who have been vaccinated.

Opinion: Column: Nearly Nicked

Recently, I made the mistake of clicking on an email from an unfamiliar sender.

Opinion: Column: Philosophically Meandering

As I discussed a few weeks back, having all this time off/apart from cancer-related activities is unsettling in a peculiar way.

Opinion: Column: A True Sense of Insecurity

From the moment you hear the word cancer spoken in your direction – from your new best friend, an oncologist with whom you've had zero previous interaction, you are transported to a new reality.

Opinion: Column: A False Sense of Security

As previously referred to in a recent column, even though I am hardly cancer-free, nonetheless I am cancer interruptus for the next four weeks.

Opinion: Column: Cats in the Belfry

Have I mentioned in print lately that we, resident owners of "Belly Acres" in Burtonsville, are back to being a five-indoor-cat household?

Opinion: Column: "My Thoughts to Your Thoughts"

You know the expression: "Can't walk and chew gum at the same time,” a disparaging characterization of a person, company or municipality unable to multi-task or even task at all?

Opinion: Column: Wanna Take A Chance?

I'm sort of invoking Southwest Airlines here, but not exactly.

Opinion: Column: Hitting The Nail on the Head

What are all these "Toe Nail Clipper" emails I receive nearly every day?

Opinion: Column: Being Driven Only Slightly Crazy

So this is what it's like to be out of the house and driving around: mask on, surgical gloves in the console, hand sanitizer in the glove box; not so different than before my two Covid-19 vaccinations.

Opinion: Column: Good News Travels Slowly

Sure enough, the email from my oncologist didn't arrive in my inbox before we left for the weekend away on Friday.

Opinion: Column: Time Will Tell

Ordinarily, I'd be writing this column this weekend – after this week's events.

Opinion: Column: A Shot in the Arm

Literally and figuratively.

Opinion: Column: “Cancerversary”

I realize I'm cancer-centric, especially in these columns, but for some reason that centricity didn't acknowledge my February 27th cancer anniversary.

Opinion: Column: Back to Abnormal

Well, those last two weeks were kind of fun, (comparatively speaking) to the dozen or so previous weeks.

Opinion: Column: Not That I Don’t Understand, But...

...So this is what the process is like trying to schedule a Covid-19 vaccination.

Opinion: Column: If Michael Corleone Had Lung Cancer

"Just when I thought I was out ... they pull me back in."

Opinion: Column: Progress, I Guess?

I received in the mail today what, in the sales/marketing world, we'd call a "pre-approach" letter.

Opinion: Column: Reoriented

Or to quote my high school baseball coach: "Reorientated."

Opinion: Column: Cancer and Covid...

…don't exactly go together like milk and cookies.

Opinion: Column: In Effect, a Trade

Incurable but treatable non small cell lung cancer, stage IV for incurable but treatable papillary thyroid cancer stage IV.

Opinion: Column: New Year, Old Problem: Cancer

As I sit and write here, with too much time on my hands, I can't help but consider my lot in life.

Opinion: Column: Trip, and Hopefully Not a Fall

Having recently returned from a driving sojourn through the South, with stops and stays in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida, visiting four sets of friends in those three states, I can say with certainty that wearing masks, social distancing and common sense consideration for your fellow citizen were not nearly so accepted as we had hoped.

Opinion: Column: Three Strikes...

...and now I'm out – of the Handel's Messiah sweepstakes.

Opinion: Column: “Medican’t” Take It Anymore

The non-stop – or so it seems, television advertising letting all of us viewers know that the 2020 Medicare Open Enrollment window is about to slam shut is nearly over.

Opinion: Column: A Bone To Pick

Not that I'm the most-stressed about it, but I am at least stressed about a bone scan I'm having this week.

Opinion: Column: A Question of Time

Let us presume, for the sake of this column, that I only have papillary thyroid cancer stage IV, and that my years as a non small cell lung cancer patient, also stage IV, are over.

Opinion: Column: I'm Here to Report

As my brother, Richard, has often said: "If the oncologist is happy, then I'm happy."

Opinion: Column: As Second Opinions Go...

...it was first rate.

Opinion: Column: Better Late Than Never...

...to get a second opinion about one's first cancer; especially if there's now a second cancer to consider.

Opinion: Column: “I’ll Think About That Tomorrow”

What I'm thinking about – and being thankful for, today, is the disappearance of all the side effects I've been experiencing during the last four weeks or so since I began my pill regimen for my papillary thyroid cancer treatment.

Opinion: Column: “And Awaaay We Go!”

As Jackie Gleason would say as he segued from his monologue into the sketch comedy that followed on his Saturday night entertainment hour on CBS.

Opinion: Column: An Update About Some Down Time

Not that I want to give you a blow-by-blow concerning my treatment switch over to thyroid cancer from lung cancer, but the last two columns were written four weeks ago in the same week in expectation of a weekend away, so these observations will be new-ish in that they will be hot off the press, so to speak.

Opinion: Column: And So It Continues

Two-plus weeks into my thyroid cancer treatment, all is as I anticipated.

Opinion: Column: “Canceritis”

There are two generic types of cancer: the cancer that you have, and the cancer that has you.

Opinion: Column: And So It Begins

Eleven years, six months and two weeks, approximately, after being diagnosed with "terminal" cancer: stage IV non small cell lung cancer, I have begun my treatment for stage IV papillary thyroid cancer.

Opinion: Column: Cancer For Dummies: Me

As I was telling my long-time friend, Rita, over the phone on Saturday afternoon, as a cancer patient – and I know this is going to sound ridiculous, short-sighted and stupid, I am not always forthcoming and honest when it comes to sharing new symptoms with my doctors, particularly my oncologist.

Opinion: Column: The Doggone Truth

I don't remember much substance from my freshman-level psychology 100 class at the University of Maryland in 1972 except that the lecture hall sat approximately 600 students, tests were graded on a bell curve (with which I was totally unfamiliar), the professor always wore black leather pants, and he brought his dog to every lecture.

Opinion: Column: Narratively Speaking

After 11 years and almost exactly six months since being diagnosed with stage IV, non-small cell lung cancer, the party is apparently over.

Opinion: Column: Safeguarding My Future

Whether or not I'm certain about my attitude toward being a dual cancer threat (non small cell lung and papillary thyroid, cancer), only my subconscious knows for sure.

Opinion: Column: Growing Pains

After more than six months away from the infusion center, due to the treatment for my papillary thyroid cancer stage II, I make my return on Wednesday, July 22.

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