The Undying: Pain, vulnerability, mortality, medicine, art, time, dreams, data, exhaustion, cancer, and care

by Anne Boyer

Self-manage, the boss that is everyone says: work harder, stay positive, draw on eyebrows, cover your head with a wig or colorful scarf, insert teardrop- or half-a-globe-shaped silicone under your scarred skin and graft on prosthetic nipples or tattoo trompe-l’oeil ones in pubescent pink or have flaps of fat removed from your back or belly and joined to your chest, exercise when tired, eat when repulsed by food, go to yoga, do not mention death, take an Ativan, behave normally, think of the future, cooperate with the doctors, attend “look good feel better” for your free high-quality makeup kit,8 run a 5K, whether-or-not-to-wear-a-wig-during-sex is a question the book says to ask your husband, “one family member at a time” says the sign on the way to the infusion room, the pink ribbon on the for-sale sign of the mansion.