About the Patient

This was last edited on August 2nd, 2024.

My name is James Petrosky, my final residence was in Elliot Lake, Ontario. I spent my life with my partner, Alicia, in Midland, Ontario. Spent a decade in Kitchener-Waterloo to attend university, first as a nanotechnology engineer, later graduating from geologcal engnieering, class 2012. I grew up in Chapleau, Ontario, attended the former Chapleau Public School and Chapleau High School (know known as the Chapleau Elementry and Secondary School, as of writing). I have stage 4 appendix cancer (goblet cell adenocarcinoma) and I am out of non-palliative treatment options. I was diagnosed in August of 2022. I was thirty five years old.

On September 4th of that year, I started writing little posts about what was going on in my life, partly to preserve my sanity, partly so I could keep people in the loop easier, and partly so, if things went as badly as they have, those important to me would have more to remember me by. Everything prior to that date was written on the 4th, and the intended audience was mainly my work friends. Its lacking a lot of context, and that's fine. Everything written after was published when indicated, although a few days are frequently discussed at once. By the time I started treatment on September 15th, 2022, I had a clearer idea what I wanted to do, and I think it shows.

I have to credit Hank Green talking so openly about his diagnosis and treatment for motivating me to bring this from the walled garden of my Facebook circle to the wider world. I'd already been under treatment for the better part of a year, and had just exhausted surgical options (surgry was June, 2023), when I found out. I still was able to learn things from him. I hope someone can learn something useful from this. It can't undo the anguish and return the lost decades, but those harms are locked in, any good is a fantastic bonus.

Until I enter hospice care (date thankfully unknown) (ultimately, July 2024), I can be reached at cancer.selfies@gmail.com. We already leave so, so much behind, and I think it cruel to ask someone to do this, in addition to the hundreds of other things, so I cannot say if it will be monitored after. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

I've currated a list of my favourite photos.