A Cancer Mixtape

Over the past two months or so, I went through radiation therapy for breast cancer. Each session was around five minutes long and relatively painless, but to put patients at ease, Sloan-Kettering Hospital (and day spa) allows one to play one’s own music during the process. They explained to me that usually a patient just plugs their ipod in and plays whatever might be soothing, but I took it to a step further and tried to carefully choose a different song each day and keep track of what they were. In the end, it was a tiny little thing I’m very grateful for. It gave me a great distraction from all the bad parts (the whole thing was bad parts, obv.) and worked as a bit of a log of my various moods and emotions through the process. My kind radiation techs got a kick out of my eclectic, and at times ridiculous, selection of music. And looking back over everything, I don’t blame them.

Here is my carefully curated set list:

1. Survivor, Destiny’s Child

2. I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor

3. Get Right, Jennifer Lopez

4. Brooklyn Girls, Charles Hamilton

5. New York, New York, Cat Power

6. Satisfaction, Rolling Stones

7. Holly Would, Paleo

8. Blue Eyes, Middle Brother

9. The Body Breaks, Devendra Banhart

10. Murder, Death, Kill, 7L & Esoteric

11. So Alive, Ryan Adams