If Bob Dylan Had Cancer or ‘The Day Before Chemo Blues” (with apologies to Bob)

Lyrics by *Susan Tifft:

I feel good, I feel fine.

I’ve even had a little wine!

But them salad days are over and done.

Mass General Hospital again has won.

I got the knock-me-down, throw-me-up, I’m fixin’ to heave, day-before-chemo blues.

No more yoga, no more fun.

For the next few days it’s walk don’t run.

Phooey on rest, phooey on quiet.

I’d much prefer to stage a riot.

I got the knock-me-down, throw-me-up, I’m fixin’ to heave, day-before-chemo blues.

Food ain’t tasty, drink ain’t cool.

I stare at the wall, I start to drool.

My mind’s a fog, my brain’s a mess.

I even forget to brush with Crest.

I got the knock-me-down, throw-me-up, I’m fixin’to heave, day-before-chemo blues.

This isn’t such a woeful plight.

It’s just a week or so out of sight.

I’ll think of you, my dearest friends,

And be back to you when chemo ends.

I got the knock-me-down, throw-me-up, I’m fixin’ to heave, day-before-chemo blues.

*Susan Tifft is former writer at TIME magazine and an emerita professor of the practice of journalism and public policy at Duke. She is the co-author of two biographies of media families, and has been living with Stage IV endometrial cancer for two years.