When I started treatment the first week of May, 2004, I had a pretty basic LG flip phone and a Palm m505 PDA. It wasn’t too long before I decided that I needed an iPod (I know, a little late to the party, but seven to nine hours in an infusion chair in a single day, and a total of 12-15 hours in infusion every two weeks, convinced me that despite the cost, I was worth it. On to my first iPod, a third-generation 10g box that is heavier and bigger than most modern smart phones. 7+ years after purchase, it no longer holds a charge – but it runs just fine from a iPod dock as part of my home stereo system.

My 3rd generation iPod nano weighs less than 3 oz..

After a few months, I knew I needed something smaller. Enter a third-generation Nano, the one with the little screen that shows video. Of course, after I PAID for the Nano, I WON a 500kb Shuffle – you know, the one that looked like a pack of gum. I used both on my monthly trips to NYC, and while I was working and wanted to tun out the world. I dunno what became of the shuffle – maybe I gave it away, maybe it’s buried somewhere in one of the tech drawers of my side desk. But the Nano still lives in my purse, and will be my mp3 player of choice as long as the battery keeps taking a charge. Can’t do an infusion (or a hospitalization) without my tunes, or audiobooks at the ready.

My PC of choice for 99.9% of my work is an ASUS eeePC – my second. I started with the 8.9″ model, and upgraded three years ago to the 10.1″ model. I will never travel with more than 3 lbs. of computer (including the power charger) again. Go light or leave it at home – that’s my technology motto.

The NOOK color can surf the web, play music and games, and store pictures, in addition to being a really cool and fun eReader.

But it was on a train ride last summer, surrounded by 60+ year-old passengers with iPads and eReaders that I realized how OLD my hot, ultralight technology was. And those NOOK color ads from Barnes & Noble were getting to me. So I went out and bought one…and it’s truly changed how and what I read, and when. Never mind that I can also surf the ‘net, check email, tweet and check Facebook from the little B&N dynamo. It makes reading FUN again. Amazing how effortless it can be to read when the typeface is (ahem) large enough.

My PDAs are long gone, except for one lone Palm IIIe (you remember, the one that ran on batteries.) I need a serial to USB conversion cable so that I can sync it to my netbook, and then it will live again. Three years ago, I finally upgraded the latest of my LG flip phones to a Blackberry Tour, and realized how much I loved smartphones.

But this little trip down technology memory lane was brought on by the death of that BB Tour – on, of course, Christmas eve. The little scrolling ball had been glitchy for a few weeks, but on Dec. 24, it finally quit altogether. And suddenly, all I could use my phone for was making phone calls. The horror …

This is what my new BB Tour looks like. Fun to read, easy to hold.

You never realize how much you use texting, check your email, verify your calendar or rely on your file of saved passwords – until suddenly, you CAN’T. And no way was I gonna spend the holidays without a phone. So I trekked to the closest Verizon store and traded in old reliable for a brand new Blackberry Bold 9930, the one with the combo touch screen and keyboard. So far, I love it.

Technology is where I keep all of my records – doctor notes, contact information, chronicles of hospitalizations or side effects from rounds of chemo. It’s how I relax or put myself into another place when I’m stuck in a waiting room or infusion chair. It’s how I take a mental break in the middle of a tough project. It’s how I stay in touch with others, and with myself. And it occurs to me that this dance with cancer would be so much harder without the four pieces of tech that get me through – my iPod, my NOOK color, my Blackberry, my netbook.

Can I unplug? Sure…I can quit technology any time. But the thing is, I don’t want to. There are days technology makes cancer more bearable, and other days when I know I wouldn’t survive without my tunes, my pictures, my email, my ‘net access, and my electronic library.

Now, if I could just get them to all run off the same charger (for less than the $80 – $100 most combo chargers cost…)