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| March Madness, April Foolery but May we continue.. |
Prequel:
First, let me say that I am at this moment as fine as I can be --- my cancer numbers are very good as are my CAT scans. Thank you all for your prayers, letters, cards, gifts and well wishes.
Next, let me offer a sincere apology for leaving my readers and supporters in the dark for so long. March was a very difficult month for me and April was a difficult month for my computer. When I finally was waking up from chemotherapy at the end of March, my computer and my back up drive had its own health issues. When my computer finally was better and off of life support, I had lost the March and April articles and most all of my notes. My ability to think clearly and to remember ideas had been severely compromised during the last six months and replacing the thoughts has not been easy…
But please indulge me with just a few outdated thoughts (in an abbreviated fashion) that have carried me through the past few months.
Part I
March Madness means so many different things to many people, but really different things through the eyes of a cancer patient.
1.
For some it means the merriment of the holiday of Purim. I was so very excited that the holiday fell between two chemo sessions so that I could participate in the holiday. Both my children had off from school and it was a treat to have them home for a few days. I usually like to dress up as the character Vashti the Persian Queen who refused to obey the foolish demands of the King. Filled with many metallic drugs, it was easy for me to come up with a costume this year. With the loan of one of Harris’s electric guitars and my magenta wig, I easily became “Heavy Metal Vashti.”The guitar was a bit too heavy for me to carry but the effect pleased me. It was the first time I had been to services in a long time and around so many people.  Though I did really well, I scared a few people by my lack of movement control. Maybe I was not quite ready to be in public. I was feeling okay and people were so kind, but a sense that there are really two worlds—one healthy and one very conscious of mortality (and I was a reminder for these friends of the latter) crept into my thoughts. I guess all ill people start thinking silly things—even us perky ones. Well, Purim is a holiday of contrasts and opposites and Cancer Carol (AKA Heavy Metal Vashti) proved it: Sadness mixed with silliness.
2. For others, March Madness is the revelry of St. Patrick’s Day. Savannah is the best place to be for St. Patrick’s Day, for this is a city truly blessed with an appreciation of its Irish heritage and we know how to put on a great festival! But my reality this year was different: because my heaviest drug day fell on St. Patrick’s Day, my chemotherapy schedule was disrupted. I remember being happy that I got to play hooky from the chemo chair but also being worried that my schedule was disrupted. Trust me, a chemotherapy patient does not have to wear clothes to take on the wearing of the green! Luckily, I have had plenty of friends (like Joyce and Frances) to try to keep my spirits up even when I was not able to do a jig myself.
3. But for most people March Madness means basketball! As my husband and I both have some Duke connections, March Madness is always an important time of year. Under the influence of my chemo drugs, I came up with a list of fifteen ways that chemotherapy is like basketball, but gratefully I can only remember a few of these really sick comparisons to relate.
a. Specialized equipment and staff is important to both.
b. Patients wandered in and out of the chemo room all morning, but since there were only four chemo chairs in our room, they were reserved for “the final four”.
c. Both have rim shoots.
d. Conversely, sometimes when you are throwing up, you miss the rim
e. You can’t take the sessions too seriously or you will never get over the setbacks.
f. Each player has individual talents that they bring to the team but teamwork is necessary to overcome obstacles.
(By the way if you can think of some others, please feel free to write to me and let me know if I can print them!)
4. By the end of March, I was slowing waking up from a really uncomfortable month of chemotherapy in time for Teal Ribbon Project’s March 29th Cancer Answer Health Fair and Lunch-N-Learn. I came in a wheelchair as movement was increasingly difficult for me and I could never quite figure out how to use a walker. I was there to help set up but was excused early so I could go home and rest by incredible friends and their volunteers who did it all. I was surrounded by volunteers and health care professionals who gave up their Sunday afternoon to get the message out that cancer can be preventable, discernable or curable. It was the first truly sunny lovely day of spring, so our health fair did not attract as many people as we could accommodate, but we had so many successes. Each person whose screening directed them to early treatment, or who learned something about HPV vaccinations or early warning signs for disease is one more person that might be spared the chemo chair. March maybe wasn’t so mad after all!
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Posted by morningstar on 2009-05-14 12:54:45 | Rating: | Views: 53
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