Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Let's Get Chaotic!


There are some pretty amazing cancer survivors out there. They go through their treatment with grace and style; courageous throughout… Get over that, that’s not me. I was all about insanity, banging head against the wall crazy… Yeah, that was me (as I curtsy semi-gracefully).

Through cancer we learn that it isn’t necessarily how well we survive, just that we DO survive. You can do it with style, making it look easy or again, like I did it and get chaotic… Hey, it’s okay! You just do it and when all is said and done, know you did your best. Sometimes just finding a little humor in the situation can help.

Here are just a few of the fun Chaotic Lessons cancer offers:

Radiation “Perks UP” muscles in areas that are zapped.

During rads, it pulls fluid out of the tissue that it’s making toasty and this creates some entertaining after effects. I had a seriously pumped up looking calf and from what I hear, other nifty areas get “perky” too.

The music they play when you’re stuck in a MRI machine is NEVER loud enough to cover the trash can banging sound.

I don’t care where I’ve had it done, no matter how much you tell them to “crank” it up, it ain’t going to do it. Oh yes, their radio stations are generally lame also.

A doctor with a wicked sense of humor can make some of creepiest procedures fun (yes, I said fun).

Even having something like a PICC line installed… Let me explain PICC line. When you have a severe infection and need to be on heavy hitting antibiotics for a length of time this line is installed in your arm and ran through increasingly larger veins over to your heart. When installing it they are X-raying you to see that it’s going where it needs to go. When lying on your back you can see it going by your beating heart…. Creepy, huh? Now toss it a comedian of a doctor telling cooky stories and it actually can turn into a game. Normal people don’t usually get this, but once you have cancer, your sense of humor gets a bit twisted.

Getting creative with explanations about obvious scars makes it easier to deal with.

Okay, this is a true example of a twisted sense of humor, but when you can’t hide it or refuse to become an artist. Liposarcoma left me with a nifty scar on my right leg and in the beginning it deeply bothered me, but after a couple of times of saying that it was a shark bite from the rare Fresh Water Great Lake Great White and enjoying the look, my point of view changed. It’s all a matter of how you look at it.

Cancer is a terrible disease and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, but if you’ve got to go through it, get a little crazy, find the humor, and you just might kick it’s tail.

Have fun, get chaotic and be well…

Oh yes, the picture was chosen because he made me laugh! ;o)

No comments:

Post a Comment