I’m sorry I had to break this to you today.
Thank you.What for?
You guys gave me ten years. That’s a lot of time.But we haven’t even started to treat your new cancer!
I know. But no matter what happens, I am grateful for the last ten years.That’s great, but we just took the cancer out back then. You did all the rest. But … ummm … what are you saying? Do you want us to treat the new cancer?
I suppose so. What choice do I have? I really do not want to go through treatment again, but I will do whatever you recommend. Oh jeez, I hope I don’t have to have more radiation! That was rough.Actually, radiation might be part of your treatment, although I can tell you that the technology has improved a lot since the last time. They can focus the radiation much more tightly than they could and spare most of the normal tissues.
Yeah, right. Easy for you to say, doc. It’s still gonna be rough, right?No doubt.
Not surprised. No matter what happens, though, I’m still grateful.Tell me more.
Before you treated me for my last cancer, I was a mess. I was drinking and smoking and living like there was no tomorrow. I got in trouble all the time. I was crazy. I’m amazed I was still alive. My family had given up on my ever being able to straighten out. I hadn’t seen them in months.I remember you did have an attitude.
That’s one way of putting it. Yeah, I came to those first couple of appointments drunk. I didn’t know how else to face things. So, what happened?
I woke up the morning after you guys took out my voice box and realized that I had to change or I was gonna die. It was that simple. Black and white. I realized that I was gonna die.But you knew that even making those changes didn’t guarantee that everything would turn out fine, right?
I guess I knew that, but, at the time, I realized that I did have some things to live for – my kids, my family, mostly. I was scared. It worked out?
Well, not completely, but for the most part, it did. Losing my voice box was my wakeup call. Watching my kids grow up and getting to see my grandkids has really given me unbelievable pleasure. I wouldn’t have missed that for the world. A lot of people
do miss that.
And that’s why I can say ‘Thank you’ even though you’re sitting here telling me I have cancer again.Well, then, I guess you are very welcome.
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