Process and Progress

I had been nervous about this impending surgery since the Friday after Thanksgiving. I put off editing the footage for this video because I was overwhelmed with emotion. It is good to see that I could still be funny. Even better that I can still laugh at myself!

With chemo I was consoled, for the most part, by the fact most of the side effects would be temporary. Surgery is so very permanent, as are the lifelong risks associated with some of the procedures. The good news is now I have another excellent reason to exercise regularly!

The new year has brought me a whole new chapter of this seemingly never-ending story. I knew I would be facing radiation too and just the word made me nervous. So I started calling it ‘radiotherapy’. It just sounds friendlier. Tom says I should ask them to tune me into an “easy listening station.”

We each have different ways of coping. I cope by finding the funny in everything and anything. Putting a funny face on how I am dealing with “The Cancer” is how I want to remember this time in my life. It’s how I want to be remembered too.

It may not cure cancer, but it sure makes life worthwhile.

Self-portrait, taken three weeks after surgery, Dec. 23, 2014