SURVIVAL SKILLS

It was 15 years ago today that I was operated on for a Tumour. On Christmas Eve 1999 in the morning I was told it was not a Cyst but a Tumour and that I should not read anything much until I could speak to my doctor in early January and that I had an operation date of January 18, 2000.

When I saw my family that evening for our family Christmas celebration I told them what little information I had.

Millenium night was strange because I wondered whether I would be seeing another New Year ever. It is a funny feeling to watch the world celebrating a new Millenium and wondering if you were closing off your life.

I stayed up until Greece was showing the dawn of January 2^nd and finally went to sleep determined to accept whatever was ahead of me. I was actually quite calm about it.

The operation looked fine and I was told what I showed was usually benign…but it wasn’t. A few months later I began Chemotherapy followed by Radiation. 

Luckily a woman in the salon at the hospital found me a ‘perfect’ wig and so as I lost my hair on my head, and eventually everywhere else, I was not noticeably different in appearance. In fact, my hair may actually have looked consistently better.

I won’t say Chemotherapy was easy. It has a habit of travelling through your body as it wishes and, in my case, Radiation made me so tired, I could have slept on any flat surface, including the middle of the road.

Somehow we find the strength within us to accept what we must do...once you decide what you want to do about the predicament in which you find yourself.

There is both more support from people around you, and perhaps less support as well, when some of those in your life withdraw from you.

I remain grateful to all of those who were with me then, and all of those with me now. You have supported and encouraged me. You have taught me how much we receive help…and how we can in turn support and encourage and help others.

My only advice to those of you who have just received the toughest news you may ever get is - when you are told you have something to deal with, look at your options, consider what you need and want. 

Get help. Accept help, because you actually need it.

Surround yourself with people you can trust to communicate with you in a way you can understand and put yourself in their…and God’s hands.

Whether you know me personally or not, consider that I am still here and today marks 15 years later…and as I am fond of saying – STILL TALKING CRAP. 

I am also however, living and breathing. For this I am joyful and grateful and thankful.

Also I find myself usually actually happier than I ever was, and possibly deserve to be.



*See also: April 7, 2013 - B.C. - BEFORE CANCER and A.C. - AFTER CANCER and January 20, 2015 - AFTERWARDS - Living to fight another day