Never Too Much Norm

Maybe the thing people didn't realize about Norm MacDonald was what a truly decent human being he was. Decent, a man of integrity and faith. I'm not sure whether he cared if you knew that or not, as long as you let him continue to tell the jokes he wanted to tell.

RIP Norm. Definitely our loss.

 

 

 

 

 

Where does your brain go when your doctor says it's cancer?

My doctor didn't use the word cancer.  Neither did I. He said adenocarcinoma and I said what do I need to do?  My brain pushed the word away while simultaneously digesting it and rushing to next steps.  Let's not dwell on what, let's concentrate on what to do about it.

I remember my stomach dropping and my eyes filling with tears, but I also remember pushing that away with an urgency to get beyond REacting to get to actually acting. WHAT NEXT?

People all react differently I imagine.  And I'm equally sure their reaction is colored by what kind of

diagnosis they are receiving.  I was extremely lucky.  This was colon cancer, one polyp found during a colonoscopy that when removed did not appear to be anything, but the biopsy showed otherwise.  Still, only one polyp, only the chance that a bit of cancer had invaded the colon wall.  The treatment?  Remove about 6 inches of intestine at the cecum, including the ileocecal valve.  No chemo, no radiation, no anything beyond that besides having regular colonoscopies on a more regular basis for the rest of my life.  A VERY small price to pay for having found this tiny bit of cancer so early that I consider it cancer with a small "c", as opposed to the big "C".

So am I a cancer survivor?  I suppose.  But it's embarrassing to say that considering what so many others have gone through.  It was all over so fast because I wanted it to be, and I barely allowed myself to think about it AS cancer.  Now that it's past and the only remaining reminder is the difference in my digestion, I don't HAVE to think about it.

What I DO think about though, is keeping up with my health, blood work, and whatever tests I should be having at this point in my life.  Things I did take seriously before, but not quite as seriously as I should have.

It's definitely something to think about, whether or not you have ever had this particular diagnosis.  Had a colonoscopy lately?

Sigh-h-h-h ..

I came home from work last night to find that one of the cats appeared to be peeing blood.  I was thinking it was probably Riley but wasn't sure until this morning when I took the chance and took him to the vet.  Yep, it was him, poor baby.

Since Jakie died I have been spoiling Riley like crazy, always aware of his age and condition.  I'm glad I've been doing that because he is closer to his time than I knew.

So - I will continue to let him sit on me, sleep on my bed, and eat hot dogs.  He seems relatively happy and not too uncomfortable. Monday will tell us more but I am unwilling to put him through too much at this point beyond making sure he is happy and not in pain.  The rest - well - I am watching him carefully so he can tell me when it's time.

Re-posting

I am putting this up here again because I pushed it off the top way too quickly with my electricity rant. This is too important to let sink quite so fast.

This is WhyMommy. She is a beautiful, young, incredibly articulate woman, wife, and mother. And she has breast cancer. That, of course is not all that defines her but right now it is the unwelcome focus of most of her days.

She has a type of breast cancer most of us know very little about called IBC or inflammatory breast cancer. WhyMommy writes about it here, she can explain it much better than I.

Please read her article. Then, say a prayer for WhyMommy and her family and tell her story to everyone you know. I managed to get to 48 years old never having heard of this kind of cancer and I am sure there are many many people like me out there. We need to educate ourselves and we need to support each other. Thank you WhyMommy, for telling your story and sharing your struggle with us. I'm praying for you.

This is WhyMommy

This is WhyMommy. She is a beautiful, young, incredibly articulate woman, wife, and mother. And she has breast cancer. That, of course is not all that defines her but right now it is the unwelcome focus of most of her days.

She has a type of breast cancer most of us know very little about called IBC or infammatory breast cancer. WhyMommy writes about it here, she can explain it much better than I.

Please read her article. Then, say a prayer for WhyMommy and her family and tell her story to everyone you know. I managed to get to 48 years old never having heard of this kind of cancer and I am sure there are many many people like me out there. We need to educate ourselves and we need to support each other. Thank you WhyMommy, for telling your story and sharing your struggle with us. I'm praying for you.