it's about life.. down here in ...

letter F Cast Iron Capital Letter R (North Scituate, RI) alphabet series - e letter N C letter H L metal verdigris letter I typewriter key letter Q U white paint on blue - rusting chocolate letter E

Thursday, September 28, 2017

OMG! Cancer 2

i suppose if you can get a minor cancer... that's the one I got.  Girlfriends that have had stage 2,3,4... tell me that there IS NO MINOR CANCER. Maybe not. Those girlfriends, that have had radical mastectomy and months of chemo... they say, cancer is cancer... I love those girlfriends. I have 2, very close to me, both with much more serious breast cancers than me... but somehow... we have had much the same experience... and here's why...

Step 1 diagnosis. No matter which stage... this is your "oh shit" moment.

Step 2 reality. "I have CANCER!" We all thought about what surgery would mean.. talked to those closest to us... husbands, children, siblings, best friends. We made up our minds that if we had to go radical, that's what we would do.

Step 3 really reality.  Our oncologist told us what we had to do,...

Step 4 Just do it.  The choice is, just move forward. What else can you do? Give up? Oh hell no.

That damn cancer diagnosis is a funny thing. Not haha funny... just oddly funny.  I think you become more of who you are.  Cancer makes you realize that, life is a short and finite thing.  It makes you examine every aspect of your life in the most condensed way you can imagine.  It makes you "more".

Cancer sucks in the worst way imaginable; and then somehow, on the other side... it becomes a gift.

Just surviving, Down here in French Lique.

2 comments:

donna baker said...

Yes, Dixie, all you can do is just trust in others and hang on for the ride (though remain your own advocate as there will be screw ups). My sister had your kind, though no chemo nor radiation, just bi-lateral mastectomy. It has been five years. And, you will find the silver linings, as my husband and I did with his cancer diagnosis. You are a strong woman and I think you are going to do fine. I can't wait to hear how you are doing in a few months. From my sister's experience, I think the worst part were those expanders, but it too will pass. Love, lots of hugs and kisses.

Dixie said...

Thank you Donna. Not that I'm healing, looking in the mirror, I feel pretty good about the outcome. I just posted about that part of my cancer journey. Sounds like your sis picked option "A". Me, ever the rebel, l picked option "B". ❤️