A Happy Cancer Anniversary
It started as a FuckCancer kind of day.
I know every day can be and is a FuckCancer kind of day but this one is special..at least for me.
Today is the one year anniversary of when I had surgery to remove Melanoma. Yeah everything is fine physically but mentally this shit really messes with your head.
In the last year I've stressed over so many things. Is that a new mole? Is it anything? Did I do the body check this month? What about the spots I can't see? Can I go to the beach...the park to read...a ballgame? Survivor's guilt. And God forbid if you mess up and you get sunburned, like I did last week. Man, talk about beating yourself up!
Then there's my friend Donna. She died last fall of Melanoma. Nothing fucks with your head like a friend dying of the same disease you had ...NOTHING!! I've only thought about her a dozen times this morning and it's not yet 9:30.
Yep...Yep...Yep....FuckCancer.
But......
I started thinking this over and today is a pretty good day. It really is.
If you catch Melanoma early it's very curable. Mine was stage one...a couple of hours and gone....and trust me, I feel a little guilty about that. If you don't catch it early, your life expectancy is five years. My friend Donna was gone in about four...and four hard ones. And trust me, I feel a little guilty about that, too.
But.....
Life is too short to continually stress over this crap. Too many people have died from this hideous disease not to be thankful. I know I'm one of the lucky ones and even though I struggle with the word survivor, today I'll wear it proudly.
The best way to honor those who have left too soon is to live your life the best way you can. I'm sure I'll stress over these things again but there's a big difference between stressing and being obsessive. I need to work on that.
Today is a day to celebrate. There's no better place to celebrate than Wrigley Field. It's Jackie Robinson Day. Another reason to celebrate. Cubs are off to a great start. This day just keeps getting better.
"Hey Chicago....what do you say. The Cubs are gonna win today." My friend Donna would love that.
This is the post I wrote a year ago today about the surgery. Here's the follow-up from the next day. Good news...I survived!
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