Six years of being grateful for a successful cancer surgery
April 15, 2015. Six years ago today, I was at a hospital getting ready to undergo surgery for Melanoma.
It was my first surgical procedure of any kind and although I talked a big game at that time, I admit to being more than a little worried. It wasn't so much about the cancer because I was fairly sure it was minor...more about that in a few graphs...but it was the cutting thing that freaked me out. I'm guessing that it didn't help that I spent the previous day preparing for the event by binge watching "Botched."
I remember being wheeled into the operating room, checking out the lighting and being happy that there wasn't a balcony where people could watch the surgery. After watching a few hours of "Botched", I switched over to "Seinfeld" reruns and ran into the episode where Kramer drops a Junior Mint into the incision from the balcony. Phew...at least that wasn't happening to me.
Apparently, since I'm writing this, everything went fine. I was home and in bed, cancer-free, three hours afterward. The only effect from the surgery was the pain in my shoulder from the procedure, but even that was minor. I didn't even need the pain-killing drugs that were prescribed. By the way, here's a pro tip just in case it ever comes up....never tell your surgeon that you didn't need to take the drugs and are saving them to use at your next concert. The look on his face told me he couldn't take a joke.
Now back to that Melanoma/cancer thing.....
I know how lucky I was/am that my situation was relatively minor. It was able to be handled in an easy procedure that took less than two hours. I'm reminded of that almost daily when I see someone else mention their bout with cancer or how they've lost someone close to them due to cancer.
I think about the woman I walked with at a Melanoma walk who was getting ready for another surgery and trying everything possible to survive. She was wearing the "Fuck Cancer and Be Calm" sweatshirt you see at the top of this post. I'm not sure I could ever be as calm as her. I think of her often and wonder if she's still with us.
I think about my friend Donna who was having her twelfth surgery on the same day as I had mine. A few months later, she was gone. I think about all the advice she gave me about the dangers of Melanoma. I think about the day I met her husband at a Melanoma walk, breaking down while telling him about what an influence she was and him comforting me. Every time I write something about Melanoma, I do it for and because of her.
I think about my friend Don, who had what we thought was a bad case of stomach flu. It turned out that it was really Pancreatic Cancer. He died two weeks after the diagnosis.
I think about my many classmates who have been stricken with some form of cancer. Many of them struggled for years of chemo and radiation. Some have survived, many didn't.
It's impossible to think of any of that and not feel grateful.
So on this surgical sixth anniversary, maybe I'll look for a "Botched" or "Seinfeld" rerun to commemorate this day....or maybe not. But one thing is for certain, I will take a few minutes to think about all of this. It's what I do every day.
#FuckCancer
Related Post: It's another Fuck Cancer kind of day
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