cancercopingtips

(Diagnosis) 2008-05-14

“I’m sorry Mr. Smith, its cancer”

Wow. What a phrase to hear. The “I’m sorry, you have cancer” line and its endless string of variants (Such as: “Gosh, Steve. I was way off base. It’s definitely malignant.” and “A funny thing happened during your endoscopy, Marge.”) have been mentally knocking us on our “hind parts” for thousands of years.

I remember the day my father told me he had prostate cancer. I had been preparing for such an event; I had mentally anguished over it for weeks. When the moment finally came, my first thought was, “How can I fix this? I have to fix this.” That might sound pretty pro-active, but don’t pat me on the back just yet. My next thought was something in the range of, “Not my daddy!”

I have heard many people say, “Are you telling I am going to die?”and “Why me?”. I’ve even heard the occasional, “Not right now; I’m too busy for this right now.”

And that’s okay. Because this part isn’t supposed to be sane. The doctor doesn’t want to tell you that you have cancer almost as much as you don’t want to have it. So anything he tells you isn’t going to be his A-game and that’s alright. Anything you say won’t be either. Snapped and accidentally called your doctor a morally bankrupt hack? It’s okay, they can handle it; it’s your “Get Out of Jail Free” pass as a “Newly Diagnosed”.

So what’s the moral here? That you’re okay and your doctor’s okay and we’re all okay and nothing any of us do is wrong because it falls under the all-inclusive, security blanket of the C-word? Now let’s light a bonfire and sing kumbaya! Well…no. All I’m saying is this: It doesn’t matter how you start, as long as you get your ass in that race.

So shout, cry, laugh, put on a pink tutu and dance around your lawn singing, “Eye of the Tiger” if that’s what you need to do. When you’re done, shake it off, take a deep breath (put the tutu back in the closet) and get down to the business of kicking this cancer on its “hind parts”.

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