Just realized I talk a lot about myself on this blog, but there have been lots of good things going for my mom & brother.
My brother finally skied before Christmas! This is a huge psychological hurdle, more so than physical. (Although the physical challenge was certainly there). He downhill skied with his boys, then cross-country skied the next day. Everyone was so thrilled to hear about it. The fact that he's so motivated to get back in the saddle is a great sign. It's great to hear he's such a fighter.
My mom is also doing well. She's on her Temidar this week, but still doing ok. She took a break from the physical therapy for a week, because she was kinda burnt out about it. It's not that the therapy itself isn't working, but the hassle of the whole thing with timing, etc., had started to wear on her. From here, she'll be going down to 2 days/ week.
It's so great that they are both still here, and their courageous struggle continues to inspire me.
This week was a bad one for me physically, and there were many times when I recalled things they had said, or became thankful for my good health despite the current circumstances.
I had a freak whiplash accident last Sunday from a friend who was trying to give me a bear hug & lift me off the ground. She caught me off guard, and maybe I was trying to resist or something, and my head flopped backward like a dead fish.
Then, the whiplash caused this horrible reaction to a cold I apparently had coming on. Probably cuz I skied so hard the day before leaving CO, then hopped on a plane. What's up with this not being 25 years old anymore? Man, my body can't handle the same stuff like it used to...
Anyway, despite the whiplash causing cold complications resulting in a massive infection & low blood pressure and just all-around misery, I thought many times, "Well, at least I'm not crippled. I have feeling in my hands & feet, not like my brother." And then today, I recalled my mom's positive thinking stuff, and was imagining my in-breath being white light, and my out-breath being smokey grey. It was a meditation technique I learned in yoga class.
All in all, things could be a million times worse. Sure enough, after staying positive this last day, I finally rallied this afternoon. The mind is an incredibly powerful thing.
Yesterday I caught the tail-end of a story on the BBC about a fully
quadriplegic man who sailed his sailboat across the ocean to the
Caribbean back to the same beach which was the scene of the diving accident that caused his paralysis. Can you
believe it? His name is
Goeff Holt, and his feat truly gives the rest of us no excuse.
Yeah, maybe somebody ran over your cat today, or you are too sick to go on a ski trip (my situation for next week's trip - wah), or your boss is crabbing at you (like mine is), or your head is stuffed full of boogers (like mine was), but it could be worse! You could have cancer, or be quadriplegic or be dead.
The friend that hugged me feels super guilty, but I keep telling her, "Don't sweat it. Everything happens for a reason." Not sure what the reason is for my mom & brother's cancer, or for me being flat on my back for a week, but more will be revealed. All of these incidents have something in common: they give us a chance to get to know ourselves. Being so slow & weak, & unable to do things is forcing me to be my own best friend, and take _super_ good care of myself. This is always a good thing.
So, life marches on, and everything's going to be great. I can just feel it, like the pounding of the drummers in my head earlier this afternoon... :)
Labels: cancer, family cancer, quadriplegic, sailing, skiing, whiplash
