A journal about the misadventures of a middle age southern gentleman who got backhanded by cancer.
The Call
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Just received a call that will save my life...they found a bone marrow donor for me. To say that I am thrilled and scared beyond all human reason would be an understatement.
I have to face it, I'm scared. It's a kind of scared of the unknown and immanent dread of something that is going to happen but you're not sure quite what. The bone marrow transplant is going to happen, I can't get out of it or I'll simply die. I don't really want to die yet, but I've seen my life wasted chasing one thing after another, while doing simply nothing. That is what is the worst. One of the biggest things that I hope doesn't happen is that I get through this, the chemo, the radiation, the sickness, weakness and time in the hospital and through all this, I'm not changed to the better, that I end up the same. I don't want that. I have always cared about what every one has said and thought of me, which I'm not very sure has done me any good or not. I've always obeyed the rules, waited my turn and put others before myself. I've done unto others as I would have them do unto me and tried to love my neighbor as myself. I b...
It doesn't run in my family. I eat right and exercise, I'm safe. It only happens to other people. Only (insert population group here, i.e. children, women, men, old people, young people, poor people, African American people, white people, etc....) get it. All these (except maybe the eating and exercise one) I told myself. Cancer doesn't run in my family. I actually do eat pretty normally and move around and for no reason whatsoever, one of my Y chromosomes decides to mutate. The doctor asked me tons of questions about exposure to benzene, working at a gas station, exposure to chemicals, but I haven't. Come to find out, the bottom line is that it just happens sometimes for no reason and this time it happened to me. I didn't have per se leukemia, I had a combination of several things that is considered cancer. My white blood count was going up, my platelets and red blood cells going down, I was getting more tired little bit by little bit every day....
"Your hair will grow back." "What have you got to be scared of, heaven?" (my favorite, from my mother) "We have people praying for you." (This is just my peeve) "Everything is going to be alright." (well it don't feel that way right now!) "So and So had cancer and they're all right now." (Goodie for them, I'm still scared.) And so forth. When you have been diagnosed with cancer, you are scared $#!+less. The fear doesn't stop, it sometimes gets put on the backburner while you do something else but you're scared all of the time in some shape, form or fashion. Cancer is on my mind just about every moment of the day. I'm about to lose 18 to 24 months of my life to recovery if I make it through. Sometimes I pop a prescription anxiety pill to take the edge off but that's only a temporary fix and a little later, the fear returns. With mine, every weekly blood test has me on edge....is the chemo still working? Wha...
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