Rough night all around. Can't sleep. Damn near lost my #### reading Dr_Zauis's memory.
Keep it cool with each other, fellas. Keep it above board. Keep it with love. We have so little time here, so much is fleeting on this earth. Make every interaction like you'd like it to be your lasting memory with that person.
Peace, folks.
Thanks, I'm not nearly the gifted wordsmith that you are, but there are a few scenes from that time period that are seared into my memory. Looking back, before my dad's diagnosis I was kind of on a "holiday from history" - my career was in a nice spot, growing family, really felt like everything was coming into place. And one becomes fat, dumb, and happy, so to speak, thinking you'll just keep cruising along for decades like this. And then the thinness on which my serene life actually hung came crashing into me when I nonchalantly walked into my dad's hospital room (he was having back pain, so they were doing some tests) and my mom burst into tears and practically collapsed into me telling me his diagnosis. I was basically a walking zombie for hours.
Cancer is a $#@# disease, but one thing it does provide is perspective to try to focus on what's important.
Birdie048 said:
@rockaction - TY. A moment of acknowledgment is an amazing thing. I was surprise how strange people get when you tell them you have cancer. It's like they forget how to talk. My Cancer trip (I hope) was short. Diagnosed Stage 3 Melanoma in Sept 2021 and been to hospital 13x since. It is tearing my wife for every visit or test. So far all clean.
@JaxBill You made the right decision going and being part of it for the whole family. Grew up outside Chester area near Crozier. Family in Springfield and surrounding area. I know that having family there is so important when there is hardship to share the burden and have a shoulder to lean on.
I think it largely comes down to people despairing that nothing they can say or do can solve the underlying problem, and so tend to revert to not saying anything at all. Which sucks, because a simple "I'm sorry you're going through this, is there anything I can do to help?" goes such a long way. I sympathize with your wife, as my wife is 10+ years past a stage 2 breast cancer diagnosis, and even after all these years, when they run a routine check on her I can't help but get a little pit in my stomach. But like rock alluded to, we do what we can with the time we have. I do think my wife and I have a more even-keeled and deep relationship now, and some of that is maybe just maturity that comes with age, but some it is, again, perspective.
