But I am not surprised, as we are a great bunch of cyber-friends and family. You too are an inspiration. There are too many fine statements to acknowledge all of them.
As has been said by others, attitude is so much a part of healing, or just dealing with the hand you have been dealt. From the moment my wonderful Gastroenterologist gave me the news, my focus was “Well what the hell do we do now?” He was straight forward, gave the good case, bad case choices. I first stated I was not going to be “the crusade for cancer” and they were not going to make a “human toaster” out of me. Felt better saying it at least.
But then I thought about an old joke, about the man that was caught in the flood. An SUV came by to offer him help when the water was at his porch, but he said, “No, God will take care of me.” Then he was on the second floor and a row boat came by to rescue him. “No, God will take care of me.” He is now on the roof and a helicopter hovers to help him, “No, God will take care of me.” When he drowns and is at the pearly gates he asks God, “I thought you would take care of me?” God replied, “I sent you an SUV, a rowboat and a helicopter. What more could I do?”
So I realized I must take advantage of all the medical resources out there to give myself every chance to beat this awful disease. Any energy I want to spend on good things, not what if it hadn�t happened, or why me? There is no answer to that question and it is a waste of my time. If my days are numbered as I said before, I am thankful for EVERY single one that I am able to be up and around and enjoy some of my passions in life. We are all born dying…at least I have a clue, I could have been in an accident and it all could have gone away instantly.
And I am sure you will all enjoy this tale. I am in the doctor�s office; he has just explained the depth of my disease and recommended immediate surgery. I am sitting cross-legged on the exam table. Mind you this Doctor is a mild mannered man of Middle Eastern descent. He is wonderful. I suddenly burst out with, “God D##N it. I just ordered a $15,000.00 horse trailer and I will be hanged if I am not going to haul my horse around in it. I haven�t even taken delivery on it yet.” Well isn�t it interesting the “important” things that come to mind at interesting times? His response was, “Well it is important to have a positive outlook.” And as they say the rest is history.
It was asked the particulars of my symptoms. I certainly would be glad to share and will email if you would like. This might not be the “forum” for all of that. I also have been doing a broadcast email progress report to my friends now and then, saves telling the same story over and over and over…if you want on the list just email me and I will put you on the list.
One last thing, with the grace of the Mayo Clinic, I can�t say enough praise for them, do not fear chemo therapy. The medical technology and chemistry is amazing today. They prepare to counter side effects to minimize the discomfort. I can honestly say from both chemo treatments and the last one was 3 days in a row of 2 � hour infusions, I have only felt like I had a bad case of flu and took meds for the nausea and haven�t lost the cookies yet.
Love to you all and we will be keeping in touch!
“The older I get, the better I used to be, but who the heck cares!”
So I made them give me the really small portable tanks and rigged a backpack so I could ride with it. We have our priorities after all. After Bud got used to the entire racket from the zipper pulls and the fabric going swish swish, he was fine with it. I am engineering some sort of cantle bag now for my dressage saddle for the canister. I tried it on my western saddle like a bedroll and it worked great. I just can’t get that hulky saddle on my 17 hand horse by myself. (see attached pictures from last Sunday)
