I had a good day today. I drove to the courthouse and renewed my truck tags; they expired while I was in the hospital getting Nolan removed (Nolan is the name Kate Winney named my colon; we are morbid in Trauma and find humor in anything we can. I named her thyroid, Floyd the thyroid). I spent time with my Mom today and played with Tboy a lot. I received several phone calls from friends and it still gets to me how people avoid talking about cancer. My friends are mainly in the medical field and in Trauma we see death daily. As members of the Trauma team we have to make decisions in a split second that will affect a persons life and their familys life on a daily basis. But I am still in awe by the same brave people dedicated to the stress of living a life in treating Trauma patients who have a hard time taking to me (Trauma Tommy; the poo-poo magnet of gory Trauma) about my illness. My friends want to separate me into a different category of patients. These are the same people who make the calls to the parents of children, children of parents, and spouses of critically injured patients or patients who have died. These are the same people who work 12 and 16 hours without lunch to keep someone alive. These are the same people whom I have worked with when we thought the Trauma Gods were really mad. I guess I wanted to make these facts known to illustrate that it is okay for the loved ones of cancer patients to be scared and apprehensive to talk about the illness with the cancer patient. The people I work with at the trauma center are my extended family and I found it hard to believe that they were having difficulty talking to me about my cancer and prognosis. After all we have worked together and have seen some of the worst Trauma cases together for years. If you are a cancer patient, be blunt with your oncologist and insist on him being straight forward when he talks with you and your family. If you are a loved one of a cancer patient, be the same way. Be realistic, yet optimistic. People do not have to skate around words like cancer, surgery, prognosis, death, dying, dead, pain. This is part of the disease and/or treatment process. Cancer patients are not going to feel good most of the time, even though we may lie and say we are okay. It is okay to feel crappy if you have cancer; there is no magic pill or treatment. You will have fatigue, nausea/vomiting, and pain; some days are just better than others. Loved ones, you cant fix everything! If we are going to have a bad day, we are going to have a bad day; it doesnt mean you are doing something wrong or not doing something right. Cancer patients and family both need to get on the same playing field and on the same level; no need to sugar coat it, just be plain spoken and be honest. Am I afraid of the future? not really; I am comfortable in knowing I have prepared myself and my family for whatever comes. No, not everyone can beat cancer; does that mean you should quit fighting? Why h&ll no! (Im keeping it G rated,lol). Fight for everyday with your family, fight for every memory with your family fight for peace of mind, fight to be cured, fight for shrimp creole (for my Louisiana cancer brothers and sisters), but most of all, FIGHT ON!
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 02:09:53 +0000
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