If there is one thing cancer is, it is complex. Understanding that complexity feels like the hockey player who won't change their socks. They are winning and are afraid that changing anything might upset the delicate balance.
My practice in making New Years resolutions is not to make them. But over the last few years I have chosen a word to act as a theme for my year. For example "Adventure" was the word for the beginning of the pandemic and the lockdown.
But more importantly my word this year is Courage. And so I have been looking at my life and trying to take the bold steps that will allow my life to feel more fully lived.
Solving is all about logic and mathematics. I have had a traumatic relationship with mathematics all my life. I had no problem with arithmetic but I squeaked out of university calculus with 53%. The only good thing about that was that I knew I had gotten it myself. it had been 51% I would have always wondered.
I feel a bit like the boy in the story crying "Wolf." I have been crying "cancer" for much longer than I expected (and I suspect longer than most of you expected.) When I got the prognosis that said "Five percent make it to five years" I didn't think I would make it. Those odds didn't look good to me and I prepared myself. I got my affairs in order; I prepared a client transition plan; and I bade farewell to doing first aid. All this in the face of my brother telling me to go buy a cruise ticket for five years out. I didn't do it.
Remind me not to leave it three months before I write a newsletter. Get a cup of coffee and settle in. There is a lot of water under the bridge and a lot to read.
Before you get started if you want to make a donation to my Run for the Cure campaign the link is: https://support.cancer.ca/site/TR/RunfortheCure/RFTC_NW_odd_?px=12977008&pg=personal&fr_id=28512
Double your donation
From October 13th to 15th CIBC will match all donations made. So sorry for the short notice BUT
I'm running again. And yes I'm doing the pink thing again. Only this time it will be my first in person run in three years! So not only am I running but I will be doing it with a lot of others. I do have a goal. In the spring I ran a 30 minute 5K (I think) and my goal is to do that again under more controlled circumstances.
A personal report on the Health eMatters Conference.
At the end of March I attended the Health eMatters conference in Toronto. Sponsored by Myeloma Canada, it brought social media influencers together face to face.
Two themes emerged from the conference as I thought about the experience. Stories and connections. As I reflect on each of the presenters and their stories, let me see if I can weave these two threads together.
Who drags a two foot plywood ribbon from The White Ribbon Project with them when they travel? Or maybe it was the other way round. Why does a large ribbon that will not fit in a purse take a person with it when it decides to go traveling? In the tradition of Australian Aboriginal people, going walkabout is a spiritual experience often associated with awakening. My ribbon from The White Ribbon Project decided to go modern walkabout for the first time in two years.
Ever been stuck in a hallway? As a student late for class, kicked out of a class? Maybe waiting for an appointment, or on a gurney in a hospital hallway? Hallways are long echoing place filled with doors and behind each one you can hear the buzz of voices, of life. Doors represent choices.
I'm still trying to figure out which of those doors to open. But I want to recount another medical story and then present the challenge that I face.
I have mentioned my issues around blood pressure. They have come up off and on throughout this journey with cancer,
The social media cancer world has its own unique language. Muggles describes people who don't have cancer. "Carcinomies" is a gentle blending of carcinoma and gnomes (or maybe homies) words for loyal friends. It is a word that we often use to describe ourselves. Language as it turns out is becoming more and more important to me.