Thursday, April 20, 2006
UPDATE ON ROCKY....
Tuesday we had our meeting with Rocky’s surgeon again to set up an appointment for the port implant. Dr. Eck was very pleased with Rocky’s progress and our grasp of the situation. On Wednesday we went back to Outpatient Surgery to go through the paperwork we did over 5-weeks ago…….I guess they have to keep medical people employed somehow……tomorrow morning we go in for the port so Rocky can begin chemo.
When cancer strikes it seems everyone is an advocate. In hospitals you are primary to their interest and everyone is appropriately respectful of your condition. In the world at large, everyone is a doctor. They pour out information about how their second cousin on their wife’s side had the same thing and blah, blah, blah…….waiting for you to realize how important the hot tip is to overcome this and live years beyond your expectations.
We have had strange names of medical cures written on napkins and passed to us, and a long list of do’s and don’ts someone found on Alternative Medicine sites. We find it interesting that so many advised us against any chemo at all because of the failure rate……..by whose standards? Though novices in part, we know of many people who wouldn’t be here today without chemo. Lance Armstrong is still our hero….and now, more than ever. If even one person beats the odds, that’s a big number when you enter the fight.
Naïve we may be but we have faith in the doctors who are treating Rocky and we have an army of family and friends…….even people we don’t know and will never meet, who are praying for us and standing in support. God listens. That is the best advocate I know. He not only listens, He has the answers. We can’t see the end of the journey but He does and more importantly, is on the road with us. I use “we” because when a spouse has cancer, you do too. Cancer hits both of you.
I wrote about an aunt of mine who had breast cancer in the 30’s. It was a death sentence because cancer was a killer disease then……no one survived it. If you are diagnosed with it today, the odds are very good because medicine and understanding have advanced far beyond where medical people were in the 30’s. I expect in the future it will be controlled all together.
In the meantime we are doing everything we can to survive. Rocky is strong and young for his years. Although the results of our efforts are out there in the future somewhere we are not afraid of failing…….we’re only afraid of not trying hard enough. Cancer CAN be beat and we’re going to try and make it happen. Live every day God gives you as a gift………because it is.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
When cancer strikes it seems everyone is an advocate. In hospitals you are primary to their interest and everyone is appropriately respectful of your condition. In the world at large, everyone is a doctor. They pour out information about how their second cousin on their wife’s side had the same thing and blah, blah, blah…….waiting for you to realize how important the hot tip is to overcome this and live years beyond your expectations.
We have had strange names of medical cures written on napkins and passed to us, and a long list of do’s and don’ts someone found on Alternative Medicine sites. We find it interesting that so many advised us against any chemo at all because of the failure rate……..by whose standards? Though novices in part, we know of many people who wouldn’t be here today without chemo. Lance Armstrong is still our hero….and now, more than ever. If even one person beats the odds, that’s a big number when you enter the fight.
Naïve we may be but we have faith in the doctors who are treating Rocky and we have an army of family and friends…….even people we don’t know and will never meet, who are praying for us and standing in support. God listens. That is the best advocate I know. He not only listens, He has the answers. We can’t see the end of the journey but He does and more importantly, is on the road with us. I use “we” because when a spouse has cancer, you do too. Cancer hits both of you.
I wrote about an aunt of mine who had breast cancer in the 30’s. It was a death sentence because cancer was a killer disease then……no one survived it. If you are diagnosed with it today, the odds are very good because medicine and understanding have advanced far beyond where medical people were in the 30’s. I expect in the future it will be controlled all together.
In the meantime we are doing everything we can to survive. Rocky is strong and young for his years. Although the results of our efforts are out there in the future somewhere we are not afraid of failing…….we’re only afraid of not trying hard enough. Cancer CAN be beat and we’re going to try and make it happen. Live every day God gives you as a gift………because it is.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
