Shortly after writing the
original blog posted yesterday I started to feel ill and as most of my readers
and friends know I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer on May 16th. I ended up in the hospital for a month due to
an infections, got home to recover and then went into treatment. That’s the short version.
What I’d really like to say is
that I am enormously grateful for the wisdom of my father to make his
immigration destination Canada. Our
health care system may have some flaws but during my ordeal, and ongoing
experiences, I can find no fault. I mean,
no fault, seriously. I want to make a
Call Out to all the nurses and support staff in both the hospitals that I was
in (Foothills and South Campus, Calgary).
These people are the backbone of the health care system and their
incredible caring is beyond anything I imagined possible.
I have been fortunate in the
doctors who have diagnosed, prescribed and cared for me. From the first step when my Nurse
Practitioner sent me off for the first ultrasound to my conference call
yesterday with the most eminent cancer surgeon in Calgary, possibly in Alberta,
the care has been swift and caring.
When you hear the words “you have
cancer” your life changes forever.
Meaghan McCain spoke about a “nuclear explosion” when she heard the words
that her father John McCain had brain cancer.
I wouldn’t say that but I felt like a bullet went between my eyes. It was very nearly a knockout punch – even though
I dreaded and feared this is what I would hear.
At the same time, when you tell someone you have cancer they change
before your eyes. The empathy is beyond
anything you can imagine. That word “cancer”
is powerful in a way I never realized fully until they were applied to me (and
as I am sure they have been to my family members).
Life has its irony – me, who
wanted to live to 100, has been dealt something I never saw coming. But you know what? I am blessed with a Canadian health care
system that takes care of me 100% and I am blessed with a social and family
circle who are my rock, support and inspiration.
On “Dancing with the Stars” Victoria Arlen is a true
inspiration of mind over matter. Her incredible
story of surviving 10 years of paralysis is so inspiration that when I feel
weak I say to myself “think of that girl and her willpower, you can do this”.
And that’s all I want to write about my illness, tomorrow, something
new.
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