Cancer changed everything in an instant. The point that it happened is easy to remember. It was after this sentence: 'Ben, we found what is likely to be a malignant cancer'
[Boom -- Snap -- World View Warp]
and before this one: 'we will have some pathology results back in three days'.
I'm not special, having your world view changed by a cancer diagnosis happens to nearly everyone that faces cancer. So I won't go on about it here. What I will talk about is how this warped world view can affect the people around someone with cancer.
I sometimes go through all of these in an hour |
Things that have become unimportant:
- Post-it notes
- Answering my phone
- The weather
- Sweeping the kitchen floor
- Newspapers or news in general
- Putting dishes away
- Replying to text messages
- Other people's needs (that's quite a broad area of disinterest hey)
You can see how that last point may affect those around me. To make this easier for people I have developed a series of witty sound bites when confronted with something on my 'Things that have become unimportant list'.
Examples of using humour to combat cancer:
'Mum, I can't sweep the kitchen floor because I am too busy trying to STAY ALIVE'
'Tim I am stopping this meeting early, I need to go for a run. Exercise fights cancer. You want me to live, right?'
'Fighting Cancer isn't on your To-Do List is it, idiot?'
'Sorry for making a mess...and for having cancer'
does this mean you used to do all those things -- sweep, put dishes away, keep up with the news & other people's needs? I am impressed.
ReplyDeleteDont you know that BB is the most domesticated man in the universe? hahaha thats all he does is sweep and put dishes away!
ReplyDeleteBy the way - love your choice of Ekman's emotion pictures. Did you know these are the ones that I worked with for years for Hottmar?
ReplyDelete