I showered… For the first time since June 25th! Glorious!!!!
It’s weird the things you take for granted; small things that are “normal”. Showering, driving, touching your toes!! Yes, it hit me that for the first time in 40 years, I can’t touch my toes. At the 7 month-ish mark in the journey, I'm starting to try and shift my focus. Something that is so easy to write and fricking hard to do.
The mission: Not return to “normal” but look ahead to what’s NEW.
It’s easy to be able to shower again, and hopefully touch my toes, but lots of other things will never be back… the feeling in my chest, real boobs, filling out medical forms that say “no medications”. So, I’m searching silver linings - like wearing spaghetti strap dresses!!!! And of course, many more deeper and more meaningful reflections.
Having cancer, people often understand what they can see - lost hair as an example. They are afraid of what they know, like, “chemo is awful I hear”. But some of the hardest parts are the small things. The ones that go unnoticed and last, perhaps a lifetime.
So my ask today- if you know a person who has had cancer treatment in recent years, reach out to them. Ask how they are doing, and acknowledge that you know their journey didn’t end the day they rang the bell.
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