Thursday, November 30th, 2006
Chemo Angels
Two things:
(1) I completed NaBloPoMo. Although some of the posts weren’t all that great, I did post every single day, sometimes more than once. Yay!
(2) I urge you to tell as many people about Chemo Angels as possible. Read on to find out why.
* * *
As a cancer patient, you find that you never ever dare to think the future like you did before the diagnosis came. It is very scary and overwhelming to make plans of any sort because you never know where you’d be or how you’ll be tomorrow or next week, let alone next month. The diagnosis takes away the belief that you are invincible, that Nothing Bad Will Happen To Me mentality is forever vanished; it also makes you feel like your body has betrayed you, and you are not in control anymore. But the truth is, you were never really in control. It was just an illusion. An illusion that we all as humans believe, for the purpose of self preservation.
When I was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatment, I had heard about this Chemo Angel program through my online support group. Shortly thereafter I signed up as a patient. It was one of the very few things that kept me looking forward into the future. Try as you might, it is highly unlikely that you will make any sort of plans further than one week away, at least not until treatment has been completed. So really, life revolves around treatments, its schedules, and its side effects. The world becomes colorless and everything smells like the hospital.
Chemo Angels really was an angel to me, during a time when I needed something to remind myself that I’m worthy, that I’m loved, that someone cared, that there’s something positive to look forward to. A few times when I came home after a chemotherapy session, I would find a lovely card in the mail from a total stranger, and it brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. Sometimes it’s a bookmark, a small piece of candy, a drawing done by her toddler child, anything that she thought would help me forget about cancer, even if it’s just for a split second. It didn’t make the side effects more tolerable, it didn’t take away the nausea, and it didn’t stop my hair from falling out, but it did give me that few minutes of tenderness as if someone was hugging me.
Just silently hugging me and not letting go.
So, please. I ask you to consider being an Angel to someone in need of a hug or two. It does take some time and commitment to become an Angel, but the reward of knowing that what you are doing, bringing a smile to someone who’s world completely crashed is truly fulfilling. And if you know of anyone who is undergoing chemotherapy, they probably would love an Angel or two looking over them.
Cancer has touched so many peoples lives. Please please please pass on the link to everyone and anyone you know. Make the world smile a little more.
And this, wraps up my final post for NaBloPoMo. Good night.
on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 1:27 am:
Congrats babe! Good reading all month round. Should continue to blog everyday
on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 1:39 am:
this was really interesting! were there any Angels who had the opposite experience? — not being scared to make goals, but feeling a desperate need to live as though life may end tomorrow in all actions, and make crazy higly ambitious goals?
that’s where i am right now. you’re obviously a lot farther ahead in your progress so i thought i’d check in as to whether this is just a phase or just how it is now.
i want to go to tanzania in the summer. my passion has been international health since long before the C-word came and shat all over me, and i don’t intend to let it stop me, now… especially now. i have the opportunity to live out one of my dreams, but everyone is telling me i’m crazy. now that i’m finally living life how i’ve always been told i should live it — as though it may end without warning — i am being told to live in fear, in reservation, in absence of the things i have always aspired to do. i have actually been told to redirect my interests to more “local, safe” activities!
i say eff all of them. i also say i NEED to go just to prove to myself (and the rest of the world) i will not die simply by spending my summer in Africa.
did you ever experience this kind of desperate need to grab life by the horns and just LIVE IT?
thank you for your support. i don’t even know you and you’ve become _my_ Angel.