If you know my mother, and many of my FB friends do, you can totally hear her saying this statement in the title. It was probably more along the line of, "well if I had to get cancer, breast cancer is the best cancer to get". Seriously!?!? Who says this stuff!?!? My Pollyanna glass is always half full mother. That's who. Although I guess she is right. I don't think you want pancreatic, liver or brain cancer. Breast cancer is not so bad.
In honor of her upcoming birthday I thought I would share one of her funny cancer stories with you. You know how the American Cancer Society says they are helping celebrating more birthdays? I feel like every birthday I've shared with her since The Great Cancer of '08 is an additional bonus year.
My mom was never sad about cancer, she was mad. She said,"I don't know why I have breast cancer. I have no family history, I had 2 children before age 25 & I breastfed both of them. I shouldn't have cancer". I remember telling her she was right chances are she should not have cancer. I said to her,"You should have been buying lottery tickets since you like these impossible odds".
I also reminded my mom that when I found out I had MS that I had decided I had enough disease to cover the whole family. I thought I got her to sign a contract. I guess I forgot to file it. She then laughed and told me that she was tired of me getting all of the attention. I laughed and told her that next time she felt neglected she could just tell me. She didn't have to pull out the big guns, like cancer, to get attention. Geez!
And so along with cancer comes so many fun events like surgery, chemo and radiation. Oh my. All the things you need to really have a party. My mom had 2 surgeries. Next was chemo. She told me that she was determined not to throw up from chemo. I told her to let me know how that worked out for her. But you know what, she never did throw up. Don't mess with my mom you stupid cancer. You have met your match. Two go into the ring and only one leaves. My mom is the one who is leaving.
My mom and her hair loss due to chemo were a very interesting study. She didn't mind losing the hair on her head at all. In fact my mom made a field trip out of wig shopping. She bought 4 wigs. Why not have fun with different looks? One of them looked exactly like her normal everyday hair but one of them was quite wild. My little sis called it her "Tina Turner" look. My mom could not wear that one around my sis.
The story that will show you why I am full up on crazy goes something like this:
Mom: Do you know what happened to me today? (in an unamused tone)
Me: No not until you tell me.
Mom: I am 6 weeks done with chemo and today my eyelashes fell out! (very annoyed tone)
Me: Well I guess chemo is not done with you.
Mom: (now laughing) I guess you're right.
The eyelashes, as far as my mom was concerned, was cancer drawing it's line in the sand. That was the last straw and cancer better not mess with her ever again.
I know you are probably thinking that I am totally crazy laughing about cancer on her birthday. I think when you are faced with the reality of your own or a loved ones mortality when you get through it, life is so much sweeter. It only seems fitting to me that on the day my mom started her life that we should not forget to celebrate the fact that she still has a life.
Don't you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment