Cancer Selfies

Sunday June 09, 2024

Reflecting on HIPEC

There are a lot of times in my life where things didn't go quite as planned. Today is the one year anniversary of she they went nearly as far from planned as possible. This day in 2023 was HIPEC surgery day.

I expected to be a lot more emotional about it. Expected the past week to bring some dread or excitement, but instead I've only broken routine for my little adventure yesterday. I want to say I got the buttertarts or lemon squares to celebrate, to mark time, but I wasn't thinking of any of that.

So here's to surgery day, the day we all lost hope for a cure, or long term treatment, and the start of when I stopped letting that bother me.

The following was originally posted June 9, 2023

Months ago I expressed my distaste for the cancer as a battle or fight metaphor. It might represent some people well, especially those with stage 1 illness, but it doesn't reflect my experience. For me, cancer has been a seige. And today, friends, the relief forces have arrived, and we're going to do our damndest to break that seige. We done everything we can to ensure success, and now it's all in the hands of the fates.

A man stands in a hotel hallway, wearing a hooded sweater vest, he looks somewhat calm A man is in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown, surgical mask and hair covering, he looks nervous