My Life With Cancer (Part 13)

If you ever get Radiation Therapy , do it in the winter time.  You will get a skin burn from it and if you are in the sun it gets worse.  In the winter time it's cooler and you can wear something over it (avoid wool at all costs.)   Aquifer is the best stuff to put on the area you are getting radiated, but to feel better you really have to goop it on, this makes the radiated area look really red and shiny.  I tell you this to lead into our next story.

The whole time I was getting treated for Cancer, I was determined that nobody would find out.  I didn't want to be one of those that got out of doing something because they were sick, especially with Cancer.  I wasn't going to pull the "Cancer Card" no matter what.  Now because of that, very few people where I worked had a clue I have Cancer.

Each year the company we worked for would hand out awards.  We would get together in the conference room and everyone would be uncomfortable wanting it to be over.  I'm kind of an 'I don't kiss any sort of butt' type person, so I never expect anything when it comes to these sort of things.

Well sure enough, Brenda and I are given out the top award for being some sort of hard worker, which was nice.  I did feel honored and we had to go to the front of the place to accept it.  As I was walking up I heard someone say "look at his neck, he must be really embarrassed." I was still getting radiation on the back of my neck, it was bright red, gooped up and probably glowed.

At some point the person who muttered the comment found out what I was going through.  Now mind you they had no idea if I had heard what they said or not, but for some reason they felt the need to come to me and completely apologize.  Why is it that people feel the need to over-apologize? They went on and on about how "if they had known"  they would never have done this and that and my people are just like anyone else, even in their condition.  I was starting to get that glazed eye look, you know the one where you are so bored you consider smacking yourself in the head with a hammer just to end it.  Finally I stopped them and said, "What do you mean My People?"  Man it was fun watching them back peddle from that one too.

For the record, to me this whole Cancer thing is an adventure.  I take it as a challenge to find ways to beat it. I love modern medicine and think everyone in the medical industry has their hands full.  I just won't use Chemotherapy, there has to be a better way.  That's my goal, to find that way.