Looking Back To Look Forward (or "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda")

I've started to read "The Emperor of All Maladies" as it was a Christmas gift. It looks to be an interesting read. One that I will read in short spurts as it contains multiple segments of information that I do not want to rush through.

One thing the author states early on is the tendency of patients in the past to keep private with their diagnosis and illness. It is based on behavior from thousands of years ago when cancer was an unknown affliction, without treatment, and those who were affected by it endured it in silence. It became a part of the human habit.

Considering that, I guess I went counter to human habit. Except for a select few, initially I did withhold information from those around me, including some members of my family. The reason was that I did not know the whole story about what was going on and what was going to happen. In addition, I didn't want to be deluged with holding "individual press conferences" multiple times a day. Also, without complete information, it is easy to access incorrect information about the diagnosis of the individual affected. As a matter of fact, I later learned that one outlook on me while I was in the hospital was that I may not come out of the hospital alive. I also needed time alone to process my thoughts and pending decisions. Ultimately, they were my decisions to make.

I started the blog to put the word out. It became something else. I'm grateful for that. I now recommend to anyone recently diagnosed to tell as many people in your circle as possible about what is going on. I tell them they can't do it alone. Don't try. By telling others, you will be surrounded by help and healing. I understand if someone hesitates to put the word out, but I can't recommend that you do.

I will tell you that I haven't put everything out there about my experience, some of it I've kept to myself. That's my right. However, some of those things that I've kept internal have been addressed and attended to by the grace of others who just happened to know what to do for me. Without any input from me.

Pretty neat how that works out.

“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them." - Francis Bacon