Here's Something Funny

                                                           Page 11
 Here's Something Funny

I have not updated the blog in a while as LIFE was happening and I was loving every minute of it!

It's time to share the excitement !

I was invited to attend a fundraiser for breast cancer and at the function I volunteered my time  to help out where I could.

This lead to an invitation to speak at a fundraiser !

My thoughts were not to speak about the hardship of cancer and the treatment thereof but I wanted to share my thoughts, my fears and ultimately what it took to dig deep and find the courage and determination to fight with everything I had to survive .

While thinking back and writing notes, I was intrigued that I could recount 2 humerous events so vividly that occurred during treatment. I marvelled at the strength of my mind to be able to recall the positive and happy thoughts and after only 18 months was shutting out the dark moments and the trauma associated with the treatment of chemo and radiation.

So I decided to share those with you today to show you that there is always something good to come out of any traumatic situation.... If you let it!

Story 1:
I wore a full facial and neck mask, moulded and set into every crevice of my face, clipped onto a board for radiation treatment, every day Mon-Fri for 3 months.

As I said in my previous blog.... I had to find my happy place and go there every day during this treatment or claustrophobia could have just been ONEmore thing to worry about.

It was my last day of radiation treatment and I had been counting down the days.

It was the longest treatment...or so it seemed... Possibly because I could not wait to take the mask off for the final time.

The moment arrived and the."monster machine" stopped turning and ground to a very noisy halt.

The hard wooden bed slid slowly forward into the open and stopped with a jolt.

My heart was racing as I heard the footsteps of the nurse stop next to me and felt the release of pressure against my face as the 4 clips clicked open.

FREEDOM!

I jumped off the bed, feeling the nausea already rising from the pit of my stomach  and headed for the door.

Just before reaching it, the nurse called out...."Mrs. Van Straaten....would you like to keep your mask as a SOUVENIR "....

WHAT?.......was she kidding me?

All I could imagine was bringing this thing out at dinner parties?...How to kill the party

I did not even bother answering her as I ran for the door before loosing the content of my stomach into my trusty lime green bucket tucked under my arm.













2nd Story: