Thursday, May 9, 2013

Isn't That Crazy? My Wish for the Future

Isn't That Crazy? My Wish for the Future

I find myself reminiscing with Jeff and sharing with our kid’s stories of our past.  My kids were shocked to learn that when I was a kid, Siri didn’t exist; (gasp) cell phones did not exist.  In fact, the phones we had in our house were attached to the wall.  And it stayed there.  And there was a cord attached to that which prevented you from going too far…unless you were lucky enough to have a super long cord that allowed you to stretch and take it into the next room.  And remember when you had to go to a movie store to rent a video?  You might get there only to find that all the copies of “Adventures in Babysitting” and “Mannequin” are out?  The horror, remember that? 

My hope is that someday I will be able to tell my kids or other youngsters about what people with cancer had to go through.  I hope that kids will be shocked to learn that “back in the day” I had breast cancer and had to have my breasts removed!!!  I hope they will be stunned to learn that the medicine I had to take made me lose all my hair!!!  Can you imagine?  I hope they are horrified to hear that I had to get radiation therapy, where they used a machine to deliver a high dose radiation beams to my body!!!  I had to go through nine long grueling months of treatment.  Isn’t that crazy? 

I am so thankful for the modern technology that I have available to me, but I pray that technology and medical advances continue to the point that what I am going through now will seem barbaric and ridiculous in the future.  Maybe even the fact that I had something called “cancer” will seem crazy (when talking to those younger than me I may consider switching “crazy” for “cray-cray” to sound more hip).  I hope to be able to include this story to any “can you believe it?” conversation.  I hope to be able to share this experience in this same way that I will tell my kids about a time before vaccines virtually eliminated many diseases that can lead to life threatening illnesses!!!.  That there was a time before anesthesia and epidurals!!! That white people and black people lived in a segregated society!!! That people used to live without a washing machine and a dishwasher!!!  There was a time before digital cameras!!!  Remember taking pictures with a camera; we could only take a limited amount before having to change the film and we didn’t even know if the pictures turned out until after we went to the store to have the film developed and pay for the photos!!!  Now that’s like totally cray-cray!  Am I right?

Looking on the Bright Side…I will be very happy to sound (and be) old and share my horrific cancer stories if it means that others don’t have to go through the same thing.

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