This October I feel more disconnected than ever from the Pink noise. And yet, I feel more burning resentment than ever, too.
Before I got online this morning and saw all the posts about submitting 3 words to GMA for some Pink crap they are doing, I was already thinking about how the words and phrases about to fill all media are so damn meaningless (just like I thought this last year: Some Word Problems). I saw silly grocery bag (pictured below) with the ribbon and the words “inspire hope”, and all I could think was, “what does that even mean?” I snapped this picture while I was waiting in the checkout line, and naturally my gaze fell onto the People magazine with Jackie Collins on the cover—barf (I am sorry she died, but completely disagree with her views and am so jaded about ALL celebrity cancer stories that I just always want to barf when I hear of them).
I am so tired of all the slogans surrounding cancer, and even all illnesses. They are so disconnected with the everyday slog that is the very nuts and bolts of treatment. This is why I’ve been especially touchy this year about the showy symbolic activities, such as wearing a bald cap, for “support”. How does this bald cap, or taking off a bra, and then maybe hanging it on a mailbox, do anything for that every day, minute to minute, nitty gritty, SHIT that is treatment?
I don’t write often about my primary client; I take care not only of her pets (since, technically I am a pet sitter), but also I am a secondary caregiver (her husband is the primary) for her Chronic Lyme treatment. First of all, hers is not my story to tell exactly, and secondly, there is so much controversy surrounding Lyme and I am unwilling to wade into it. Chronic Lyme patients will read this and know the everyday slog of which I speak: the IV treatment regime, the schedules, the horrific side effects. Cancer patients will know some of it, and can take an educated guess about the rest.
This is only the tip of the iceberg in describing my daily life. I won’t go into the scary dark places: the reminders of my own experience as the receiver of caregiving, the horribleness of side effects. Just know that the past few months have been especially difficult. I’ve been super busy and often so tired when I finally sit down to my laptop that I can barely read the many posts by my favorite bloggers (my saved links on Facebook and bookmarked web pages to read later “when I have a minute” are now out of control).
When I see “inspiring” slogans on t-shirts and what-not, and smiling crowds in races or on idiot morning TV shows, with those little clips detailing the same old story, I just think—is this the real life? No, it is not.
Patients face disease and treatment alone, ultimately. Yes, good people do lend real support—not the fake, symbolic kind exhibited by head shaving, but real stuff like listening, holding, cooking, cleaning, etc. But no one can experience the nausea, the constipation, the diarrhea, the exhaustion, the FEAR, and so on, for the patient. And people holding up signs in a video clip don’t help me when I have a relapse of cancer panic, or when I nervously, fearfully, watch my client to make sure she stays awake long enough to not choke on her food.
THAT is my everyday slog. How can I help but feel resentment when I see all this we-are-fam-i-ly sign-holding, waving, smiling, on TV? I did not go into warrior mode and kick cancer’s ass while I was in treatment. I slogged it out taking each day as it came. I do the same now. Lyme’s ass is not being kicked; we’re just taking one day at a time, slogging it out, doing the best we can and working toward better days. Cheering crowds make me feel so disconnected with the realities of illness and treatment.
That is what illness, cancer and Lyme, are to me: a SLOG. And the celebrations about to ramp up for Pinktober make me feel DISCONNECTED and RESENTFUL.
And those are my 3 words—but they won’t be the last words I speak.
anotheronewiththecancer 