After the Show, part 4 of 4
Current mood: energetic
Category: Life
WHAT"S NEXT? So what does a cancer survivor get up to after beating the beast into remission? Whatever the hell they want! These
last excerpts from Robert Schimmel’s "Cancer on $5 a Day* (*chemo not
included)" show that life goes on, just as full of both possibilities
and practical realities. It’s the perspective that changes. …I make a promise to myself right then, an instant before I drift off to the sounds of Inez’s chirping. If
I make it through this, I’m going to buy a house on the beach and I’m
going to live there for a year, no matter what it costs. I don’t care if I have to sell my car and everything else I own. I’m going to do it. I owe it to myself. And I’m not going to put it off, because one thing I’ve learned, you never know what the future holds. You have to give yourself permission to live life to its fullest. Living on the beach. That’s the one thing I have to do. Later I find out what it actually costs to live on the beach and I say, "You know, living three blocks away isn’t that bad." You might also say that cancer settled things between Vicki and me and brought Melissa and me together. Melissa and I talk about that. Sometimes I think we were just destined to be together, no matter what. I know this. Once we were a couple, we wanted to share everything in our lives, including children. Unfortunately, the doctors said that was out of the question. Even my biggest supporter, Dr. Mehldau, said it was never gonna happen. I
was fifty three, had one ball, and had undergone six months of
intensive chemotherapy, which certainly zapped any fertility I had left
in me. Guess what? The doctors were wrong. On June 5, 2003, three years to the day that I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, we had a son. In
the hospital that day after holding Sam, then bathing him, and laying
him on top of Melissa for his first feeding, I called Dr. Mehldau and
asked him if he wanted to be the godfather of the kid he said I’d never
have. He said he’d be delighted.
8:04 AM
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