My free association with the word “survive” goes straight to a television show (Survivor) that I’ve never even watched, then to the pop song “I Will Survive” that I memorized and endlessly danced to back in high school, and last, but not least, to the current President (Trump), for whom I definitely did not vote! (Sorry if that offends you, but I’m just being honest about my thought process. You can’t blame me for that, can you?) If I had gone through this same thought process a year ago, you can be sure my mind would have immediately raced to surviving cancer (and definitely NOT to a President named Trump!) Oh, what a difference a year makes!
In fact, exactly one year ago today, my husband underwent his second cancer surgery, a laparoscopic HIPEC procedure involving bathing and rocking in heated chemotherapy. The surgery was originally created to help treat appendiceal cancer but it has also been used to decrease the chances of a recurrence in the peritineum in other cancers as well. J was on the operating table for several hours, and thankfully, all went well despite a few challenges during recovery (Remind me to tell you later about J getting stuck in a recliner–a situation requiring two friends and a lot of elbow grease!)
But has he and have we survived? Well, he’s still here and we’re still married, so I guess we have survived! Survival: 1 Defeat: 0 But is that the final score? We don’t know the answer to that, but then again, neither does anyone. For now, J is surviving–beating the odds and living longer than expected. And the longer he lives, the better his odds. I guess at a certain point, the odds of a recurrence become so decreased, it can hardly be called survival anymore. So here’s to living, and not “just” surviving.
Oh, and Happy Anniversary to us!
lovecommacancer 