Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2008. By that point, Mattie had been battling cancer for a month. As I mentioned before on the blog, Mattie LOVED cardboard boxes. As you can see from this photo, we had at least two boxes in our room that evening. Mattie jumped into a box, as if it were a car or a train expecting to be self propelled throughout the room! Mind you, Mattie was connected to an IV which was attached to a huge pole. You would be amazed how Mattie maneuvered around despite being connected to all sorts of IVs! Prior to his second limb salvaging surgery, which occurred in November of 2008, nothing could keep Mattie from moving around.
Quote of the day: In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. ~ David Steindl-Rast
I wonder what the chances are that in just this one week's time, I would have a meeting with two different women, each a survivor of breast cancer. I had meetings scheduled to talk with these women about work related issues and low and behold we landed up talking about cancer and getting to know each other personally. I certainly did not set out on either occasion to talk about cancer or Mattie. However, what this points out to me is that cancer in some shape or form has touched many of our lives. We all know someone who has had a battle with cancer. Although the woman I was talking to today is an adult and she had a different type of cancer than Mattie, we had many commonalities. The commonalities are NOT necessarily in the medicine, the type of treatment, or the side effects. Guess what the commonalities are in? They are in the psychosocial impact of the disease. In this sense, the psychosocial impact unites all cancers together, enabling all of us to speak a common language.
The first commonality is diagnosis day! I haven't met a person yet who has experienced cancer who couldn't vividly share with me their (or their child's) cancer diagnosis day story. They remember the day, the time, the location, and most likely even now (years later!) this date is considered somewhat sacred to them! I am not sure I can give you a real world equivalent that everyone can relate to, but the closest thing I can think of is September 11, 2001. If you were alive on that day, you most likely can remember how you heard and saw the news of planes crashing into the Twin Towers. In a way, a cancer diagnosis is like this but about 10 times worse because it is happening directly to you in real time.
The second commonality is the overall impact of such a life threatening disease on one's emotional stability. The mental health ramifications of cancer can lead to depression, anxiety, PTSD, abusing a substance, anger, isolation, and feeling different. These pop up for all of us in some shape or form and need to be addressed in order to function. The third commonality I have also heard is a change in priorities, in the sense that what mattered before to us, is not quite the same now. After experiencing cancer and either seeing or escaping death, the trivial things we can fill our lives up with no longer matter. There are many other commonalities that I could list, but the point is medicine treats the physical and yet is the psychosocial that remains ever present and for many of us can haunt our subsequent days moving forward.
With the more people I talk to, the more I realize that the mission of Mattie Miracle is right on target. Someone needs to be advocating for the psychological, emotional, and social issues of this disease. It is impossible to have physical health without mental health, and the sooner we come to this realization (a realization that other countries understand and implement far better than we do) the stronger our health care will be.
1 comment:
cancer diagnosis day is unforgettable on a personal level. It is much like a national catastrophe (space shuttle for instance); no one ever forgets what was happening around them that day...
-CB
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