Interesting article in the Times this morning, about how long it takes to fully recover physically, mentally, and spiritually from cancer.
We live in a culture that firmly believes that recovery consists of as brief a physical healing process as possible, followed by getting right back on the horse. We prize the stoic, Marlboro man, fade to black, everything's all right, it's just a flesh wound attitude.
But in his article Times reporter Dana Jennings describes his need to slow down, despite his impulse to take care of business as usual. He was "physically game," but unable to focus. "I couldn’t make sense of my cancer-blasted interior landscape," he says. He felt the world was speeding up as he was slowing down.
Eventually he realized, "I had to remove daily pressures from my psyche," Jennings says.
The article left me with the feeling that time does indeed heal all wounds, but the psychic, spiritual, soulful mending will take far longer than the physical.
I've had positive feedback on the article from Diane and two other cancer-surviving friends: All have experienced what Jennings describes.
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You are so right on Elzy-and thank you for sending that article to me-and thank you for understanding.
ReplyDeleteIt's a mixed bag of wanting to get on with my life-but knowing deeply how different I feel-and the tug and pull of friends and loved ones who want me to be the same person as I was before the surgery-but that's just not possible.
I was trying to explain that concept to a friend just recently-and here is the analogy that I used-the second and I really mean the second BEFORE I gave birth to my son-and the SECOND I gave birth to my son-are so vastly different-the first second was Neptune-the second second was Mercury-one moment I'm a single woman-the next moment I am a single mother. If that doesn't make your head spin.....
I remember the feeling-I distinctly remember the feeling-knowing I would never be that person again-the one who wasn't a mother-it was life changing-and it was huge-and it was wonderful.
Well that's what going through cancer is like. Except that you never really go thru it-you go into it-and explore it-and live in it-because there will always be tests to take-new medications to look at-lots and lots of blood samples to give-and the list goes on and on. In short-this is permanently a part of my life now-and there's a lot of new territory to explore.
And-it could be wonderful-if we could all look at it that way.....but that's for another story....