Medical Journal
One of my friends suggested I should journal my surgery experience, since I’m a writer. I’m mostly a poet and I’m not sure there’s anything poetic about what I’m about to go through. I’m definitely sure today is not the day to start, since this is “clean out” day.
I’ve already swallowed enough liquids to be feeling slightly nauseous. A tall glass of those liquids contained an entire bottle of powdered laxative.
This is the third time in my life a doctor has reported the possibility of cancer. Once, an aspirated biopsy confirmed that a cyst was benign. Twenty-two years ago I had successful surgery for colon cancer. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you’re threatened with the Big C. I think the colon cancer was the most frightening with only one totally positive outcome. The negative outcomes would have been a colostomy, or not surviving the long surgery. Neither of those occurred.
This time I was told I have a large mass in my pelvis that has a slim chance of being benign. Having lived for eighty-two years already, I didn’t take the news as hard as before. The middle of my life was not great, but the young years and the old years are memorable for good reasons. Raising children was very important to me and I regretted that I couldn’t devote more time to it because of having to earn a living. In retirement, my travels were very enjoyable. Writing has been a slave-driver at times, but a great comfort at other times.
I’ve done every thing I can to prepare my body for this surgery. The rest is up to others