The World is Still Spinning...

In Fran Drescher's book, Cancer Schmancer, she said that the world doesn't stop spinning when you have cancer -- only your world does.  The rest of the world goes on as normal. This week, I've learned that there is a lot of comfort in that.

The last two days I have been in a deep, Edgar Allan Poe-worthy funk. Cancer is very isolating, even when you have a big group of people supporting you and cheering you on. The fear of the unknown takes on a whole new meaning when you have something growing in your body that can kill you, and my thoughts traveled to depths I didn't even know I had (and I'm a horror writer).

A lot of very wise and well-meaning people have tried to give me advice over the past two weeks, and most of the time my inner-voice has screamed like a stubborn child, "What could you possibly know about what I'm going through?!" or "That's easy to say when you've never had cancer."  Both of those things are true. Like every other hardship in life, until you are there, you can't fully "get it." But I'm also filtering my entire life through Cancer Goggles, and that's not an accurate world-view either. After I shut up the little stubborn-child voice, oftentimes this well-meaning advice reminds me that the world is still spinning, there is more to life than my cancer, and whatever happens, I am more than capable of dealing with it.