How quickly life unravels
This is a really bad sign. The day I wake up to a fever-addled, miserable Mallory is also the day I learn Fidel Castro is stepping down, is also the day I learn that my dad has colon cancer.
Okay, maybe not exactly the same day but within a very short stretch that might be 24 hours if you round down.
It’s only now just sinking in. The bit about Castro, especially.
I am kidding, in case you’re wondering. I’m just not ready to write publicly about my father yet. I don’t know enough, and I am still processing the news.
But it occurred to me that Saturday, when Irene, Mallory and I left for Toronto, you could have packed up most of my cares in a 5 litre drybag and still had room for the toilet paper.
Everything was ticking along nicely.
Now, my brain is addled by countless repetitions of the Backyardigans, I’m bombarding myself with the world wide web of cancer, mapping out disaster scenarios big and small, I’m distraught, feeling useless and scared and I can’t even count on Cuba.
Should be a fabulous blog entry.
I want to go back to work – Irene and I have been doing stints of work mixed with stints of care from home for the last 48 hours – just to feel like I’m in sync with the rotation of the planet again.
I’m not particularly keen on going back to work – I played an uncomfortably large part in a pretty bad bit of work today – but it might make me feel like something is normal again.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Hey Chris – good luck. My own father has cancer, which is why I have been commuting to to Ottawa this year.I hear colon caner is one of the "better" cancers because it is more curable. I have a friend who fought it this year, but yes so much is variable.I hope it goes well.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
chris, thinking about all of you. take care.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Very sorry to hear about your father. For what it's worth, my mother had colon cancer and has been completely clear of it for four years (after surgery and chemo). I did the same Internet crash course in colonology that you're doing now, and it's true that if you have to get cancer, colon cancer is a "good" one to get. Not that any kind of cancer is actually something to be happy about. Best wishes.