So I had a brain tumour. Not as big of a deal as you may initially think. It was benign, non-life threatening and a whole millimetre away from needing surgery. So, not that big of a deal. I called it Tommy the Tumour. Tommy and I have been together for about five years. Friday nights were our special evening where I’d take the weekly medication, go to bed early and try to sleep through most the ensuing nausea, dizziness and general icky feelings. And of course the weekends were there to manage any residual ickiness. After while you just get used to it and don’t even notice.
The hardest thing about Tommy was never knowing whether I should tell people about it him or not. You see Tommy was a nuisance but he wasn’t a reason to not do things. As much as I like to think I am good at communications there is really no great way to tell people that you have a brain tumour. For some people I’d use the big medical words, but that’d just lead to the inevitable explanation and standard gasp. Starting with benign didn’t seem to lessen the gasps and usually just got a quizzical look and questions about what that means. Work people were the hardest cos I’d always be scared that they automatically think I couldn’t cope with things. I’d of course rush to explain that I had travelled, lived and worked overseas, survived tuberculosis, barely missed a day of work and squeezed in a Masters, black belt, and a failed relationship. Ok so that last one is probably not one to brag about it but you get my point. Life was very much still going on.
But last Friday morning Tommy and I said goodbye. I’ve gotta be honest I was a little shocked. As my doctor went from large Latin sounding words to smaller Latin sounding words I just sat there . When she finally said this is good news I smiled. I really think 2013 is going to be an interesting year with lots of potential.
travellingpenn 