Tesseract
I realized with a start just a few minutes ago that it's been eight years since my initial diagnosis.
In some ways, that's an impossibly long time. (The length of the Bush presidency, for example.)
Yet because those first weeks and months as a cancer patient were such searing experiences, they remain vivid in a way that seems to compress the intervening years.
Most memories from that far back are faded and threadbare—and hard to get to, as if they're lodged behind a stack of boxes in a dusty corner of an attic.
These, by contrast, are always accessible—sometimes too accessible. They answer brightly whenever called.
And occasionally they do the calling.
In some ways, that's an impossibly long time. (The length of the Bush presidency, for example.)
Yet because those first weeks and months as a cancer patient were such searing experiences, they remain vivid in a way that seems to compress the intervening years.
Most memories from that far back are faded and threadbare—and hard to get to, as if they're lodged behind a stack of boxes in a dusty corner of an attic.
These, by contrast, are always accessible—sometimes too accessible. They answer brightly whenever called.
And occasionally they do the calling.
posted by Jody Rosen Knower at 7:22 PM
5 Comments:
I love this post.
It reads to me as if you were given "second sight" in the time of your first diagnosis--and though I'm not covetous of that particular journey, I am of your clarity.
Hope that's OK to say.
xo
I love this post.
It reads to me as if you were given "second sight" in the time of your first diagnosis--and though I'm not covetous of that particular journey, I am of your clarity.
Hope that's OK to say.
xo
Ooops....I guess I pressed the button 1 too many times. :)
I share your experience. March 30 will mark my 24 year anniversary of the diagnosis. I too remember every detail of that experience although I cannot remember much else in detail around that time. I was very confused because the day I had my biopsy, my Dad died of lung cancer. The experiences got very mixed up in my mind and it took a long while to separate. But, I just wanted to say that I have felt a growing kinship with you by reading your blog and hope you will continue to share. Cousin Janie
Thank you both for writing.
Christine, of course that's OK to say. I never thought of it that way.
Janie, I love, love, love to hear about people who are decades removed from their diagnoses. It just fills me with hope, for myself and everyone else who has been through this.
XOXO to you both!
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