Oops! I forgot to post this, yesterday. I’m sorry, friends. I was a little preoccupied with designing a paint scheme for the house interior. Sue and I used all the online design resources and went through a bunch of ‘samples’. It’s going to look good . . .
This story is one that scares the crap out of me . . . When dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and the doctors said they were going to operate, then decided to take a whole lung out, I thought he was a’goner’. Nobody survives cancer like that. Do they? Dad . . . That man . . . I swear, thrived on adversity! Dad survived the cancer and living with one lung for ten years, along with other major health related killers like he was born to show the rest of us what living really is. It took 70 mile an hour winds and his need to do his manly duty . . . (not that!) Saving his deck umbrella from blowing away . . . to do away with the strongest-willed man (as a teenager, I called him pig-headed) I have ever met. Don Tschirhart . . . He always came out the other side of adversity exclaiming “It’s a Wonderful World”!!!
Here you go . . . Sorry again for being so late,
David T
‘You Have Cancer!’
By Don Tschirhart
From: It’s a Wonderful world!
A retired reporter looks at life
I remember the day well. My internist came into the exam room and said, “Don, you have lung cancer.”
Shock? No. It shouldn’t surprise anyone to have a cancer diagnosis if he or she smoked cigarettes and a pipe for 50-plus years.
I waited for five or 10 seconds analyzing the meaning of his words. Then I looked at Ray Tremblay, M.D., and said, “OK! When do we start fighting the bastard!”
“That’s what I thought you’d say,” my doc for 35 years smiled and said. “You have an appointment in 30 minutes with the surgeon.”
It was June, 1998, when surgeons removed my left lung. If the five-year rule of thumb is correct, today I am cancer free. I don’t truly believe it. I’ll always keep wondering.
I attended a meeting of other cancer survivors at the Deerfield Township Hall, a few miles north of Lapeer.
Some of us told our stories. Each was a little different. The common denominator it seems, is the feeling of relief that we have survived “so far” and a strong hope the remission or cure will continue.
We talked about what it takes to survive the cancer scourge. Most said while the announcement of their cancer was mind-boggling, to say the least, it seemed to disturb friends and relatives even more.
“I was terrified when the doctor told me I had breast cancer and that it had metastasized,” said Wilma, 73.
“After a while, though, I figured I’d just have to play the cards that were dealt.”
There probably isn’t a more upbeat person at the meeting than Evelyn. She’s only 87.
Ten years ago Evelyn had uterine cancer and beat it. Last year the doc told her she had breast cancer and after treatment has so far beaten it.
To keep her mental and physical strength up Evelyn works out almost daily at the Lapeer Community Center walking slowly several times around the track.
Leona’s doctor was so aggressive that he operated on her within a short time after her breast-cancer diagnosis in 1999.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it,” the 73-year-old woman said.
While Leona remains optimistic recent tests indicate she has more lumps in her breast.
A diagnosis of throat cancer was the present Bobby received last Christmas Eve. She’s been treated with chemotherapy and radiation since.
“I’m not out of the woods yet,” said Bobby, 49. “I want to get back to work.”
When Donna, 65, found out she had breast cancer three years ago she wanted to go to “the best doctor.”
“Finding the ‘best doctor’ terrified me more than the fact I had cancer,” she said. She had a lumpectomy and since then has found her lymph nodes clear.
All attending the Cancer Survivors meeting agreed that two things are important to those with a cancer diagnosis.
The first is the support of family and friends. The second is to have an upbeat feeling that you can survive.
Laughing is important, someone said, and they all chuckled.
I wondered why there was no men besides me at the meeting. No one had an answer. I wonder if men are not supposed to show their emotions like women. It’s too bad. They could learn a lot from the fair sex.
Henry, the exercise guru at the Lapeer Recreation Center said people who have been diagnosed with cancer should try to stay physically active
“I’ve seen time and again that cancer survivors who exercise are happier and mentally more stable,” he said.
Henry added that one of his former students wrote a college paper extolling exercise as important in cancer treatment therapy.
I admit that during my chemotherapy treatment I was continuously nauseated and didn’t feel like exercise.
But two weeks after my last chemo treatment I went to the recreation center and slowly churned my weak legs as I walked around the track.
Chemo can take a lot out of you. Before treatment, I walked so fast, few people could keep up with me. After, I was mortified. All those little old ladies at the center were passing me by.
I just chuckled and thanked God I had survived up to that point.
Louis Armstrong expresses my feelings so eloquently in his hit song, “It’s a wonderful world.”
There’s my life. There’s my attitude. There’s my faith. And no one can take that away from me.
I am Don. And I am not afraid. * * *
