I need to laugh.
Cancer is serious business. And terminal cancer is deadly serious.
If the human spirit was single-faceted, then that would be the end. Seriously. Game over.
There would surely be nothing to feel hopeful about... unless we were created to crave joy and beauty and laughter... and hope.
Yes, thanking Grace it is so. For it is this life-giving hope that keeps the cancer warrior on her feet moving forward even in the midst of such a deadly serious prognosis.
Right after mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and began treatment, she had the first of many medical complications... an occluded or plugged stent. It involved fever, severe pain, a trip to the hospital and surgery to replace the offending stent between her gall bladder and pancreas...
The following week I picked up mom and took her to a check-up with her oncologist to discuss her treatment plan... not a place where you see many smiles, especially with a terminal cancer diagnosis...see note above, cancer is serious business ya'll.
So, there we were, sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor. Mom started telling me a story on dad. It seems that while dad was with her in the hospital she overheard him explain the stent procedure to a friend on the phone... too tired to correct him, she got tickled when he told the friend that her bladder was plugged and they had to get it open. In pure, clueless-dad fashion, he covered the phone with his hand and asked her if she could pee yet. (Don't feel bad if this isn't funny... we're weird like that!) But the bladder he was talking about had nothing to do with the gall bladder that was the subject of mom's pain and stent replacement. For a good description of the stent procedure, check here.
In telling the story to me, she got to laughing again and it tickled me to hear her snort... And there we were, laughing goofy, when the doctor knocked and opened the door... to say he was a little discomfited was an understatement. I don't think he regularly found terminal cancer patients laughing in his exam room.
All's well regardless... it felt so good to laugh with mom again. To feel the smiles bubble up real and true. She was still the same mom we always loved to laugh with, even with a side of cancer.
Mom would be the first to remind you that cancer can take you down a dark road if you let it. And no, we did not laugh our way through the journey. We cried a'plenty.
But in her best gift to us, mom showed us how to live life well and graceful. She gave us hope, and joy, and yes, laughter...
Seriously!
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