Up in smoke

October 18, 2009

The night after my final radiation treatment I was feeling as if I needed to somehow commemorate the event. Jason suggested burning something. It sounded good to me, so I sifted through my cancer “notebook” – a large binder that has held my path reports, scan results, weekly blood counts and a pile of associated paperwork. While I kept most of it (who knows when I’ll need to look back and find out what my white cell counts were the second week of June), I pulled out a handful of cancer-related documentation that I could do without.

Jason headed out to the garage armed with a headlamp and dusted off an old rusty hibachi. We fired it up in the pouring rain out on the front walkway. Among the documents that went up in smoke:

* An article written by a Seattle woman about how to talk to your kids about cancer. The article was informative, but her big smiley face on the front was way too cheery for the subject matter.
* A list of Seattle-area wig shops.
* Scribbled notes from one of a zillion doctor’s visits.
* Information on a cancer support group at Swedish.
* An incomplete spreadsheet documenting doctor visits, procedures and blood draws that we gave up on filling out after a few weeks.
* A brochure for Mary Catherine’s – a shop near the hospital that specializes in post-mastectomy bras and camisoles.
* A catalog of wigs and hair coverings that Jason found stashed under the seat of his car. One particular photo – “before” and “after” pictures of a woman with no hair – had sent me into hysterics shortly after I was diagnosed. I was all too pleased to torch this.

Here we are bidding farewell to cancer!