Work Cures All

Work Cures All
I wear a baseball cap on the weekends, glamour is not me so much. Today it was the cap given to me at the Revlon 5K a few weeks ago. Its color is different from most of the issued caps because there is a discreetly embroidered "survivor" at the end of the brim. A woman in line at the market nodded at my cap and said "me, too." It took half a beat before I knew what she was talking about. Uh, oh, the cancer. I smiled at her. I've been asked why I've never written about having breast cancer. A few reasons. First of all many people have already written about it better, smarter, deeper most likely. Could be that I have some survivor's guilt--why did the woman next to me die and not me? Well, here's a little of my experience. I felt the 'something' in my chest while I was taking a shower. I called Regina Jones who then worked at Crystal Stairs and asked about the screenings they held. She fixed me up and suddenly I was sitting endlessly at the computer to find out everything I did not want to know about breast cancer. I brought a tape recorder to the sessions with the surgeon and the oncologist and also took my boyfriend since I knew both those doctors came from cultures who dismiss women. I was right. I asked the questions but they directed the answers to him. Within the week I was in Queen of Angels surgery for my 'drive-through mastectomy.' They tossed me out within a few hours and I cried the entire way home from the pain that the residual anesthesia couldn't help. The oncologists decreed that I should have 42 radiation treatments and chemo. I declined the chemo, calling the doctor by his first name, I opted for the radiation. I drove myself to the hospital each day, waited outside the radiation room, walked in at one minute to ten, refused a hospital gown, took off my shirt, turned left to get zapped, turned right for them to zap me again. Since they can't cure you on the weekends, I went five days a week through February. I refused to join any of the 'why me' groups and tried to get on with my life. My unbelievable Twins took care of me, one bathing me, one changing my bandages. My chef daughter cooked for me, sometimes I could eat. I went back to work with the bandages still on my chest --at my job as the producer of Smokey Robinson's radio show on 92.3. Work is always what saves me. I've been cancer free since September 4, 2001. I believe Work cures all, since work got me through the cancer as it has done in other tragedies, great and small.