Visualize this!

Radiation therapy has turned out to be kind of funny - in an amusing way. I had been thinking about visualization to keep me calm and focused on getting healthy rather than the side affects and potential downside of my treatments. I don't remember who suggested to me that I visualize the treatment as the Allies and the cancer as the Axis soldiers fighting it out. I transformed that a little to let the radiation machinery be the ray guns and my people be the good guys and the cancer cells the bad guys.

Then I met my Radiation Therapist. It immediately came to mind that she was Princess Leia, I was Luke, and the tumor was Darth Vader. She's clever and smart and perky and she's manning the guns.

Chemo is not the least bit amusing. It was a very bittersweet return to the infusion room - the nurses that work that room are an amazing group. Ready with kind words, gentle smiles and a little hand holding if you need it or not. I had discussed my return in my survivors Group and one person had mentioned a couple of the nurses by name from her treatment there several years ago, one that had particularly made her treatment more bearable. I also remembered Sherri as especially big hearted, and she remembered me and expressed just the right amount of it-sucks-that-you're-here-but-it's-nice-to-see-you empathy.

The visualization for chemo was more about the calm. So I closed my eyes and thought about Feather Falls. It was a long hike to the top of the falls where we were rewarded by a beautiful sylvan sun-dappled glade. The water was painfully cold, just the right thing for my very hot and throbbing feet. The creek ran through the middle with just enough flow to.....carry the cancer out and launch it over the cliff edge to find it's miserable life strewn about the sharp rocks at the bottom of the 640 foot falls, and me continuing to love life from the top of the world.