Let us lose the drama

Ranjan is back from Calcutta, after having successfully organised the XIth SAARC Golf Tournament, a baby he conceived 11 years ago! This time he also had to fly back for a day to cremate his mother and then fly again to close the tournament. This meant getting up at unearthly hours, eating rubbish and not sticking to his strict regimen. The great thing is that he took it all in his stride and to those who do not know about his cancer, he looked just as he did in this picture, albeit a little less hair and maybe a few less kilos. Yes, Ranjan is looking good and feeling good too and that is a great relief. But to me it comes with a caveat: the 5 year cooling period.

This morning he told me that he wanted to spend the day shopping with his Pakistani pals. Shopping and Ranjan! I fell of the proverbial chair. The man has never gone shopping, certainly not with me and certainly not for lah-dih-dah sun glasses and saris. At first I had vision of crowded markets, lurking viruses and infections and my initial reaction was a big NO. The shopping spree also meant lunch at the club with vision of oily cutlets and day-old salads. But then I remembered an article I read recently entitles 10 Ways to Cure Cancer Without Taking A Single Pill. I was thrilled to see that we were doing most of what is suggested: the turmeric, the cannabis, the juices, the soursop and had others on our to do list: meditation, yoga, grounding and maybe one needs add gardening.

But there are two points that caught my attention and that I think we need to concentrate on now. The most important is: Let go of your prognosis! It is so true. We need to let go of all the Damocles swords: the 3 months and 5 years, the July PET scan and so on. As the article rightly says: Doctors should be banned to do so. I would add we should be banned to do and simply listen to our body, to the drop in weight, the fever, the loss of energy. Should they not happen, the 3 months and 5 years can go to hell.

The one I liked the best though was: Lose the drama! Stop talking about the cancer as if you talk about it, you keep it alive.  Like the main character in a soap opera, the soap opera can only survive while the character is alive. So we need to concentrate on how well the body is doing and BASTA!

The one red flag the article those give though is: Preserve Energy! And that is crucial. Do not please others and give your time and energy away. Learn to say NO and conserve your energy to do only things that make you happy.

So finally we have our new normal. Do what makes you happy, eat and continue your alternative therapies and listen to your body.