The New Normal…Free at Last

Free of cancer. I am free of cancer. I just completed a colonoscopy and my doctor recommended I return in five years for my next checkup. FIVE YEARS! 2012? I count five years on the fingers of my right hand like a school child. Five years!

Does this mean that I am finally cured of cancer?

YES.

No doctor will tell me I am cured. They can’t. The medical establishment lawyers won’t let the doctor’s use the word “cured.” Instead the proper medical term is “no evidence of recurring disease.”

Fine. Write anything you want in my medical record, but I am cured! I am normal again.

The new normal is no more CT body scans at $8000 per test costing me $2500 co-pay. I have the best health insurance the state of California can offer me yet I still have a co-pay. Hello…. I can find many more things I can do with $2500 then pay for more cancer tests. How about a trip to the Barrier Reef in the Pacific to scuba dive? The new normal is my medical expenses are greatly reduced in 2008.

I am cancer free. I am done! I am normal again.

According to some online dictionary, normal means “Conforming with or constituting an accepted standard, model, or pattern; esp., corresponding to the median or average of a large group in type, appearance, achievement, function, development, etc.; natural; usual; standard; regular.”

I am a regular guy now. “Regular” means I can poop with some kind of predictable pattern. I can be very proud that I am regular and I can defecate solid stools and not have diarrhea. Ask me. I am a former colon cancer patient. I can tell you stories of bowel control issues. Cancer survivors can tell you stories.

I am healthy again. I am cancer free. I am done with cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. No more drugs! No more side effects of chemo brain, falling down, nausea, exhaustion, pain, panic, fear of death, etc.

I am cancer free. This is waking up at 4 AM to wait for the sunrise. Cancer free is anticipation of a new day and a new life. No more cancer ghosts hiding under my bed. No more boogieman in the closet. No more cancer ghosts floating in the air that I breathe and in the food I eat! No more tiny cancer cells floating in my body to invade organs. A clean windshield to look forward to a bright future ahead. I am alive. I am well. I am happy to be alive. I can expect to live longer now.

The CEA blood tests and CT body scans and several colonoscopies prove to my doctors and me that I am a NERD. No evidence of recurring disease.

I am cancer free! I am normal. A regular guy. I shave and put on deodorant and go to work.

Free at last, free at last, God almighty I am cancer free at last!