I don't usually write things about myself and especially about any medical things I might have going on. However, in the past month, I've been suffering a bit with a hand (or more accurately thumb) injury. Luckily this has been with my left hand, and I'm right handed so I was pretty sure it wouldn't be any big issue. I quickly realized how much one actually uses their non-dominant hand and especially how important the thumb actually is. Previously, I never thought much about how I open jars, how I hold things or even how I get dressed until their is searing pain when trying to do these simple tasks. And forget about that barbell class I love so much at Golds Gym. Not happening for a while. Long story short is I had 2 cortisone shots today in two different tendons and found out a have a small bone spur where my thumb connects into its socket. Even with all the numbing spray they put on me prior to the shots, they were quite uncomfortable. The good news is immediately I could move my thumb without pain. Ok, so they told me not to get to used to that as it was only because I couldn't actually FEEL my hand and once that wore off, I'd have feeling I didn't want. Boy were they right. It's pretty sore right now from the shots. I'll be patient waiting for the effects of it to kick in and hopefully, this will be a cure, not just a starting point. One can be hopeful.
Having told my story, I've been spending some time tonight thinking about how the last month has been kind of strange with compensating for the injury and the pain itself, but in doing that thinking, I realized that the reason I don't talk much about any injuries of my own, is that as soon as I start thinking about it, I can always find someone else to turn my attention too, and that's what happened tonight as well.
Tonight, I was reminded (maybe brought on by a FB post of Tim's a couple days ago), that in August it will be the 3 year anniversary of Tim's brain tumor surgery. It was such a long road for him and clearly the toughest thing I've been through with someone medically since my father passed away (which is coming up on 10 years ago on July 27th). Tim was an amazing person through it all, at times being more worried about me and his family and what it was doing to all of us, than he was worried for himself. I thought what he went through was such a big deal that clearly we'll be done with big medical issues for a long time after that one.
However (and I'll keep specific names out of it for their privacy), since Tim's surgery, one of my very dear girlfriends found herself in a scare that ended up being Ovarian Cancer, which she luckily caught early. She was the first person I was close with that had Cancer, and oh by the way, she's younger than I am. This just shouldn't happen. And within the last year, 2 immensely important people to me that I consider not only my family, but among the best people I've ever known, were also diagnosed with different types of Cancer.
The range of emotions that everyone involved goes through with all these four medical issues is more than I can even do justice to in writing. But through it all, all four of these people have had tremendous support from loving families and friends... and that's what it's really all about. I would be there for anything any of them ever needed and the feelings that I have for ALL of them are so strong, that nothing else matters. That is how we put things into perspective and those are the types of people that deserve to have NOT gone through any of their medical troubles. So for me, putting things into perspective isn't focusing on "there is always someone worse off than me" but rather focusing on "What can I do to make it easier for them"... even if that means just being there to listen if they want to talk about it, or just make them laugh about anything so they have something else to think about even if just for a short time.
To all 4 of you (you know who you are)... I love you more than you'll ever know. And if you ever need anything, I'm right there for you... always.
