...you could have an ice-axe stuck in your chest. I debated on how to title this picture. "America's Funniest Home Surgery" didn't quite make it. Nor did "Change in health coverage encourages lowest cost provider for surgeries". The real story behind the picture is my annual stint as a volunteer "victim" today for the Tacoma Mountaineer's back-country first aid class. They need realistic victims for the final exam and I've always wanted to be the ice-axe victim - it's clearly one of the best props, and it's just a surreal picture to see someone calmly drinking a cup of coffee with an ice-axe lodged in his chest. They provide all the gory makeup and lunch, and we get to moan and thrash until the class responds to the accident scene and tries to sort out the mayhem. I think that I've learned as much by being a victim as I did when I took the class.But this prop also has a secondary joke behind it, which I will complete on my next visit with my oncologist. At my very first visit with him last July, he made it very clear that my days of using the ice-axe were over for awhile and maybe forever. To emphasize the point, he jokingly threatened that if he heard that I had an ice-axe in my hands while he was treating me, he would personally impale me with the axe. So Thursday, I'll show him this picture and tell him that someone else beat him to it.
Maybe most significantly, it was a good mental boost to be able to get out and finally do something after a long sedentary winter indoors. I felt great physically and didn't tire out after a full day outdoors with this exercise. I'm optimistic that this is a first step in getting back my old life. I know that I've got a ways to go, but buoyed with the continued success from the Erbitux and just having a great day outside, it feels pretty darned good to be alive.
