You always hear people say "What if you got hit by a bus...?", often as a warning that a random event could snuff you out when you least expect it. I don't personally know anyone who has been hit by a bus, and statistically, I'm sure that the number of people hit by buses is pretty small (in Washington, there are an average of 3.2 fatalities/year involving transit buses - Transportation Research Institute, 2001). In that context, people with cancer know deep down that sooner or later (and hopefully later), the cancer will finally catch up with them. I don't mean to be morbid, but statistically, many cancers and particularly those that reach Stage IV, are ultimately fatal. All of us in that Stage IV category hope to stay on and beat the odds, but there's always that bus out there with your name on it too.
In my case, today it was a car in the supermarket parking lot, and not a bus. As I was waiting to cross the road in front of the supermarket to enter the store, a car behind me that was backing out of a handicapped parking space hit me and knocked me down so that I was partially under the car. Before you panic, I'm OK - I managed to do nothing more than wipe the dirt off the bumper (not as dramatic as the "killer ice chest" episode in the July 1 post - really, I'm NOT an accident prone person!). The driver of the car was an old woman who seemed a bit incoherent, and not at all apologetic about running me over..."What were you doing behind my car...?". "Mam, I was waiting to cross the road - you backed over me...." That was about it for the conversation - she took off out of the parking lot, perhaps grateful that I didn't appear to be hurt. I have a partial on the license plate, but didn't get the make or model of the car, but really, I'm pretty happy that I didn't get hurt and at this point, don't plan on going any further with this (technically, this could be regarded as a "hit and run"). I hope that the woman who hit me has some time to think about today and plan life a little more carefully tomorrow.
You may remember that I'm getting on a plane tomorrow to head off to New York to get my Dad married off and spend a few weeks visiting family and friends there. I've been fretting a little about missing two treatments while on vacation, but my oncologist says I deserve to have a decent break - the two missed treatments will probably hardly be noticeable and the therapeutic value of being away from chemotherapy and cancer will more than make up for it. It seems a little silly right now to have been concerned about missing the treatments and maybe losing some ground against my tumors - after all, things could have been worse today - I could have been hit by a bus...
I'll try to write at least once while I'm away - it will be a different kind of update - no treatment news or marker numbers - you probably need a break from it too.
