by David
In the fall of 1978, I was a happy go lucky high school senior. Soon I would be was so sick and would be hospitalized twice for dehydration. I just wanted all the tests to stop and to have a diagnoses. That's when I learned be careful what you wish for. One morning the doctor entered my room and said you have a brain tumor, to which I replied "you've got to be kidding." He looked at me blinking like an old episode of Bob Newhart and said "no, no I would not kid about something like that." His seriousness made me laugh so hard saying, "wait a minute I thought you had to have a brain first." This led to a private meeting out in the hallway with my parents who explained to him that I knew exactly what was going on, and humor and laughter was going to be my way of dealing.
My tumor turned out to be inoperable after opening up the back of head. There was no chemo back then so that left things up to radiation. Long story short, immediately I used body, mind, and spirit to fight, and humor and laughter as my best medicine. That was 33 yrs ago and for the last 31 yrs as a KC cancer volunteer I have had the honor and privelage of being welcomed into the lives of the newly diagnosed to spread my humor, laughter, and positive attitude. By the way, other than being around to raise three beautiful children the next best thing is volunteerism.
