For those of you that are reading my blog for the first time you must know that I come from an Italian family. We've been known to be loud, judgmental and at times unreasonable, the flip side is we are passionate people. As loud as my heritage can be we are full of love and we have a wicked sense of humor. If there's a joke to be played we're doing it because everybody loves to laugh. As you know when you are diagnosed with cancer there's nothing funny about it. I had to cut off my breasts, lose my hair, have chemo and none of it good as one can imagine. That being said I have found humor in the journey ... and laughing my friends is a wonderful thing. Like the time my Father asked me if my hair was falling out yet. Before I could answer he grabbed onto my hair and pulled out a fist full. My Italian Mother M-F'd him all the way out of the kitchen and escorted him out my front door with strict instructions not to return for the rest of the day. And off my Dad drove. Now I can take the funny out of that and snicker when I think about what a "Mama Bear" my Mother was protecting her baby. The first time My Father saw me without hair he cried. Big strong Italian man broke down in tears, his daughter was sick. He let me know it was difficult for him to see me without my wig. But there came a time at the end of my treatments that I was ready to go without the wig. I knew it made a ton of people uncomfortable to see me without my hair but I was done. My Dad and I were watching the Chicago Cubs together (as we have for years), I sat up and said Dad I'm sorry but I'm done with the wig I just can't wear it anymore. I threw it on the table, dozed off and woke up to my Dad wearing my wig with a Cubs hat on top of it! I laughed so hard and still do to this day, that vision is priceless. You see humor on the journey make memories. Now please be patient the camel toe is coming. You must know I have a typical curvy Italian body, booty, (my used to be) boobs, thighs, all of it very round. This is where the "camel toe thing" comes into play. Most Italian women don't have a camel toe, I'm not trying to be funny I'm just being honest. It's just not a part of our genetic make up ... fast forward to my most recent reconstructive surgery in September my surgeon sucked the fat out of my thighs to (add to my boobs) and boom like magic for the first time in my life I have a camel toe! Now a girl like me has to take any good out of this " Breast Cancer Thing" she can and run with it, so I'm sharing. My girlfriends and I have had endless laughter about this ... crying and laughing and laughing and crying. Why am I discussing my camel toe? Because I want to encourage all women battling Breast Cancer to find humor in the battle. Laugh at yourself, laugh at others, laugh at whatever you can whenever you can. Cancer's not a laughing matter but laughter is proven to be one of the best forms of medicine. Now you know I wasn't going to end this blog without making you laugh one more time so here I go. I think it's only fitting that you should know my surgeon is Egyptian. That's right my Egyptian surgeon gave me a camel toe. Yep that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
No comments:
Post a Comment