TGIF (Thank God It's Finished!)

The TBCC has become a familiar setting; a good place, a dreaded place. The chemo treatments friend and foe dressed in the same clothing. Often, the more you do, the sicker you feel. You dread the needles, the tests, the chemo, the endless pills - but you love how it kills the cancer. The chemicals that save practically kill you in the process. An ironic ally you love to hate.

Today was a momentous day as Charl underwent his last and final chemo treatment. In typical form, uncomplaining, he greeted the chatty nurses with a smile and a bared forearm, bracing himself for another injection of toxic chemicals (“poison sessions”, as Charl likes to call them) that frankly make him feel terrible.

It's what every cancer patient must do: suffer the ill-effects of treatment and focus on securing a positive outcome. It's the only way to go. But when someone has it worse than you, you see your circumstances in a different light. In fact, being a healthy person so close to this situation I feel that all patients are brave, no matter how they deal with it. The mere fact they wake up and walk through each day is bravery incarnate to me.

One of Charl's nurses told us of a man in his 30s who had to go through 13 rounds of chemo for his particular form of cancer. She told us that he got through all 12 rounds and didn't get nauseated until the 13th. The last one. We pondered how mentally strong he must have been, to withstand the onslaught of not only the physical trauma the body goes through ingesting all those toxic chemicals (in addition to the trials of the disease itself), but also the mental anguish of knowing you have so many more to go. 'Anticipatory nausea' they call it. The kind when you vomit just thinking about your upcoming treatment. Apparently he got to the parking lot of the TBCC for round #13, and up it came. A brave guy. Not because he didn't vomit until the last session, but brave to withstand the rigors of chemotherapy and the black pit of despair of facing an uncertain future - despite all efforts to manufacture a positive one.

Since then we have referred to that unnamed chemo patient on several occasions, comparing Charl's schedule of 6 treatments with his 13. That man became a tangible inspiration to us. His misery became our strength. We are both so thankful and glad to be done with this episode in our lives (Charl far more than me, I can assure you), but if Charl's story can be a tangible inspiration to someone carrying a heavy burden in their life, Amen to that.