LAUGHING OUR WAY THRU LUNG CANCER.
I went to daddy’s grave a few weeks ago. I placed two stones on his grave. One said Peace and the other said Laugh. I had bought a bag of stones with words on them: My mother asked why I chose those two stones out of the bag. I guess Daddy had been through so much in his life and as he approached death that I really wished him peace. I chose laugh because we did so much of it. We laughed through his open heart surgery. We laughed through the removal of his lung, we laughed through renal failure and we laughed through chemotherapy. Near the end, we even left through hospice and death. I’m not sure how healthy that is, but it’s what got us through, that and the love from family and friends.
When the times got tough, our humor got darker and darker. Mom often commented that she hoped none of the nurses heard our jokes or there would be a social worker in the room and no time. Dad had a wonderful ability to laugh at himself and laugh with us over all the crazy things that struck is funny when we were under so much pressure. Somehow the harder things got, The more we laughed.
With the help of our cell phones, we often passed the Utime taking funny pictures of each other. We had a lot of time on our hands in those hospital rooms. I thought I would share some of our hospital and cancer humor. Don’t judge us. Inappropriate laughter is what got us through and maybe what helped Daddy last so long. We did a lot of laughing during those four years after he got his diagnosis.
I know it sounds crazy, but that’s what happened and that’s how we coped.
Dad never lost that sense of humor. The very last time I brought him to the ER, he could barely breathe. When the nurse asked him if he had any pain, he lifted his weak shaking arm….. And pointed to my Mother.
Laughing my Way Through Rheumatoid Disease and Life 