being alone ans scared and missing rodney dec 2010

this is a fb message to a fairly well-known "cancer-lebrity". after bec's cancer-soulmate and confidant, rodney, died, there was a massive void in her world. she reached out to those whom she hoped could help her fill that void. she never talked to me about dying. she always wanted to spare me any worry....as if!




have you guys done stupid cancer shows about terminal patients? death, all that?

do you know anyone currently, young, and with that kind of diagnosis that perhaps is a good chatty person? i'm sorta in a huge freakout mode here and i just don't know what to do/think/say etc.

not that anyone told me i'm terminal. noone told me to get ready to die soon. but nothing has been going my way (to put it mildly and cutely) and after pretty much 5 years of having to deal with this, i've actually come to a point where its harder and harder to keep holding on to that good ol' hope idea. i am strong, and a fighter, and all that, but it'd be nice to every now n then just have a bone thrown to me. y'know. just gimmie a slight inkling that its not as bad as my minds' eye sees every time i get a second to let my mind wander.

i had a really really good friend that had stage 4 colon cancer i grew really close to. he passed away in august. since he's been gone i've come to realize not just that i was really close to him but that he was pretty much the ONLY...literally the absolute only person on this earth that i could actually talk to in full...talk about all my thoughts, be they morbid, silly, sick, stupid, scary, whatever. i thought i had others who i could talk to like that (or maybe i thought i was so "open" and communicative of a person that i could find anyone to talk to in that manner) so since he's been gone i've realized just how untrue that was.

i know lots of survivors and current patients. but most everyone i know is either well past their treatments and diagnosis living much more cancer-free than i. or they're just undergoing treatments or surgery and things are going well enough and they weren't as severe as i apparently was (i guess i like to think i wasn't too bad off. maybe that was that good ol' hope i had so much of). so i find when i try to talk about the crazy things in my head i find they don't relate or can't relate or its just not appropriate to approach as a topic with them.

other "survivors" have gone through their share of crazy shit with cancer and surgeries and treatments. but they're not in the thick of it.  So if i wanted to turn to them and talk about my fear of one day getting up, and the next thing i know i'm rendered incapacitated by some side effect of the cancer and not being able to speak for myself and being stuck in a hospital on machines in a horrible state until i die...well, as soon as i open my mouth i shut it b/c they're such damn positive people, they're gonna give me an answer that (while may be a wonderful understanding nonjudgmental caring answer) will probably make me feel even worse or want to punch them in the face.
the friend that i lost in august, we could talk about these morbid types of things with all honesty and bluntness, i never felt or feared he'd think i was too pessimistic or whatever.
i've tried psychotherapist types when i was rediagnosed in 2008 and i hated it. i guess mostly b/c i knew this person would never give me the answers i wanted to hear (which was how i could be rid of this cancer permanently) so i never really looked into therapy shit again.
but i don't really know what to do. sit here with scary crazy thoughts in my head that i can't share with the only person i could consider close to me at this moment (which is my mom) b/c i don't want to worry or scare her anymore than i know she is.
i just thought...you know, for once, imerman angels isn't gonna be of use to me. i don't want to hear from someone who's been there and made it to the other end rah-rah yay go team go! kinda shit.
i need to be able to talk to people who A) aren't going to feel bad for me or god forbid say the line "well, i know its no where near or can't compare to what you are going through or must be feeling right now, but..."
(i absolutely HAATTTEEE when people, even cancer survivors i know, put that in ANY part of our conversation)
and B) truly honestly know what i'm talking about. I dont have a husband or kids of my own. so i don't have the "i must be brave and fight to stay alive to see my kids grow up, or to grow old with my husband"
i'm young, single, i never got to have a career, i never got to do half the things many people feel entitled to (own a home, have a new car, follow my lifes dream, be married, have kids, pursue a passion, blah blah blah)
i talk to so many survivor types or current patient-types who even though they are young, i cannot relate to them whatsoever. i'm covered in tattoos. i grew up going to hip hop shows. i live in the middle of the city with a roommate. i've never lived in any other place but here. i've never owned a car within the same decade that we are in. grew up poor, pretty much have always been eeking on middle class. was the first child to get a college degree (and i'm the youngest in my fam, two older brothers, well....)
barely anyone i've met relates to me much.
sorry. i did not intend this to be so long, i swear. its like word vomit. it just pours out of me sometimes when i least expect it :)
anyway. the basic gist of this mssg was just, do you know anyone that i may be able to connect with?

sincerely

Me.