Later this month will mark 14 years since I was diagnosed with Cancer. A lot has changed, yet so much has remained the same. They pulled me out of work a week after diagnosis and I haven’t been able to return since. Chemotherapy wasn’t that hard while I was having it, but in between treatments it made me so sick in the later parts of it. Just after chemo, I managed to fall and hurt my back. A few years later I went to spinal therapy and managed to repair my lower back but the problems with the middle of my back can not be fixed so I’m stuck the way I am. Initially, the boredom got to me so bad I decided to return to online college to give me something to do and my dumb ass decided to work on two associate’s degrees at the same time. I managed to obtain my degrees but at a great cost with student debt and another matter that brings my degrees into question. A few years after I completed, the college I went to got itself into some trouble and had to close down. There were rumors that the entire place was a scam and not accredited so I’m unsure if my degrees are even worth the paper they are printed on, all while still owing the shit ton of student loans. The college was originally bought out by a competitor and closed down shortly after the rumors started.
Fast forward a few uneventful years and things hadn’t changed much. I was put in touch with what I thought originally was a group therapy type place to help with my depression, but turned out to be so much more. I’ve made many friends there and it gave me something to do with my days. This all changed in 2020 due to the pandemic but I’m still in contact with people and making the best of a bad situation. Speaking of 2020, amidst the problems I started physical therapy for my bad again, and for three months would go twice a week. Not only did it help with the pain and movement, but it also taught me how to continue on my own and work at my flexibility so I can now do things I haven’t been able to do in a decade. I wish my insurance would have paid for a bit longer, but I got about as much as I could from it and I can’t complain about the progress I made.
The pandemic has made everything kind of blur together even more than they used to and it’s hard to judge time anymore. My physical therapy ended just before the summer and things went back to normal boredom. No group, no therapy, no college, nothing to do and nowhere to go. I’m not really going to go into the pandemic or anything about it since enough people, more important than me, have already said everything. I will say, I’m one of the people that believe in wearing a mask, keep your social distance, and listen to the fucking doctors and scientists. There are still people out there that think it’s a hoax or a government plan of some kind and sadly, no matter how much truth, science, explanations you give them, there is no changing their mind.
I guess the last thing I’ll talk about for now is that I had a milestone birthday a couple of months ago, but due to Covid I couldn’t really celebrate so now that a vaccine is becoming available I think I may have a ‘do-over’ this summer and plan something for then. Most of my friends from high school are about the same age, so a good handful had the same milestone during the pandemic and maybe we can get together this year.