Friday, July 14, 2006

The C Word

There is a C word that's worse than the one ending in "unt" (which, by the way, my 4 year old uttered rather loudly at TKD yesterday while reading a list in Alphaphonics: "unt, hunt, punt, bunt. . ." And no, it wasn't on the list; it was a read-o.)

The C word is the one that we never uttered when my dad got sick; the one we all tap-danced around; the elephant in the room, looming there ominously, knowing that we saw it and were afraid to say its name. Or perhaps we were just taking a boat-ride down that long river in Egypt (de Nile), while steadfastly ignoring the fact that
Charon was piloting the craft. The C word is a dirty word. No one likes to use it, and certainly not in the context of it affecting anyone they know. If you do say it, you sort of cringe, and look around self-consciously to see if anyone's glaring at you, and then you make yourself small so that hopefully people will ignore you or forget who said it.

Yesterday John went to the doctor to get a suspicious-looking spot on his arm checked out. The doctor didn't like the look of it at all, and cut it off for a biopsy. We'll find out the results on Monday. On the plus side, if the C word is involved, the doctor said that this has the look of the very mildest sort - the least invasive.

Strangely enough, at our house we are irreverent even about things like this. As GuTTer MuNKi lay napping (allergies are BAD this year) we stole in to bag some of Sluggie's b-day presents for tomorrow. Monsieur mUNki awoke and I asked if we could turn on the light, or if he still needed to rest. He didn't want the light and Mollusc exclaimed, "don't turn on the light! He'll get skin cancer!" That's her second good one in a week. (The first involved and ancient woman and her ancient van who were determined to keep us from doing the speed limit.)


This week the kids were invited to Vacation Bible School at the church of friends of ours. They had a GREAT time, despite the fact that every time the big kid in the crocodile suit came in, The Prawn would start crying. The first night when we went to pick them up after TKD, she was looking a bit weepy. I asked her if she had had a good time, and she nodded vigorously through her tears, LOL! Tonight, they got her out of there before Mr. Croc put in his appearance. And then she showed him to me and watched him take off his suit. They all got to make fun crafts, sing songs and play games. I think they're bummed that it's over, and now Sluggie, at least, wants to do the Patch the Pirate club that starts up again next September. We shall see. It's a lovely church full of really REALLY good people, but not the exact flavour of my choice. I don't really fit anywhere, to tell the truth. Not that I've heard of yet, anyway.

GuTTeR mUNki and I had a private lesson at red belt class tonight. No one else showed. :-/ This summer, attendance at adult class has really been down. That said, last night's class was the biggest I've seen all summer- 10 people. I think our biggest ever (that we've been in) was 14, maybe 15. On the plus side, with only 2 of us tonight, we pulled out the crash pad for self-defense and did real throws. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! **WHUMP**

13 comments:

Logophile said...

My mom is a breast cancer survivor. Diagnosed 7 years ago, and been clear over 5 years.
Humor is our coping mechanism too, be thinking of you though, that is not fun.
hugs!

Toby said...

My dad is a lung cancer survivor, even though he only has 1.5 lungs. They found it when he had his "mild" heart attack. Call me strange, but a heart attack is a heart attack unless you die before you hit the ground. Best wishes for John.

Tell me Candace, the "c" word for the ancient woman, was it THE "C" word. I'm cracking up.

"I asked her if she had had a good time, and she nodded vigorously through her tears, LOL!"

I can see it.

jlmack said...

Keeping my fingers crossed for you and John. When my dad got really sick a few years ago, I flew home within days for the surgery. It was really scary but there's one thing he always taught me for situations like this; don't worry about what might not happen. I didn't and it didn't. My dad is healthier than I can ever rememeber him being now at 63.
As for that other c word... it's so much fun coming up with words from phonics. Hee! I taught 5 year olds for years and the fun never ended. Right now, my niece (who's a year and a half) keeps trying to say clock. It comes out as cock.

C said...

That's fantastic, Logo! Thanks for the tea and sympathy (and good wishes). :-)

Toby - more good news. :-) And thanks. :-)

Well the c word and the ancient woman were 2 diff events. The Prawn uttered the C word very loudly during Big Kid class while I was doing her reading lesson with her. She was misreading a list of "unt" words, LOL! The ancient woman incident was Mollusc. When we passed and saw the mummified old lady who was driving the extremely battered van, Mollusc said, "Wow. She must have gotten that car for her 7th birthday." LOL!

Jai - thank you. Wow - so many positive stories. That's awesome!! :-)

Haha! 5-year-olds are a riot, aren't they? :-)

muthacomputer said...

We have the same rule at my house, but for the L Word. Nobody talks about it, but somehow, the show always seems to get Tivo'd?

Oh my, hopefully it's nothing serious Candace! I too will be crossing my fingers for you guys!

Karen Little said...

You know, I find sometimes things are a little less scary when you just say them out loud. It sort of brings them down to size, makes them into a simple little noun that you can manage and tackle head on. Talking around them and hiding from them gives them lots more credit and power than they deserve.

Think of the Harry Potter series - whilst everyone is terrified of He Who Shall Not Be Named, Harry just plunges right in and calls him Voldemort, someone and something that can be beaten, and not just appeased.

Good luck! I'm sure it'll all be just fine ;)

begins with v said...

I like what karen little said about the naming of things--cool way of thinking about it...I have said a little prayer that the C-word never escapes the doctor's lips...keep your head up girlfriend.

C said...

Poly, LOL! Be sure your Tivo will find you out. Thanks for the well wishes. :-)

Karen, you have a really good point there. We've been using the C word this time around, and pretty matter of factly, too. But with my dad it seemed like such a dirty word. We said things like "malignant" and "metastasized" but never "cancer." Isn't that weird? Maybe because he actually had cancer and we didn't want to think about the implications. (Oooh now I have the Men at Work song going through my head, LOL!) But your Voldemort comparison is right on.

And thanks for the encouraging words. :-)

Thanks for your prayers, Slade. I had kind of a defeatist attitude praying about it, initially, like "please don't let it be cancer even though it probably is, and is it even realistic to be asking this?" Ack. Though it's still possible it's not, I'm dwelling a lot on what the doc said about it being the "best" kind.

Zoeyjane said...

i agree with karen's point. when my dad, though ultimately not a survivor, was diagnosed a year and a half ago with lung cancer, we just let it all hang out. we both found that talking around the issue made it a much bigger issue than it was. and i'm thankful that we got to be so open because denial of it would have made it so much harder to deal with in the end.

i'm not a pray-er or anything, but i'm thinking of you (and jon) - i know how scary, especially, the waiting can be.

egan said...

Best of luck Candace. This is never a good thing. I hope everything turns out well for you and your family.

BlondeBlogger said...

I DESPISE the "C" word. I lost my aunt to breast cancer and my uncle to lung cancer. I've known many, young friends who have died from it or are survivors.

I pray that your husband's test come back negative. Please keep us posted.

tshsmom said...

You guys are in my prayers!!!

GuTTer MuNKi said...

Good News!!

Today's word is the 'B' word, for Benign. Thanks everyone for the good wishes. Now I can get back to some serious GuTTeR mUNki activities.

-John