Tuesday, September 24, 1985
Daily Nebraskan
Cancer scare helps put life's
Important stuff in perspective
ml iLI.. 1 i i' . . . . .
mi a tnlHInn ffilnrta I want t'n
inure v o iuiivii ninif,.. Hunk vw
do before I die, but I figured I'd better
narrow my scope a little. So, neatly
tucked away in my drawer labeled
"Important Stuff" Is a list of 100 things I
want to accomplish in my lifetime. I
want to publish a novel, do the Ironman
Triathlon in Hawaii, iouna a center ior
missing children, have my grandmother
tell me her life story, cycle across the
United States, go to Denmark. I have
the most sincere intentions of accomp
lishing these things all 100 and then
some, if 1 have time.
I pull out the list about once a
month or so to see how I'm progressing.
Although I'm not able to accomplish a
lot of the things at this point In my life,
looking at my list gives me a certain
kind of motivation. I've been keeping
this list since I was in the second
grade. It's been revised several times
(that's good, because otherwise one of
my goals would still be to be chosen
captain of the kickball team at third
period lunch). The point is, no matter
how many different goals I've set for
myself and then changed, I've always
had some, and I've always believed I'd
have the time and determination to
accomplish them.
Cheryl .
Petersen
Last spring I looked at the list and
laughed at myself for being so pre
sumptuous. Then I cried and tore the
list up into the smallest pieces I could.
A doctor in a yellow lab coat had just
told me he thought I had bone cancer.
Don't get me wrong. This isn't a
"poor me" story. If it were, I wouldn't
have the right to ask you to read this.
After all, everyone has problems and
mine aren't any more important than
yours. But what I learned from this
whole ordeal may help you or interest
you.
As it turned out, this doctor was
mistaken in his diagnosis (I should
have known. Good doctors don't wear
yellow lab coats). In the days between
his mistaken diagnosis and when I
found out my poor health was due to
somet hing very common and very cura
ble, I learned a lot about the power of
the mind over the body and the power
of the body over the mind.
Being a runner and an all-around
klutz, I'm pretty used to an injury every
now and then, either running too much
or tripping up the stairs or something.
So when my legs began to hurt last
winter I really didn't think much of it. I
had started running with a group of
IvT 1
women who were a bit out of mv Ipaima
and I attributed my pain to my efforts
to keep up with them. After about a
month of this, I gave up running with
the group. I just couldn't keep up, and
If I even tried to keep up I could
hardly walk the next day. I vowed to
take up all kinds of weight programs
and running workouts on my own to
improve enough to run with the group
again. I did, but my legs still hurt.
Quit Running
I quickly dismissed the thought of
seeing a doctor because I knew exactly
what heshe would say. "Quit run
ning." Looking back, that would not
have been altogether bad advice, but at
the time I was blinded by a crazy
obsession to run. The funny thing is
that I wasn't then, am not now, and
probably never will be a top-notch
runner, but the competitive spirit in
me would not let me quit. Instead of
having a doctor tell me to quit running,
I waited for my body to tell me no,
insist that I quit.
For four weeks I didn't run one step,
I drove to class, and stayed off my feet
as much as possible. I swam laps to
stay in shape, I ate all the "right"
foods, I took vitamins, I used ice packs
and heating pads. At the end of four
weeks of my own "therapy" I foolishly
tried to run. I couldn't even make it out
of the driveway. Still in' mismatched
socks and inside-out sweats, I called
every doctor in town until I found one
that could see me right away. Not
shopping for a good doctor was just as
big a mistake as not going to one in the
first place.
I told Dr. Quack (not his real name,
of course, but more appropriate than
his real name considering his yellow
lab coat and lack of medical expertise)
the whole story and he ran a bunch of
tests. The whole while he was telling
me that yoga was really the best kind of
exercise. I told him I'd never seen
many people run a marathon who
trained by doing yoga. He snorted when
he laughed and asked what a marathon
was.
I went back to his office two days
later to find out the results of the tests.
That's when he told me he thought I
had a form of cancer. He recommended
that I see another doctor. I calmly lis
tened to him and then walked out of
the office. At home, I took my list out of
the drawer and looked at the first item
which I expected to complete before
the others. The Ironman Triathlon.
Without talking to anyone or allowing
myself to think at all, I immediately
went out to run. I don't know how far or
how fast I ran, but I didn't get back
until well past dark. I couldn't even
feel my legs. My mind hfid blocked out
the pain, just as it had blocked out all
thoughts of what Dr. Quack had told
me.
I picked up the list from my desk
and looked at the other 99 coals I'd set.
That's when I cried and tore it up.
Interestingly enough, that's also when
my legs began to throb again. I went
through the whole ridiculous process
of feeling sorry for myself, only making
it worse by not telling anyone and by
assuming that I was going to die within
a month. When I was through crying I
felt so angry, so enraged. What had I
done wrong? I didn't do drugs, I didn't
smoke, I exercised, I ate rice cakes and
yogurt. How could possibly be sick?
Exactly at that moment, I made up
my mind that I wasn't. Of course, just
telling myself that I wasn't sick wasn't
what made the "cancer" go away. I
mean, I never had it in the first place,
but I didn't know that then. My change
in attitude was so abrupt. It changed
everything for me in a matter of min
utes and 1 was able to think rationally
again. For the first time, I think I real
ized a small part of what terminally ill
and permanently handicapped people
have to go through to go on with their
lives. I admire them and, frankly, I
think their outlook and attitudes toward
life are often much better than the rest
of the "normal" world.
I made a list of numbers to call the
next morning to find a good doctor to
straighten this mess out. As I've already
said, things turned out great. I'm lucky,
and I know it now, but I didn't realize it
before this ordeal. It's cliche to say
that you don't know what you've got
until it's gone (or you think it's gone),
or that if you've got your health you've
got everything. Now I know why those
cliches have survived. They're true.
New Outlook
I can't say I'm glad I had this expe
rience, but I sure do look at things
differently now. This experience doesn't
make me smarter or better than anyone
else. It just gave me some insight and I
feel a lot happier and more content
now.
., I had never realized the importance
of having a good doctor that you trust,
that bad things can happen to good (or
basically good) people, that you can't
put off accomplishing your goals, and
that you have to keep things in per
spective. We're all guilty of these things, but I
think the college population may be
even moreso. We get so caught up in
our college lives, we forget there is
another world out there. Students
commit suicide over bad grades or
other pressures. Girls think their lives
are just over if they don't have a date
to the sorority ball. Sure, these things
seem important at the time. They are
but not that important. We need to
keep it all in perspective. Most of us
have a lot of years ahead of us to do, or
try to do, all the things we want to do.
But some of us don't. The catch is, we
don't know which of us do and which of
us don't.
STB
Ay M w$y
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Rec Scoreboard
Results from cross country meet
last Friday:
Men's 1. Marc Adam, Beta Alpha
Psi, 12:26; 2. Jim Fuller, Chi Phi, 12:30.
Men's team Warriors.
Women's 1. Sharon Mahlman,
Sandoz 3, 18:07; 2. Linda Jakub, Inde
pendent, 21:32.
Womens team Sandoz 3.
Co-Rec 1. Mark Wiehtman and
Sharon Mahlman; 2. Steve Gordon and
Linda Jakub.
Men's, women's and co-rec archery
will be today and Wednesday at Mabel
LppSM s -j
hU auvaiice eniry is requireu.
Today is the entry deadline for men's
iu women's fast pitch softball tour
nament, men's flag football, co-rec
? soccer and men's and women's darts,
ptries are taken at the Office of Cam
pus Recreation, 1740 Vine St.
j Men's slow pitch softball re
sults: ?naPhi EpsilonB - 9, Chi Phi B - 4
hl Kappa Psi 8, Chi Phi B 4
Jamokes-Hansen - 11, Anug - 10
gver Rats -17, Team Name -12
f wctriQ Company 18, Wish We
I Could 9
Untouchables - 8, Sodbusters - 3
V
AT o
Ms
JEWELERS
N
ow, At Gateway . . .
Tom & Mary Wright take pride in announcing the expansion of
Wright's Jewelers. We have opened a second location in the Ben
Simon's store at the Gateway Mall.
The Wright's Jewelers at Ben Simon's Gateway, while new, is the
same Wright's fine quality and service.
We invite you to visit either our downtown or gateway store for all
your jewelry needs.
1 1
1MJS
HEMBEi
JEWELERS
Niof mcsicfl.inc
Downtown
Corner of 13th & P
Gateway
at Ben Simon's
f J A.
V GEM SO0'
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