Massage…ahh

 Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s hope 2021 has so many fantastic things in store for us that it at least partially makes up for the hardships of 2020, if that’s possible.

Yesterday was one of those days that’s a metaphor for how life usually is: good and bad all mixed together. You enjoy the good to the fullest extent possible, endure the bad with as much grace as you can, and get on with things. Mostly, it was a good day. I got to visit with my friend Anita, who is a licensed massage therapist who specializes in oncology massage. Now, if you’ve never had a professional massage, it’s something everyone should treat themselves to at least once. You never know how much tension your muscles are carrying around until someone starts working to relieve it. For me, a massage is one of life’s great, decadent pleasures. It’s like a whole body sigh. 😌

It had been over a year since the last time we were able to get together and since the last time she treated me. I was very much in need of her “Balanced Touch” (the name of her practice in West Palm). The only thing that marred our time together was the fact that I had not one, but two seizures. Considering how much time I spend at home, it’s frustrating that they had to happen during our visit. Fortunately for me, Anita isn’t the type to freak out because I’m having a seizure. She just did her best to make me comfortable and waited them out with me, after which we picked up where we’d left off as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It’s so good to have friends who aren’t scared off by the unpleasant parts of being terminally ill. 💗

I guess I should explain what my seizures are like, because they’re not anything like what I’d always pictured a seizure to be. From talking with friends, I know I’m not alone in that. I always thought seizures were a sort of whole body convulsion, but it turns out there are different kinds. My brain tumor causes what are called focal onset seizures. These are partial seizures that mostly affect one part of the body, in my case my right leg (since the tumor’s on the left side of my brain). I’d been having these for over a year before finally discovering they were caused by cancer. I’ve had back problems for years, and assumed the episodes of muscle spasms and loss of control over my right leg were caused by a couple herniated discs in my lower back. A brain tumor never even crossed my mind (and there’s a joke in there somewhere 😄). The big, protracted episode that led to finding the tumor went on for at least an hour. I can’t say exactly how long because the resultant swelling on my brain made my memory of that time pretty spotty…and mostly blank. I do know that I didn’t even call for help until it’d been going on for half an hour because up until then, they’d last for twenty minutes or so and then go away. I’d go on with my day, blithely ignorant of what was really happening.

So what did I learn? The old saying about what happens when you assume (ass-u-me) is pretty much true!