Six L’s of Caring
and Coping
Laugh
By Dave Balch, Founder of The Patient/Partner Project
Note: Dave was caregiver for
his wife during her successful nine-month battle with breast cancer; now he is
on a full-time, personal mission to help other patients by helping their
partners. This series of articles
outlines some of the tools and techniques that helped them get through their
ordeal together.
One of
the most important things you can do to cope with the stress of serious illness
is to laugh. I’m not saying that cancer
is funny; it isn’t. You can, however,
find plenty of humor in some of the situations that you find yourself in
because of the cancer. Focus your
attention there, find something to laugh about, and laugh your head off. Here are some examples from our experience.
1. We were walking through the hospital parking
lot at 5:00am on our way to my wife’s big surgery; a mastectomy with
TRAM-flap
reconstruction. She would be on the
table for six hours followed by four days in the hospital, and we were
both
understandably a little nervous.
Suddenly, she stopped, let out a big yell, and said, “Oh, no! I
forgot to bring my boob!” She caught me off guard, but then I
yelled
back, “What do you mean? I’m right
here!”
We
looked at each other and laughed out loud, then proceeded to the admitting
office, feeling better about the situation.
2. A few months later, when she was about to
lose her hair due to the chemotherapy we went shopping for wigs. The sales lady was showing her wigs, eyebrow
replacements, eyelash replacements… it was amazing. I tried to sound innocent when I asked, “Do
you have anything to replace her mustache when it falls out??”
3. When her hair did start falling out, we
decided to make it into an event and we went to our stylist together. First her, then I, had him cut our hair into
Mohawks, then punk-style spikes, before finally shaving our heads down to the
nubs. We took photos and created a
general mayhem in the salon, laughing and getting most everyone involved.
4. After the final stage of reconstruction, her
doctor told her about a tattoo parlor where she could go to get her new nipple
colored to match the other one. It
happened to be in a rather shady part of town, and I imagined a couple of
burly, bearded, biker-types sneering as they colored-in my wife’s new
nipple. I said, to no one in particular,
“I wonder how they’re going to get ‘Mamma Never Loved Me’ into such a small
space…”
The
humor is there, you just have to look for it.
Sometimes it takes some work, but you’ll find it.
Here is the most important
thing to remember: after you laugh, nothing has changed… but you feel better.
Dave Balch founded The
Patient/Partner Project, which is focused on helping other patients by helping
their partners. Visit www.ThePatientPartnerProject.org
for Internet resources and services for patients and partners, including free
online progress reporting for family and friends and a free email mini-course
of “Six ‘L’s’ of Caring and Coping.” You
can contact Dave at Dave@ThePPP.org or
toll-free at 1-8-MORAL SUPPORT (1-866-725-7877) ã 2004, Dave Balch. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED