I’m reminded on this first day of Melanoma Awareness Month how truly fortunate I’ve been. Thanks to a bunch of great docs at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, I’m still above ground and blogging nearly eight years after receiving a Stage IIIc diagnosis, with a warped sense of humor about my journey still intact. With best wishes to all, particularly you parrotheads, I’ll kick off “our” month with some new lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s “Changes in Latitudes”…
I took off for a beach trip last month
Just to try and forget some old fears
All of the clinics and all of the cynics
Wonderin’ if they will reappear
I didn't ponder my future too long
I was lazy and sat under my hut
Hidin’ out from the sun with a cool drink of rum
And I wound up restin’ my butt
It’s these changes in gratitude, changes in attitude
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of our hoping and all of our coping
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane
Reading department signs in some big clinic
Reminds me of the places I’ve been
Visions of bad times that brought so much terror
I don’t want to go back again
If I suddenly recurred tomorrow
I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and stitches and docs earnin’ riches
I’ve seen more than I can recall
These changes in gratitude, changes in attitude
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all of the scanning and end of our tanning
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane
Reminded of cancer when seein’ those doctors
I think I could jump from a plane
All of the time I just want more remission
God I wish I was sunnin’ again
Oh, yesterday’s over my shoulder
So I can't look back for too long
There's just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I know that I just will live long
With these changes in gratitude, changes in attitude
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all our surviving and all of our fighting
If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane
If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane
If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane
Please observe this month by making a donation to your favorite melanoma nonprofit organization to support melanoma education, prevention, and treatment research. My own selfishly preferred cause is the Lewis Melanoma Research Fund at The University of Colorado Foundation, and you’ll find a secure donation link on the right hand side of this page. With a really big donation you can single handedly kill this blog.
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