Читать книгу Above and Beyond - J.S. Dorian - Страница 78

“Comparison, more than reality, makes man happy or wretched.”

THOMAS FULLER

You talk to a woman who had the same kind of cancer that you have. She was diagnosed and treated quickly and three months later her cancer was in remission; no surgery, no radiation. Your hopes soar and so do your expectations. Then you hear about someone else who was diagnosed in January and died in March. Your hopes vanish, your expectations turn wholly negative, and you fear that death is inevitable and imminent.

Obviously, comparisons of this sort are not in our best interest. The single most important factor in dealing with cancer or any other life-threatening illness is that nothing is typical.

Certainly, there is no typical patient; we all have different experiences. In the case of cancer, for example, there are not only many different forms, but also different levels. Symptoms also are different for each of us; so too are the preferred treatments and our responses to those treatments.

To be sure, we can learn a lot by listening to the experiences of others. However, it’s essential that we do so objectively and with a degree of detachment; otherwise, we are likely to turn our open minds into closed ones.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

I can’t assume that my illness will behave and respond exactly like someone else’s illness.