The Roller Coaster
This morning is a post I have had in draft for a while, and it is for any and all of you cancer survivors, those living from transfusion to transfusion, or those who are newly diagnosed with a blood disorder.
The reason the roller coaster ride is such an apt metaphor for MDS and the other conditions is well illustrated in this picture. A winch tows the train of cars up to the apex of the acme, the highest point, and then gravity takes over. Wheeeee down you go, and back up - just not quite as high, then down again, and back up, moving more slowly as on each successive rise you don't go quite as high, and you loose inertia. Physics.
Entropy you can ride in.
So strap yourself in and enjoy the ride after the jump
Soundtrack
With MDS, you think that if your blood labs come back with your numbers up from last time, whoopeee! maybe I am getting better! But an insidious form of entropy is at work, and you are really slowing down, and loosing inertia. Elation followed by despair. Maybe you change your Meds, and see what happens. Sometimes Vidaza works when Dacogen didn't do squat but make you puke.
Sometimes you can enter a state of remission, where your refinery starts chugging along like it is supposed to, and then falters again. With a stem cell transplant, things get a bit more complicated. There are many more variables, and meds that must be balanced to reach the "New Normal" state.
A Question of Balance:
Mankind loves to reduce events to a tension and balance between opposites. Good/Evil, Yin/Yang, day/night, black dog/white dog.
and my personal favorite, The Two Great Principles of the Universe;
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| Friction and |
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| Lubrication. |
So while the sound track plays out, why not comment in the box about your MDS, or stem cell/bone marrow transplant ride, Great Roller Coasters you have ridden, or the Great Principles of the Universe.
Chris
Happy New Year Chris and Annie….keep the Faith.
ReplyDeleteLet me see, greatest roller coaster was "The Red Badge of Courage" one at 6 flags, GA. It cured me of ever riding one ever again.ever. as for MDS, I haven't had your kind but have had MDS--Multiple [kinds of] DepressionSyndrome, and found the only treatment for this condition is, well, balance. I get by with a little help from my friends. Carol King said it best, "When you're down and troubled and you need some lovin' care. . ." you've got a friend, Chris, in me and the many other friends who are here for you and annie, always. Here's a great principle of the universe, from Walker Percy who had this one word posted on his writing desk: WAIT. last but not least, Rumi says, while you're waiting, "take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do." Susan
ReplyDeleteHang in there guys. Quite an amplitude to those peaks and valleys on this ride. Always good hearing from you, and wishing you strength and love in the new year.
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