Post Written by Bob Drummond:
My fellow cancer survivors
have noted that this forced quarantine feels familiar from our chemo
treatments: masks, gloves, super careful about germs, living in sweats.
It has occurred to me that
our eventual reentry to post-COVID real life will be similar. With
cancer, there is no one moment when you can celebrate the end. Even after
chemo ends. It can take weeks for your body and mind to feel normal. Even
after you are done with treatment, there are still five years of follow-up
tests, scans and doctor visits. It was hard to know how to and when to
celebrate. So I learned to celebrate the little victories: my first
cup of coffee or taste of chocolate after chemo (both tasted terrible on
chemo), the day I could get back to the swimming pool at the YMCA, my first
beer, my hair growing back…all of these were small victories over time that
were signposts that I was getting back to “normal” and I was mindful to
celebrate each one of them.
I think our post-COVID life
will be similar. There will not be a moment-in-time when “it will be all
over.” There will not be a communal celebration, like the 4th
of July. More likely there will be a series of small victories over days
and months: returning to work, seeing friends and family in person, coffee
in a real coffee shop, going to the mall to buy some pants, a return to the
gym, worshipping together in the same space.
I think we better start
emotionally and mentally preparing ourselves to recognize, appreciate and
celebrate each small step toward normalcy, as they slowly come. Then, one
day, we may realize that our “normal life” has mostly returned.
