Every Rose Has Its Thorn

My second Taxol is complete! I didn’t have any problems with the first round besides minor fatigue so fingers are crossed it stays that way. My treatment day is usually Wednesday but because of the holiday I went in on Thursday this week. Boy, am I glad I did! I found out that the first Thursday of every month is donut day! So from now on I may have a scheduling issue with the first week of every month and demand a Thursday treatment day.

Besides the donuts, there is another reason I am super glad I was there today instead of yesterday. As I am sitting in my chair I caught a glimpse of a man with long blonde hair and a blue bandanna strutting in the room like he owned the place. Holy crap that’s Bret Michaels! I almost peed my pants. But it wasn’t. It was even better. It was a middle aged man who was having some fun with his hair loss situation and I was lucky enough that he sat in my row. He had the outfit complete with ripped jeans and pointy cowboy boots. (The attached picture is of Bret Michaels, not the dude from chemo today. I just want everyone to know what he looks like. I’m kicking myself for not taking picture of the dude from today.) It was one of the best things I’ve seen. And for five minutes, our whole row of chemo patients rolled with laughter. And for those five minutes, he gave us the gift of forgetting we were all sitting in there fighting for our lives while poison is being pumped into our bodies to kill the poison that isn’t supposed to be there. And that was a great gift.

That got me thinking about Every Rose Has Its Thorn. (For those who don’t know, Bret Michaels was in one of my favorite bands from the 80s called Poison and they had a song called Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Just so you know where the logic is coming from. I’m not completely nuts. All though the song is about a girl and a breakup and that is not where I am going with this. But work with me people.) Call me cheesy but I thought, “Huh, life is like a rose.” (Insert Forest Gump mockery here.) See life is a beautiful and fragile thing, like a rose. Sure it has it’s thorns but the important part is not to let those thorns interfere with admiring the beauty of the rose itself. If you do get pricked by a thorn, cuss a little then go back to admiring the beauty. And let’s not forget that the thorns are there for a reason. To protect the rose (like from your dumb ass that got pricked by it). In life, whatever thorns we are forced to overcome serve to protect us. They protect us from forgetting how fragile life can be and they serve as a reminder to enjoy the beauty that is our life. And they give us strength and courage. Thank you to the man today who turned one of his “thorns” into entertainment and laughter.

Love to all.