Expectations.
What a complete pain in the arse they are. Why do we do it to ourselves? Why do we naturally set ourselves up with a whole load of expectations which rarely, if ever, match up. I have been guilty of this my whole life. I'm famous for my 'movie moment' imaginings and expectations that somehow a Richard Curtis style moment will happen upon my life and everything will be wonderful.
I've come to realise that this 'great expectation-itus' which I suffer from is probably linked to my positivity, because my positivity massively over rides any negativity in most situations and so stops me from being realistic. (It took hours of thinking, a chalkboard and some serious Einstein doodles to figure that one out). My 'great expectation-itus' theory states that instead of being realistic I over hype something to such an extent that I will only ever be disappointed, it is my positivity that is my actual downfall. I put great expectations onto almost everything - myself, my body, my relationships - I have these huge expectations that everything will be wonderful, that it's all going to be fine, gloriously Richard Curtis technicolor, fine. And it very rarely is.
Damn him and his wonderful movie moments. The simple truth is they do not happen. Life happens. And the only expectation we can really expect, is that it's going to be a bit crap sometimes, then other times it might be quite nice or good even. But that's where it ends.
Right now those highly positive expectations that everything will be fine, well they have evaporated. I am so over this C-monkey roller coaster. I want to get off. I want a cancer holiday. A break from all the crap in my head, a day when it's not in my thoughts. A respite from the niggling uncomfortable pain I still get. A time out from the daily view of what my body now looks like and the everyday exhaustion of convincing myself that everything looks fine. That I am fine. When the truth is there are days when I'm not fine. Not at all.
I would pay a serious amount of money to just go back, just for one day, to enjoy the old me, the old body that I gave such a hard time to - why can't I be thinner, a bit taller, more gazelle like and less chubby bambi?!. God I could slap myself for all the times I put my body down pre-BC. The truth is I'd give anything to go back and marvel at how truly brilliant it was. Not because it was perfect, but because it was mine, all mine and every wobble and curve was just the way it was supposed to be. I would go back and be so utterly grateful.
I am fully aware that I'm in a funk right now. This is not me. This is a tired, pissed off me. This is the me that has a horrible feeling that I am going to need another operation. Operation number sodding five. I've had an operation pretty much every other month now for the last seven months and I am beyond over it! Stop the ride I want to get off. Now!
And if one more person tells me I'm nearly there and that this will hopefully be the last one... well, I will just smile nicely then punch them in the face. Hard. Because that doesn't mean anything. Not any more. It's still another operation, its still more general anaesthetic being pumped in me, more recovery rooms and morphine shakes, more pain, more bruising, more swelling and adjusting to yet another scar. It just royally sucks ass in every way, every single time. And I'm exhausted from it all. Exhausted at trying to stay positive and exhausted from keeping those great expectations and the 'I'm fine' sing-a-long going.
Ok this funk is not a good one, but I don't care. I'm sitting right in it, like a teenager with a massive strop on. I am fed up. For anyone reading this about to tell me how lucky I am, I know ok! I know that I am lucky, lucky that it was caught early, lucky that my treatment is nearing an end, lucky that I'm even here to have a strop in the first place. I know all of that. I honestly do. I am grateful every single day for that. It will never leave me. I know there are millions of people who would swap everything they have to change places with me and be nearing the end of this crappy journey called Cancer, I know that and it make me hate it all the more.
That's right, I hate it! Absolutely, completely and utterly hate it. I hate that it was me, that it happened to me, that it's still happening to me. I hate that it's happened to anyone. I hate that horrible word and the way it can come in to your life and change everything, in one tiny horrifying moment.
I hate that it happened and I don't care if that makes me a bad person. Like the teenager who's slammed their bedroom door, turned up the music and screamed "I hate you" to their parents, I am raging at that god forsaken word and everything its' done to me - to everyone - its' ever affected.
So for now, my great expectations that everything will be ok, that my body will sort itself out, that the operations will come to an end, that I will be able to keep everything in check with a bucket of positivity - well they can take a running jump. Great Expectations do not belong here. Not today.
Today I am slamming my door. Turning up my music and screaming my head off.
I hate cancer. And no magical movie moment will ever make that ok.