[PopUpCommontater]
....Time 2006 Man of the Year :>I'm Living Proof that Laughter *Is* the Best Medicine!
2007-03-16
Well, laughter *is* the best medicine, and, I, PopUpCommontater, am living proof of this. Here, let me illustrate just one example of this proud boast :) Years ago, I managed to slam my head in the car door -oo- No small feat here, and it's quite all right to laugh, as that's exactly what I did while riding up the elevator to my 12th floor office suite. Ohhhhh, I had a grand time picking out people in the elevator car, looking them straight in the eye, and announcing in a peppy-perky sorta way with an eat-sh*t grin on my face, "HAHAHA,I JUST SLAMMED MY HEAD IN THE CAR DOOR! HAHAHAHA." This, followed by an outburst of hysterical laughter. Those poor people didn't know what to say, really, but I could tell they were concerned by the worry lines between their brows.. and I guess the blood dripping down my face didn't help matters much. But, up, up, up, each floor, someone gets off, and as soon as the door closed, my head would pop up like a jack-in-the-box, "HAHAHA, I Just Slammed My Head In the Car Door HAHAHAHAha!" I managed to stagger into my office and collapsed on the sofa, laughing. My boss came out, took one look at me slumped on the sofa, laughing hysterically, and promptly knew something was wrong! After his, "what the h*ll is wrong with you?" I started off on my story about how I'd stopped at the 7-11 on my way in, and somewhere between walking out of the store and finding myself coming to in the car, I vaguely remember slamming the door shut. Only my head was between the car door and the door frame as I was getting in. Allegedly, mind you. Apparently, there were no witnesses. But, anyway.. WOW. Imagine my surprise! hee hee. I don't remember how long I sat there, but it couldn't have been very long, as somewhere in the back of my mind (what was left of it, I guess), arose the fact one doesn't aHrrife in Jaaa-ACK's office *LATE*. I managed to drive from the 7-11, which was adjoined to the same service road/parking lot of my office building, okay? I vaguely remember after getting out of my car going up to the first person I saw in the parking lot and asking, "AM I ALL RIGHT!?!" along with the affectations of a car backseat window bobble-head. The man said, "I don't think so. You're bleeding." I remember his fearful frozen face with his shoulders keeping his ears warm, before I turned towards my building, and did what felt like skipping up to the door, revolving door, mind you, and going in, and round and round, because I couldn't find a way off of what I was sure turned into a merry-go round. Finally, I fell out of the revolver and schlept up to the elevator door to stand among a group of wanna-be riders. All eyes were on me. It was only when once I was *in* the elevator I started my mantra of "I-just-slammed-my-head-in -the-car-door-HAHAHAHAHA" routine. So, by the time I relayed all this to Jack, he says, "C'mon! I'm taking you to the Emergency Room!" And off to the ER we did go.
Apparently I had sustained a concussion (surprise!), the bleeding gash atop a huge bump on my forehead/hairline was treated, and I was sent home to recuperate - with the stern instructions not to go to sleep for 12 hours or so. (I think.) I remember dragging myself up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment - because it took 3 days (or so it seemed :). I got myself something to drink, as I always do first thing coming in the door, and then threw myself onto the bed and promptly fell asleep (of course!)
I don't know how long I'd been sleeping when the phone next to my bed woke me up to the sound of a woman's voice on the other end, yelling me "go see your doctor immediately, we just found a tumor on your head x-ray!!" Well! Can I say I was stunned. I had never been told so professionally before (NOT), BY PHONE, that I had a brain tumor, thank you very much (/sarcasm).
It was many doctors later and 3 months of panic before finding out what was this tumor. And the news came just in the nick of time, too. It would be a week's time before I was to depart to England, and I had built up enough stress & anxiety over this brain tumor news, that I just knew I would probably lose it on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. Claustrophobia comes to mind. Not wanting to risk flipping out on a plane especially, without the courtesy of an adjoining room to gather my composure and freshen up before doing so, I was about to cancel my trip, altogether. I finally got the news that what they felt was a pituitary tumor, was in fact, what's called empty sella turcica, which means I'm really an airhead. Not really, but it's assumed by many :) My "empty" sella turcica has fluid in it and leans on the pituitary gland which in turn causes hormones, or whatever, to be sort of unregulated or expressed too much, not enough, not at all.. whatever. It has messed me up in a number of ways and I can't go deep sea diving anymore (like I did to begin with..huh?).
I *know* I got through this ordeal by the grace of God and my uniquely honed sense of humor. Handed down to me by my mother, the Lucille Ball look-alike, both in physical and emotional make-up. It was through her use of humor, looking at things from the sunny-side of the street, undying optimism and strength that got our family through numerous crises and unpleasant circumstances. She taught me & my sibs that we could get through any hardship, tragedy, personal trial or tribulation, if we had faith in God's power, used humor to soften Life's blows, and not take ourselves too seriously. After all, we're really nothing but a fart in the wind - in the scheme of things ;>
I took the fear I was feeling about the prospect of needing brain surgery, to figure out how I'd wear my hair after it grew out, and whether I should tattoo little middle fingers or chain links around the burr holes. And I vacillated on what combo of colors I'd use on my Mohawk. I wrote out my last Will & Testament, bequeathed stupid little things to family and friends, i.e., accessories to a particular person whose spontaneous remark upon seeing the prized possession was "Egaaads, that's atrocious!" "That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen....in all my life! Seriously!" "You're actually going to sit next to Very Important Person turd wearing THAT on your very person.n.n.nyyyUK!" They all got their "special pieces" with corny little notes attached to them revealing the fact I could have sold the piece for, let's say, $100,000, but because I remembered their kind remark about the piece, I wanted them to have it - with a gentle reminder that a lot of extremely dear and sought-after ice & heirlooms looked like crap And I wrote those never-to-be-mailed letters expressing exactly how I felt about a particular person, but threw them away immediately when I learned the good news my number wasn't up, when I should have hung on to them for later Revengeful Purposes. heh heh
All this being said, facing bad news is not easy and many slips back to fear are made. But staying positive about an outcome and applying faith that God heals and is in control of Life makes for a better state of mind to face uncertainty and the unknown. There will always be people who are doing better than us, but there's also people who have it a lot worse than us. I heard or read this years ago that if everyone in the world could take their troubles, problems and woes, throw them into a World Pile but take another from the same pile, most people would decide to keep the ones they have because they've learned to live with them, to cope with them, to rise above them best they can. The idea of taking on someone else's burdens is a scarier prospect than dealing with the ones we already have. But no one gets through life without burdens, be it physical or mental. So, I think it's better to be a good model of how to handle Life with dignity, hope, and faith, as an example for others to emulate. That way, we actually are doing something for our fellow Man. This is what's meant by giving others Hope by a different, better, saner way of doing things. Humor is the glue that holds Life together in goodwill. Towards other men. Let your smile/laughter be that invitation to others to hope for a better way.
(We all know life's a drama, then we die :)
Cross-posted from tBlog
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