“Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.”
I've recently posted regarding my change of meds and asked for comments from others who may have had a similar change of prescription. Not much response, which is fine, but in amongst the reponses were links to other users of this service and it got me thinking.
I post infrequently on here, just like I go infrequently to my local PC support group and it's because there is sometimes an assumption that "my way works for me so it will work for you". I've come across this in many fora of which I've been part. The worst ones were the fora around the Camino de Santiago de Compostella, where, largely, every poster knew the best way to complete the walk and it definitely wasn't the way you were doing it!
Personally, I find some of the stories of marathons, climbing Everest, swimming the channel etc. quite intimidating. I couldn't do these things when I didn't have PC!! After diagnosis in 2019 and 6 months of chemo, it became apparent that many things I used to do (multi-day walks, sex etc) were a thing of the past and at 68+ (now nearly 72) I needed to re-assess my life. I have to accept my limitations while focussing on those things that I can do and still enjoy.
Gianluca Vialli: "I always felt I didn’t want to fight cancer, because it would be too big and powerful an enemy. I felt this is a journey. It’s about the right therapies and the right doctors. It’s about travelling with an unwanted travel companion until hopefully it gets bored and dies before me.”
If I ask for advice about a change of meds, I'd rather not be told to try ultra marathons and, when complaining about the amount of pills I take every morning, have it suggested that a low or no carb diet is what I should be doing. By the way, my wife and I are off to the Old Stamp House in Ambleside next month to celebrate her birthday (7 course tasting menu!! yummy).
So, if anyone else feels the same way I do, I would like to offer a translation of the Antonio Machado poem above. This, a sense of humour and an amazingly supportive family, has got me through the last 4 years.
Traveller, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveller, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveller, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.
P.S. No idea whether this is in the right section or not and if noone reads it that's fine. Its made me feel better writing it.😀
PPS. There should be a section called "Rant"
Edited by member 27 Sep 2023 at 16:38
| Reason: Poem translation copied from yank website. They can't spell!