Finding the unfunny funny
Summer Prevails
Member Posts: 82 ✭
just wanted to vent these (what I found) funny exchanges I had recently. I had a choice about laughing or crying over them, so I just chose to laugh and run with that.
So so I went to the chemo ward the other day to have my stupid monthly Zoladex injection. The nurse who did it was in her 20s, and was training another young woman nurse. So I’m sitting there waiting for my shot and nurse 1 says to the newbie:
”Zoladex is what we give to patients who have ER + B Ca, they stay on it for about 5 years, and it can cause some menopause-like symptoms like hair thinning and hot flushes...”
she says this as if I’m not sitting RIGHT there. I finished her sentence with:
“....and insomnia, major joint pain, fatigue, depression, panic attacks....just to give you something to look forward to.”
and wow ypu could have heard a pin drop. The look of horror from newbie nurse. Poor lass. Grumpy menopausal women speaking the truth about treatment, gasp!!! Had to chuckle at her innocence and my grumpy non-oestrogenated jadedness clashing at that point.
Then another day i was paying for petrol (account overdrawn by like $100, living my financial dreams) and the attendant sees my lympho compression sleeve/glove and smiles innocently and says “Is that to protect you from the sun?” I think he was about to congratulate me for being super sun smart.
And i cheerfully said “No, it’s for a condition I have called lymphoedema. It’s an excess of lymph fluid in my arm that needs compression to manage. But it also does keep my skin safe from the sun! Have a great day.”
😂 you should have seen his poor little face fall when I said lymphoedema. You could just about hear his mind going WTF ? And the awkwardness that ensued. Had to laugh. I guess I have a pretty black sense of humour. It was the absolute clash of his knowledge versus the ugly reality of my life that cracked me up.
So so I went to the chemo ward the other day to have my stupid monthly Zoladex injection. The nurse who did it was in her 20s, and was training another young woman nurse. So I’m sitting there waiting for my shot and nurse 1 says to the newbie:
”Zoladex is what we give to patients who have ER + B Ca, they stay on it for about 5 years, and it can cause some menopause-like symptoms like hair thinning and hot flushes...”
she says this as if I’m not sitting RIGHT there. I finished her sentence with:
“....and insomnia, major joint pain, fatigue, depression, panic attacks....just to give you something to look forward to.”
and wow ypu could have heard a pin drop. The look of horror from newbie nurse. Poor lass. Grumpy menopausal women speaking the truth about treatment, gasp!!! Had to chuckle at her innocence and my grumpy non-oestrogenated jadedness clashing at that point.
Then another day i was paying for petrol (account overdrawn by like $100, living my financial dreams) and the attendant sees my lympho compression sleeve/glove and smiles innocently and says “Is that to protect you from the sun?” I think he was about to congratulate me for being super sun smart.
And i cheerfully said “No, it’s for a condition I have called lymphoedema. It’s an excess of lymph fluid in my arm that needs compression to manage. But it also does keep my skin safe from the sun! Have a great day.”
😂 you should have seen his poor little face fall when I said lymphoedema. You could just about hear his mind going WTF ? And the awkwardness that ensued. Had to laugh. I guess I have a pretty black sense of humour. It was the absolute clash of his knowledge versus the ugly reality of my life that cracked me up.
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Comments
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I get your sense of humour and I laughed with you
cheers PJ 2 -
@Summer Prevails
What the with the nurse and Zoladex injection!
For me I had Zoladex, one every 4 weeks x 26 = 2 years
The first injection was with the Oncologist and because of distance from his rooms he rang and asked my GP to administer the balance. The Oncologist would write the script at each review. My GP was, and still is, very gentle and very caring. Only once did it hiccup. I could feel the implant flip and instead of slow release it was basically all at once and my body was like what the! Glad it wasn't a nurse and her apprentice for me!
Dear oh dear! Same treatment different applications
Take care
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@Summer Prevails You are providing an educational service and should be applauded for your contibution to society!3
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Had an experience at Aldi the other day. Usually they ask if you having a good day etc, this poor guy asked, "so anything planned this afternoon" - me with head scarf on said "yes actually off to chemo" - I felt bad after seeing the look on his face. But he did ask.
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@Summer Prevails,
Don't worry about a dark sense of humour. I think it comes mandatory along with some kind of tourettes care of BC. I am making a sport out it.
I overheard one of the young nurses the other day complaining that her baby had only fed from one side that morning and she was feeling somewhat lopsided.
I casually said " I know, I have the same problem, annoying huh?" She looked at me with that deer in the headlights look, like she'd just said something terribly wrong then we both cracked up laughing.
This nurse knew what I'd been through but it's even funnier when you drop a bomb in front of people who don't know and then you can hear them whispering later like "How does she know so much about chemo, she"s the admin." I like to do it when we have a new group of residents start. Hehehehe, got to keep yourself amused.
xoxoxo
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I have been told by well meaning people, when wearing a turban or hat, "your hair will grow back and probably curly ". I already know that as I have lost my hair 3 times before. I now just reply with a thank you. I can remember saying the same thing after loosing my hair the first time.. A lady said to me the other day, hair doesn't make a person , it's what you make of your life that counts.7
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You have to try a laugh don't you.. should have seen my rad onco when I tried to joke.. him: so during your treatment and maybe for a while after your breast could get a bit firmer, maybe a bit smaller.. me: wonderful, could you do the other one as well?. Him: um no!Summer Prevails said:just wanted to vent these (what I found) funny exchanges I had recently. I had a choice about laughing or crying over them, so I just chose to laugh and run with that.
So so I went to the chemo ward the other day to have my stupid monthly Zoladex injection. The nurse who did it was in her 20s, and was training another young woman nurse. So I’m sitting there waiting for my shot and nurse 1 says to the newbie:
”Zoladex is what we give to patients who have ER + B Ca, they stay on it for about 5 years, and it can cause some menopause-like symptoms like hair thinning and hot flushes...”
she says this as if I’m not sitting RIGHT there. I finished her sentence with:
“....and insomnia, major joint pain, fatigue, depression, panic attacks....just to give you something to look forward to.”
and wow ypu could have heard a pin drop. The look of horror from newbie nurse. Poor lass. Grumpy menopausal women speaking the truth about treatment, gasp!!! Had to chuckle at her innocence and my grumpy non-oestrogenated jadedness clashing at that point.
Then another day i was paying for petrol (account overdrawn by like $100, living my financial dreams) and the attendant sees my lympho compression sleeve/glove and smiles innocently and says “Is that to protect you from the sun?” I think he was about to congratulate me for being super sun smart.
And i cheerfully said “No, it’s for a condition I have called lymphoedema. It’s an excess of lymph fluid in my arm that needs compression to manage. But it also does keep my skin safe from the sun! Have a great day.”
😂 you should have seen his poor little face fall when I said lymphoedema. You could just about hear his mind going WTF ? And the awkwardness that ensued. Had to laugh. I guess I have a pretty black sense of humour. It was the absolute clash of his knowledge versus the ugly reality of my life that cracked me up.1 -
Just love it and great to see you’ve maintained your sense of humour through it all 😀🌸🌸0
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If cancer did nothing else for me, it allowed me to completely drop all my filters ( not that I had many to start with) and say what I thought. Most of the time. It's not nice to say things like 'I hope your day is even more fucked up than mine.' for example. But that doesn't stop you thinking it.
Black humour is such fun. The people who get it have been there and the ones who don't get it are either innocents who simply don't know what you are talking about or twit sacks who deserve a good shake up. I do love making the pompous and self important uncomfortable. Keep up the good work.7 -
It is amazing how we get through this and somehow have the strength to say and do things we'd never have done before. We have our own quiet naughty sense of humour and it comes to the fore at the best of times.
Anne 3 -
I went to buy an eyeliner the other day and the lady at the counter said “ I love how you tie your headscarf it looks so funky. Must save time doing your hair?”
ummm no I am having chemo I have no hair.
Well my $30 eyeliner then came with about $50 worth of cosmetic, skincare and fragrance samples 😆😆12 -
@Melc503. How funny - have to find the silver lining. I went to my dentist post mastectomy with my drain in before I started chemo and ended up getting a free clean.6
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Dark humour is my best friend. In Feb I had convulsions and a scan showed 'something in my head'. My husband looked at the consultant and said, 'Well, that explains a lot!' We both laughed and from then on referred to "my martian implant'. It took about three weeks to learn of the diagnosis 'benign'. My visit to the oncologist was referred to as 'my conversation with the martians'. A few friends have difficulty with our take on this **##!! situation, I'm sensitive to their feelings but dark humour has often been my life boat, my relief etc. I'd love to hear of more dark humour incidents.
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Dark humour is a default that works for some of us, the patients.
Online there's a paper from the Journal of Pragmatics and this is part of the abstract
Copy and paste from Laughing at cancer: Humour, empowerment, solidarity and coping onlineAbstract
In the context of cancer, humour and joking can still be seen as socially unacceptable. Yet people with cancer can find relief in making light of their often life-threatening situations. How and why they do this has received little systematic attention to date. This paper begins to address this gap by exploring 530,055 words of online patient–patient interactions on a thread explicitly dedicated to humour within a UK-based cancer forum.
The website is https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378216616301795
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