Stranger reactions and losing one's temper!
Had a new thing happen today.
I woman I'd met only once before two weeks ago, and only to say hello, asked me how I was going (Chemo 3, death warmed up). I answered 'not awesome' and she said, grinning from ear to ear, 'been there' and without pausing asked me if I had any lymph node involvement.
Something just snapped inside me. I am very open about this stuff and until now, have answered any questions put to me. But there was something about the gall of this grinning woman who doesn't know me from Adam, wanting to know something so diagnostically specific. So I said I didn't feel comfortable discussing it with someone I didn't know.
She rushed on and said she knew just how I felt, that she'd been there. My goat was up, (this was in my home) and as I herded her towards the door, I said 'are you raising your dead sister's children and caring for your father-in-law because his daughter died from a brain tumour?'
I am mortified! Suffering is NOT a competition! She caught me on a really bad day and I will apologise to her next time I see her in two weeks. Has anyone else made an absolute tit of themselves like this?! Please say yes...
I woman I'd met only once before two weeks ago, and only to say hello, asked me how I was going (Chemo 3, death warmed up). I answered 'not awesome' and she said, grinning from ear to ear, 'been there' and without pausing asked me if I had any lymph node involvement.
Something just snapped inside me. I am very open about this stuff and until now, have answered any questions put to me. But there was something about the gall of this grinning woman who doesn't know me from Adam, wanting to know something so diagnostically specific. So I said I didn't feel comfortable discussing it with someone I didn't know.
She rushed on and said she knew just how I felt, that she'd been there. My goat was up, (this was in my home) and as I herded her towards the door, I said 'are you raising your dead sister's children and caring for your father-in-law because his daughter died from a brain tumour?'
I am mortified! Suffering is NOT a competition! She caught me on a really bad day and I will apologise to her next time I see her in two weeks. Has anyone else made an absolute tit of themselves like this?! Please say yes...
