A New View of Chemotherapy

I was waken from my slumber this morning (Okay, truth: I had an idea on the way back to bed from going to the bathroom) with a pretty cool way to look at chemo.

We are big remodelers in our household. Our house was deemed "uninhabitable" when we moved into. Needless to say, I am comfortable in that arena. I lay tile, mud drywall, paint, decorate, remove brick chimneys...I digress. Anyway, I had this idea. What if I look at the cancer surgery as the "major remodel"? We opened up a few walls, removed the clutter, and made the space more efficient. Hard work? You betcha, but so important if we were going to keep the building structurally sound.

Now that I have the new space, it's so crucial that I maintain it so it lasts a long time. I've decided to look at chemotherapy as...house cleaning. If  I don't clean my house regularly, the mess will build up all over again and it will eventually become unsafe to live there. I will be forced to move out. Unfortunately,  no matter how much I'd like to only clean house once. I can't. It has to be done on a regular basis, especially if I am not the only one living in the house. It is so important to straighten things up, make sure things are in there place and to be as organized as possible to support the major work we did in the remodel. Sometimes life gets so busy or time is of the essence (A holiday gathering, perhaps?), what do I do? If  I am lucky enough to have the means, I hire someone to clean the house. This is what I'm doing. They come to my "newly remodeled house" at a regularly scheduled time. I find out their routine, and I will know what they are doing, how long they will be there. I become comfortable that my house will look and function so much better when they are done and gone.

When you incur a "special cost" to keep you property up and running, it is not without sacrifice. I will have too tighten my belt. I might  not be able to go out as much as I used to, perhaps even not eat as I usually did. And sometimes house cleaning can even lead to more minor remodeling.  It is widely known that this service, can be hard on the roof. It has been known to temporarily damage the shingles. The shingles can't do their job as efficiently and I've heard in a strong wind...they can fall off. In this case, I will have to cover the roof with a special tarp. I understand the functionality of this tarp and ask you to please remember that the tarp covering is temporary no matter how much it might detract from the neighborhood.

In a few hours, I have my first house cleaning. I'll let you know how it went. I hear it might take awhile, but as that saying goes, "anything worth having is worth waiting (around) for". I'm sure I will be pleased with their work and glad that my house is one step closer to that holiday party. Oh! What a party that will be.