Lose the Label
A Student Activist Community

posted by jakethorn on June 6, 2008 - 5:25pm

Tags:

• cancer
• personal
• r2r

The last couple days have been full of those ups and downs everybody's told me to expect. I had two rough nights, couldn't sleep because I was in a lot of pain. I've been losing a lot of blood from the ulcerative colitis, so I got three units of blood yesterday and a unit of platelets. But for the downs, there've also been ups.

Yesterday afternoon I played a concert with the music therapist, Tim. We converted the solarium (this lounge area by the elevator) into a makeshift venue and jammed out on our guitars. A lot of the nurses and staff were there, random passerbys, a few patients. I was surprised how big the turnout was, actually... very cool. In 5-6 weeks here I've really bonded with the people I've met here at the hospital, it's been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. They've helped me appreciate that there really are a lot of great people out there in the world, it's just hard to find them sometimes. It took some terrible circumstances to get here, but all the same I'm glad to know them and they've forever changed me.

We recorded the show, plus a lot of the other jams we've been having, so I'll post some of the tracks later. I sung a couple, Tim sang one and we did a few instrumental improv jams. We're planning to pick out the best stuff and release it as a CD to raise money for the music therapy program. That'll be cool, cause I'll feel like I've at least started the long process of giving back.

There were other ups for the day, too. My mom and little brother visited and we hung out for awhile. I had a couple great phone conversations, one with my Aunt Sherry and one with my old roommate David. I also got a big card from the UCSB Amnesty International chapter, that was pretty sweet of them. Campus Democrats had sent me one a week or so ago. Activists know how to take care of each other. I also posted a blog on DocuDharma yesterday and as usual they picked me up and a few of the comments were profoundly inspirational. I love that place. I'm glad I found them, and I recommend to anyone who reads this who's interested in blogging but likes having that personal touch, check it out, they're linked on our blogroll.

So yeah, the last few days have definitely had that mix of good and bad. The trick for me is trying to keep myself from focusing on the negative and finding solace in the positives. As long as I can do well at that, I feel like I have control over this thing and I'll recover, whatever "recover" means.