Rather amazing. As a hot-shot (said tongue in cheek) university business school professor, I did interviews for a wide variety of media. One local cable TV show featured me rather frequently in 5-minute clips. About a third of the way through my chemo treatments, I was asked to do some video interview clips. The reporter would come to my house, I’d sit in front of my fireplace, and we’d do 4 to 5 clips that would be shown one per week over the next month or so.
I was having a tough week, since in addition to my chemo, I had to have shots three days in a row for a low white blood cell count. On the day I was to do the interview, I drove 45 minutes to get my third day’s shot, drove home, and changed into a jacket and tie. [In TV land, shorts are usually OK, since they rarely shoot below your waist. LOL]. We did five short interviews, with the set ups between interviews taking longer than the chats themselves.
When we were done, I wondered how I got through all of the interviews – on five different topics. Grit and determination, as well our adrenaline flow, can take us a long way. By the way, it was hard for me to watch the interviews. I still had months to go with chemo, and I looked emaciated and had thinning hair. Not how I wanted to see myself. But, hey, I was able to do the interviews and I thought I sounded good, even if I didn’t look that way.
While in chemotherapy, I discovered a new cancer community – my fellow cancer survivors going through chemo at the same time I was. We talked, we teared up, we laughed, and most of all, we supported one another. It made the time pass quickly, and it was so good to share with those going through similar experiences.