Impermanence

Written March 18, 2022

Day 20!!!!! 2 Weeks // 10 Days Left!!!

I am just feeling so incredibly thankful to be doing as well as I am. Even this morning, I woke up with tons of increased swelling, my lisp from post-op was back, & I quickly sent a message to my care team due to trouble swallowing, but I got up, got to physical therapy, and by mid-morning everything had settled down!

So lucky to be surrounded by family & looking forward to having the weekend off!

More Thoughts March 18, 2024

This situation brings up the ever important idea of ~ impermanence ~ This idea is partially credited to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who said something to the effect of “the only constant in life is change”. I can tell you first hand, having this mindset keeps your hope and happiness alive. Take the example above, I woke up with terrible swelling and a lisp, if I didn’t truly believe everything changes and impermanence is the only constant, I may think I was stuck that way forever. That there would be nothing my Doctor’s could do, and I’d just suffer even more than I already had. But, no. I believed. I believed my care team could help, and I reached out. Actually, there wasn’t much they could do. And, yet, it changed. Because I went on with my day. I got up (gravity helped the swelling), I went to my lymphedema therapist (massage helped the swelling), and by the time I finished, everything was feeling much better. And, here’s the thing about impermanence, even if my swelling had not improved that morning, my mindset and mood did. I was up out of bed, with my community of people, and I was doing my best to give myself the best treatment possible. All of that changed my day. I say this because there are some things about my condition that will not change – like getting my native tongue back – but my mindset around this situation can, and my ability to work with what I was given can. That’s the key. Even if your situation feels immensely permanent, there are changes that will occur over time. It’s inevitable. As I mentioned two years ago, the weekend will come.