Christmas is almost here and I’m about halfway through my Radiation treatment. I’m going to get a second dose of radioactive iodine for the thyroid cancer, which will happen in February.
Mostly I’m comfortable and thinking about Christmas. I am happy to be with my family, and looking forward to seeing my family’s faces when they open the presents I carefully chose for them.
And driving over every day to get zapped. This will last until the middle of January. I have been telling the medical people I want the kind of radiation that gives me superpowers. Radiation has been around for a long time but it became a topic of popular discussion around World War 2. Remember the Bomb that everyone was racing to perfect?
The war was scary. The Bomb and the governments that controlled it were new horizons of horrifying—the stuff of nightmares.
Comic book creators took the concept and used it. What is this super powerful radiation people are talking about? It sound complicated and scary. Ok. Who cares about that part? Let’s focus on the part that’s powerful.
Everybody wants this radiation for its power! A new generation of superheroes were spawned. Superman—that fossil!—was from outer space. But the power of radiation is still making superheroes.
I plan to hitch my wagon to that powerful energy. It is fun to say I want the kind of radiation that give me powers. And the part of me knows I can’t really say that’s true.
I want it to be true. I remember the TV Show The Greatest American Hero who had a superhero (old school alien powers, not radiation) that consisted of a super cape and an owner’s manual that got lost.
His powers were real and impressive. He just didn’t know how to use them yet.
My superpowers are coming to me in the same way. I’m beign broken down and rebuilt with the power to carry own and have more adventures.
Can I be bigger, faster, stronger than before? That’s not how I feel right now.
But can I be? Absolutely! There is no question that I CAN. I have to practice and earn it. I can undergo this treatment, use it to kill the cancer and then earn my superpowers.
The comicbooks were right. Anything scary can be turned into a superpower with practice.