Shit cancer patients say

"Wait 'til they hear about this on CaringBridge!"

I can relate to this video by 21-year-old Woody Roseland of Colorado. Here's his website with more background on his personal story, and his creative work as a podcaster, vlogger, public speaker, and his title of "Denver's best looking amputee."

If you or a loved one are going through chemotherapy right now (I am, it sucks)— you will find many familiar chords in this video. And by chord, I mean, among other things, the incessant beeping of that fucking drip machine that delivers the healing poison that makes you puke and kills tumors.

Woody, if you're reading: IV fist bump, man. Solidarity and strength, and best wishes to you. You're really awesome. Also, we currently have matching hairdos.

(via Jody Schoger)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Bone Cancer • breast cancer • cancer • chemotherapy • Funny • health • Osteosarcoma • Science • video

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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=679549499 Michael Birch

“It’s beeping!” // You rock Xeni! Hang in there…
Rob Gehrke

Wonderful.
“You see I eat some asparagus…”
AviSolomon

Hang in there Xeni and remember “This too shall pass”.
Paul Terlecki

Damn, Who knew?
http://www.facebook.com/Woody.Roseland Woody Roseland

Xeni, thank you so much for your kind words of support. I really appreciate it. Best of luck to you on your own journey with cancer. I hope you as well can find that after its all said and done, that you took more out of having cancer then it ever took from you.

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
~Frank A. Clark
- http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
  
  Really appreciate the supportive words, Woody, and I’m sitting here reading some of the awesome posts on your blog and drawing a lot of inspiration from them. Especially your advice on how to think about remission, and how to live to maximize remission. I’m really looking forward to the day when I can start worrying about that, instead of how the hell I’m gonna get there. :)
  
  I noticed you said on Twitter you’re coming close to the end of chemo?—man, I am really wishing you the best. I’m sure you’re really, really ready to be un-tethered from that pole.
  
  Please keep making awesome videos and writing and telling the world your story.
  - http://www.facebook.com/Woody.Roseland Woody Roseland
    
    My next video, will hopefully be out in two or three weeks. I’m super excited for it, and hopefully everyone else will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed working on it.
    
    But I just finished my 10th round of chemo out of 12. And i’ll be done by the end of march. I’m really excited for that, the thought of doing 12 rounds of chemo seemed insurmountable at the time but i’ve made it through and somewhere along the line i have found the direction that I want to take my life and I can’t wait to get started on some of the stuff I have planned.
    
    It’s awesome having people like you support me. It has definitely helped being surrounded by such positive people. Lets definitely stay in touch! I’m working on a hand book for cancer patients and I would love to have your input!
    - http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
      
      Hit me up with the new video and anything else you do, man. My email’s xeni (at) xeni.net. The video and the handbook both sound great.
      
      I know what you mean about both the “seems insurmountable” part, and the “finding direction” part. Absolutely feel the same. I cringed in the parts of your video where infusion is shown; my last round of Adria + Cytoxan was 7 days ago, the nurses used the same hazmat gear, and I puked and felt the poison just like you do in this video. You wonder how you’re gonna make it to the next day, let alone the next round. But: you do.
      
      Your sense of humor and positive attitude are a serious inspiration, dude. I mean it, keep in touch and let me know what you’re doing next—and how you’re doing with life moving forward.
      
      Hugs.
    - http://fungibleconvictions.com/ Andrew Whitacre
      
      That beeping is so the worst. Except for this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnxZcGiVqAQ
fridy

Cancer sucks. I like it when people kick its ugly ass.
robgarbo

I grok
http://twitter.com/lilsheba Rebecca Nelson

I lost my dad (after a long battle with brain cancer) 13 years ago today. He would have greatly appreciated the humor here, as I certainly do. My family always said that if we weren’t laughing, we’d be crying. So we might as well laugh.
wygit

Xeni, I hope you’re doing OK as far as the nausea.
For me, Zofran was a miracle drug. (No I don’t work for them or own stock)
I went through 6 rounds of chemo over 8 months for Leukemia and never had nausea until the last round, when on one dose the nurse missed the order for the pre-medication.
She was in tears. After she hooked up the Zofran, it was literally less than a minute till I felt better. I kept telling her it was OK, it was OK, I was just uncomfortable for a bit. I decided I was, in a way, glad it happened, just so I could have the “full chemo experience”.
(I felt bad when I saw the Team in Training shirts that said “If you think running a marathon is hard, try chemo” because for me, chemo was mostly just boring.)

The happy news is that this was all seven years ago.

And you can place bets with friends on how your hair comes back. (It WILL come back).
After 50 years of thick, coarse, straight hair, mine came in fine and curly, for about 6 months. Then it went back to the pre-chemo look, which was boring, so I started changing the color every few weeks for a couple of years. You’ll have fun with it!

Wishing you all the best.
aurora50

Warm blankets! yay! my last round of chemo the blanket oven was broken…but there were the home made quilts from the Cancer Society ladies.

The culture of the chemo room… which I guess I should explain a bit. For some kind of cancers, some of the time, the chemo drugs are not as virulent as this guy in the video is taking. So you go to the chemo room at the doctor’s office instead of the cancer center. Picture a big room, large enough to hold 18 Lazy-Boys…large windows looking out on sky and trees. So many stories in such close proximity; so much love and loss and gentle caring…whole families crowding around Grandma…and then, others like me, alone. But it is a community of caring and sharing and laughter as well as pain, sickness, fear and tears.

Love to Xeni.
- Susan Carley Oliver
  
  Alone? That sucks, and I”m sorry, and I wish I could go back in time so I could hang out in the chemo room with you.
nixiebunny

OMG that was freakin’ hilarious!
http://profile.yahoo.com/O7EFVE2LKJQGXOS7XXLATMZMAU x

I went through this when I was 9 – the puking, the weakness, the doubt, the everything. Now I’m 35 – I don’t think about it much today but whenever I reflect back I always say “I’m glad I didn’t have to go through that as an adult”. Best of luck to you guys, thanks for talking so openly about something that hurts so much.
cstatman

when you are puking? imagine every single one of us who survived chemo (for this round)? holding your hand, and caring about you. because we do.
http://profiles.google.com/rakatko Ritchie Katko

IV Fist bump … then a groggy nap … wake up feeling like a trainwreck….. force down something to eat … drink incredible amounts of water … repeat …
cblamey

I am almost at my 5 year post breast cancer mark. I went through chemo and this video made me laugh. Hang in there, Xeni!
William Rice

I used to always ask “do you have to check my heart beat and pulse this early in the morning?”

“methyl trexate before lucavorin.” classic
you should do a “shit my caregivers say.” highlites would include…”which leg is it again?” and “how long has it been beeping?”
William Rice

“what do I feel like eating? how about some ice.”
http://fiercefamily.com zdislaw

Holy shit! After spending the past few months with my daughter getting chemo for Lymphoma, I really can’t overstate how hilarious and exactly on this is. I can’t wait to play the vid for her!
http://profiles.google.com/fred.drinkwater Fred Drinkwater

I have a mother and a sister on chemo, and another on radiation (seeds) therapy, and a father on hormone therapy.
So I say, Xeni, hang in there.
http://twitter.com/TMason999 Terry Mason

Xeni and all others suffering this disease,

Hang in there, my wife has finished her chemo, she has now finished her first week of radiation therapy. Hindsight from the chemo taught us to take it day by day, it was the only way to survive it. My wife lost 19 lymph nodes on her right side to cancer, needed several surgeries just to prepare for the dreaded chemo. Hang in there Xeni and anyone else, we think about those suffering everday as we see them regularly while she is getting her treatments.
steve stukel

Both my parents have gone through rounds of chemo, one even lived, and this video kicked me in the heart and made me laugh all at the same time. Thanks for posting it.
http://twitter.com/coverbeek Chris Overbeek

Key ingredients to getting through chemo:
1. Positive attitude
2. Great support from people who love you — near and far
3. Belief in your own ability to persevere
oh, and 1. Positive attitude
I had a relatively ‘easy’ chemo at just 9 weeks, but it knocked me flat (including the usual loss of hair etc). I second the anti-emetic (Zofran, Emend) love someone stated above. My stomach got a little roiled, and I could taste the chemo, but the nausea was mostly controlled. It’s been 18 months and I still wake up from dreams where I am back sitting for 8 hours hooked up to the IV.

Be strong you cancer ass-kickers.
http://twitter.com/coverbeek Chris Overbeek

Oh, and the taste when they flush your port with saline and/or heparin — yucky. I particularly appreciated the completely factual representation of that! (PRO-TIP: if you can stand it, suck on hard candy when they flush – it really helps!)
desertisburning

Thanks for posting this! I think some of my dad’s best humor came out during his chemo and radiation. I remember him, clearly in pain, but cracking a smile and saying that he sure could use a doobie.