For Kate Jackson (no waaahmbulance required)

Kate Jackson, late of the Pointy Universe, is going through a little bit of trouble in her next phase of cancer treatment.

Namely, the blues have come to the Pointy Universe. Those days where you finally chuck your clogs and yell out a nice, hearty, cleansing FUCK to the air and the people around you, and then collapse to the ground in sobs.

You sometimes don't know what to say to a cancer patient, even if they're a cancer survivor. My father didn't survive, yet he managed to live every single moment until his final days. He never said, "give up your time to take care of me. I'm terminal, so feel sorry for me." He joked and looked at his coming passing as a gift, a relief, a normal process in life. Even though it had to come at 63 years of age, he went through it like a trouper.

The great thing to experience is talking to a long-term cancer survivor - or one who had stage I or II cancers (even stage III) and haven't had a problem for years. I know of one woman who is on my team at work who went through that hell of chemo and radiation and finally returned to work, albeit on a reduced 32 hours per week schedule. Another woman on another team came in with blonde hair one day and brunette hair the next. Still another wore a bandanna. And they come in with the energy of teenagers.

It's also OK to feel guilty, anxious, scared - biting your lip and having someone say, "I like your lip color" and then showing up at the ER for stitches. It's a normal process to shut the door and have "chemo blues" (replete with shaking sobs and tears running down your face) versus "chemo brain" (where you wear two different colors of knee highs AND shoes and somehow Glamour magazine puts the black bar of shame over your face, forever branding you a fashion Don't.)

When it's over and your hair has grown back to flowing hair, you'll look back and say, "Man, those blues were so yesterday" and redeem yourself as a fashion "do" with a killer dress and killer heels.

(Aside: Be kind to your hubby and your kids. They're rooting for you.)