A Moment in Sarcoma from Sara
l Chondrosarcoma · Moments in SarcomaDenver, Colorado
As a performer and writer, I’d always wanted to write a one-woman show. It wasn’t until I was in the grips of deciding between seven options for a difficult surgery, which held my leg in the balance, that I found the drive or courage to write it. For two months I searched through the instances of fear and despair over my diagnosis to “find the funny.” I wasn’t ignoring reality; but I had to keep laughing.
Learning about the titanium, the screws, the cryosurgery – all the elements that could be going in or out of my bone to save it – I thought: Yes. See, it’s very similar to MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.” Only, now it’s “Pimp My Leg,” and my possible future limp will really just be my *pimp walk.* Or, when learning about the donor-bone route, I thought how odd it would be to get someone else’s used bone. I wasn’t even a fan of second-hand clothes; now I’d have a second-hand femur?
Before my surgery, I performed “Bone-a-fide: A Tumorous Comedy” at the People’s Improv Theater in NYC. After the show, I remember one woman in particular who came up to me and thanked me. She shared her story of cancer and how she’d tried to keep it so secret and private. And there we were, two young women – one survivor, one soon-to-be survivor – *connecting* about our experience. How powerful that was to me. It was that moment which conjured one of my favorite quotes from The Labyrinth: “YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME!” And that’s how I wanted to consider my chondrosarcoma – you are my teacher, but you will not bring me down. Listen up cancer: You have no power over me.
