An accidental awakening
A story of courage, triumph, pain, love and friendship.
I turned to Jac and said, ‘Uh oh, I think I’m in deep shit. This must be the “you’re fucked” room.’
Sometimes we long to step off the merry-go-round but few have the courage to take the leap.
For 40-something Fiona, that leap became an imperative. In Drink the Wild Air, she chronicles the unravelling of her life with an arresting and confronting candour.
When the story opens, Fiona is a successful professional who cannot abide the thought of failure. Despite an uneasy but increasing dissatisfaction she battles on, until she is diagnosed with cancer.
We are plunged into this poignant tale as if we were by her side – crying, laughing, loving and discovering. Things just seem to happen to Fiona; nothing remains undisturbed. Her irreverent wit and pithy perspective on human interactions – along with a range of inspiring and courageous characters – will keep the reader engaged and entertained.
As her journey progresses Fiona is forced to deal with her deepest insecurities and personal fears. Through her acceptance of the changes that cancer has wrought on her, she embarks on the pursuit of a passionate life: one that is a kaleidoscope of warmth, love, laughter, creativity and friendship.
She learns that true strength comes from accepting her vulnerability and that happiness is a choice to live fully in the moment, rather than allowing the beauty and joy of the here and now to be hijacked by the uncertainty of tomorrow.
Emotionally raw, this rollicking read is ultimately warm and uplifting.
A nurse came and collected me from the general waiting area for yet another test; a stereotactic needle biopsy.
They had already explained how the procedure would be conducted. I would be given a local anaesthetic; then my breast would be compressed in a special x-ray machine that would be used to locate the area of concern. A doctor would use a gun-like needle to take the sample. The whole process would take 20 to 30 minutes and while I was still in the machine, the sample would be tested to make sure they had what they needed.
The nurse led me into a room in which two other women, a radiologist and a doctor, were standing surrounded by a jungle of medical equipment.
‘Will this hurt?’ I asked.
The radiologist said, ‘You might be a bit uncomfortable in the machine, but hopefully we won’t take too long.’
I took off the hospital gown. The doctor injected me with a local anaesthetic. I turned away — I’ve always hated needles.
The nurse helped me to position myself in the machine. She lifted my breast. ‘Can you stand a bit closer?’ she asked.
I pressed my face against the cold metal and wrapped my left arm around the column of the machine as if I were a one-armed lover. This action lifted my left breast and enabled the nurse to put even more of it on the bottom plate. She stood beside me as the radiologist lowered the top plate until my breast was compressed between them. It was tight and uncomfortable. The radiologist pressed the button. But something was wrong, nothing happened.
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
– Marilyn Monroe
This blog’s about the travails of dating as a 40-something woman who is learning to accept herself and realising that attractiveness and self-assurance have nothing to do with perfection.
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