As always, our intention with our Consuellama’s Corner articles is to bring you some levity and laughter and for that, we turn to our favorite place to kick back, read and laugh...sometimes even out loud!

The first year of chemo I was gifted 10 different blankets.

If you’re reading this and are one of the people who gifted me a blanket, please know I love you! Picture the scene from the movie Elf where Will Farrell screams, I LOVE YOU! That’s me right now!

I absolutely LOVE blankets and what’s more, I LOVE and deeply appreciate the people who gifted these to me. But as the numbers and varieties grew, I could not help but wonder if blankets for cancer patients have become the new (albeit unintentional) “ugly sweater” gift.

I will start by saying that we won’t discuss “wool” blankets in this article because that’s a bit too close for comfort for Consuellama, a cousin to Alpacas. So, let’s talk about all other blankets and blanket-gifting, from one cancer patient’s perspective.

Let me start by setting the scene

Taking you back to 2019....the first year of my chemo, it seemed like every time I turned around, I was being handed a blanket. There was the blanket in the chemo room, the blanket in the Pet-Scan room, the blanket in the MRI/Ultrasound room, the blanket in the CT Scan room, the blankets in all the waiting rooms for those tests, and, of course, the 10 new blankets in my home.

Living in South Florida, where the average year-round temperature is a balmy 90 degrees, before the humidity hits, most days I felt over insulated and somewhat conflicted.

I very much wanted the comfort of the blanket, especially the ones that were plush and soft and felt like a giant hug…

But then the heat!

And no amount of indoor air conditioning could sufficiently bring down the temperature, especially when the chemo steroids would hit at unexpected and inopportune times and with that came flashes of heat from what felt like my body’s own overactive furnace system, firing off at its own measure and then suddenly shutting off and triggering a reversal reaction — an internal cooling. It was as if someone was turning a temperature switch on and off within me and I had absolutely no say.

Blankets became like sweaters to me. I love sweaters and have about a zillion sweaters (many were, you guessed it, gifts!)…

But again, the heat!

So, what to do with all this love?

Now, don’t get me wrong, blankets are absolutely helpful for patients and create a great sense of comfort throughout the journey. They are especially helpful on days when you are feeling run down, nauseous or just plain down and want to be reminded, through a sense of comfort, that all will be well again.

ONE...BLANKET...AT...A...TIME...

And so, from Consuellama and me, a few parting words, again, from a place of love. As you take a moment to think about that next gift, ask yourself, what might they really need? Maybe shoot them a quick text with some multiple-choice gift ideas and have them pick their favorite...a friend of mine did that and I thought it was clever and fun! Incidentally, one of the ‘choices’ was...wait for it...a blanket!

As always, I hope, if you have laughed with this story, that you, too, feel a bit better! Because sometimes that’s all you can do...just laugh!

About Consuellama

Consuellama was inspired by llamas being hardy and well suited to harsh environments — they are quite sure-footed, easily navigating rocky terrain. It made me think that it is absolutely synonymous to navigating the “terrain” on the cancer journey. But beyond that, it is also the fact that you can’t look at the face of a llama and not smile!

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