Eating frogs is a rather unusual activity for most people – and dogs – at least in my part of the world. My parents dog saw an opportunity for a quick snack when a frog jumped by her one day. Without much hesitation she decided to dive in. Frothing at the mouth, she regretted it instantly and never ate frog again.

Contrary to her experience, the only frog I ate was well prepared and basted with a reasonably good sauce. This happened in China where it is customary to show restaurant guests that the food is fresh. Seeing the live frogs that I was about to eat jumping around in a bucket was definitely a new and odd experience. The frog actually tasted pretty good.

I first heard the term “Eat That Frog” from my research manager and good friend, Erlend in Oslo. Essentially, it means to do the hardest or worst task first. It’s about learning to not postpone the unpleasant items for later, but do it first and then enjoy knowing the worst is over. “Eat That Frog” is a book by Brian Tracy. However, he lifted it from a rather older, more popular author:

 “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day” 

Mark Twain

I recently encountered a very unpleasant to-do. This task is now at the very top of my list and is the most important and ugliest frog I have ever had to eat- and I cannot postpone it. I need to beat cancer.

I discovered that I had a very rare disease- appendiceal cancer- on January 27, 2020. This was the unluckiest lottery I had ever won as it strikes approximately 1/1,000,000 people and very little is know about it.

So my approach to the disease is advice straight from Mark Twain. I try to deal with the hardest or worst task in the treatment first, be it the daily pain from stretching to recover from surgery, or that first dose of chemotherapy. I attempt to take each task one at a time and get it over early and eagerly so that nothing worse happens that day. I hope this approach lets me enjoy as best as possible the rest of the day.

And so that is why this blog is titled “Stine Eats The Frog.” These are thoughts of myself, my husband and all the rest of my family and support. It’s time to eat that fresh ugly frog and do all I can to beat cancer.