A year and a half ago cancer entered into my life because it entered into my "bestest friend in the whole world's" life and I know things will never, ever be the same. I was in New York's JFK airport coming back from a European trip when I got the email that said her biopsy was positive. We were waiting for our flight home and there was nowhere to go and no where to sit. I sat on the cold cement floor with a numb butt and a numb heart. I've since watched my friend go through medication regimes, took notes while her doctor explained options and watched the huge radiation machine with its red laser lines mark the spot to burn the foreign cancer out of her breast. This year she walked in the CIBC Run for the Cure and got wear a pink shirt that marked her as a survivor! I am so proud of her but I hate Cancer and I hate it for what it did do and what it could have done to her.
Earlier this year an acquaintance was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Several times I took her to an alternative clinic for IV treatment and to the Cancer Clinic for Chemo. Her radiation treatments finished in early September and then a week later she found a lump in her neck. Apparently, the cancer never stopped growing and now it is stage 4 galloping breast cancer. The doctor has said that she will have cancer for the rest of her life and they have put her on long-term low dose chemo. She has improved and she says she is feeling better. Life goes on and she is living with cancer every day.
Last month I got word that another friend was succumbing to Cancer. She was one of BC's longest living survivors with active breast cancer. Her fight had been going on for over 20 years which gives me hope for my friend with the galloping cancer. She passed away three weeks ago surrounded by her family and loved ones. There were over 400 people at her memorial.
Two weeks ago we received an email message from another good friend. Her eighty-six year old deaf mother had been diagnosed with leukemia and had been given between 2 weeks to a month to live. A**** was a grandmother type figure to me and certainly to many of us who knew her. We had gotten to know them when we travelled & shared a car while going to the same conferences (assemblies) in California. Some of our best times were the extended vacations we took after the conferences were over. She passed away on October 7 just a week and a half after diagnosis and the memorial will be held this weekend. We will miss her deeply.
This past Sunday we went out to our local waffle house for lunch and as we passed the counter we couldn't help but notice The Province newspaper which contained a front page article about 17 year old Chelsey Bigland-the lovely young woman who I blogged about previously. The paper said that she had found out the day before that her cancer was gone! She has won her battle!
Today I got a call from my "adopted" mom. Her eighty something year old mother fell yesterday and was rushed to the hospital via ambulance. The doctors did a CT scan, found a "spot" on her brain that was not caused by the fall and wanted to operate immediately. Because B**** was so dazed and confused she could not give consent for the surgery so the doctors revisited the results of the scan and determined that due to her age it would not be in her best interests to perform surgery. They have sent her home. Now it is up to my mom to try and interpret what all of that means and no doubt she will soon be on a plane to Edmonton to talk to the doctors. I am not really close to B**** and I've only met her a few times but I am very close to my mom and anything that will cause her anguish causes me pain too. Neither of us used the "C" word but I know the possibility is weighing heavily on our hearts and minds.
In addition to the six people I've mentioned, if I count the people I know in my congregation who have had cancer within the last five years (5) along with the people I work with (5) and other friends & family (3), that is 19 people in my life who have been seriously affected by some form of cancer. When I think of all of their friends & family members who have have also been touched and all of the people on this planet who are affected by this disease in some way I think we all have reason to hate the epidemic that cancer has become.
Like I said...if cancer were a person I'd put it out of its and our misery once and for all. I'm ready to bury the loser that has made my friends cry. Anyone got a shovel?
Salynne ©2009
I've said before that cancer is such a part of my family tree that it has become an honorary family member.
ReplyDeleteI think of all the aunts, uncles, and grandparents that have passed away, only one or two were due to things not related to some type of cancer.
So yeah, I'll get the shovel. And then I'll hold Cancer down for you.
You will have to fight me for that shovel...Cancer is such a cruel enemy and takes as many prisoners as it can. I remember watching my brother battle cancer and it was a horrible ordeal. Am glad though he has successfully beaten it thus far.
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