There’s just too much cancer in the world. Period. No arguing the fact.
I now have three friends, two with breast cancer and one with kidney cancer who are about to begin treatment. About to step into the chemo room and experience yet another major life shift. It’s bad enough that they’ve heard the words, “You have cancer.” NOW, they will learn a new vocabulary filled with words like infusion, phlebotomy, port. They will sit for hours watching as bags of chemo, connected through a tube, drips silently into their bodies. They used to fill these hours working at their jobs, picking up their kids or just doing ‘stuff.’
They’ll meet new friends they really have very little in common with, except that they share this bond of cancer. That seems to be enough to cement a connection that for some, will make them pals for the rest of their lives. Sadly, some of those lives will be shortened.
When I drive up to the cancer center in Baltimore now, the parking lot is full just about all the time. I mean they turn away cars and direct them to other lots. I guess you can look at that two ways. There’s way too many people in need of treatment, or, there is such a wealth of treatment available there, the saying is true….”If you build it, they will come.”
And the chemo room is full too. An overflow in the waiting room and the pods are packed.
Now, there are three more looking for an empty chair.
January 29, 2012 @ 10:54 pm
I think the improvements in diagnostics are the reasons more women are diagnosed with breast cancer- hopefully at an early stage. Several of my friends have had biopsy’s this year- both were benign. Another friend was told to come back in 6 months- she has a suspicious spot that they are watching.
On the bright side, I just read this article and thought I would share: http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/01/25/janet-rowley-receive-japan-prize-role-development-targeted-cancer-therapy
A researcher from University of Chicago is receiving an award for her part in developing a targeted therapy for Leukemia- which has very few side effects- and since it is a targeted therapy, it is less likely to harm cells that are not cancerous. The drug was 40 years in the making.
January 29, 2012 @ 3:42 am
The new year is another chance for the healthy, cancer-free people to start rethinking about their habits and lifestyles if they have not been conscious about their health. I hope stories like these will reach them one way or another as a sort of a wake-up call.
January 28, 2012 @ 12:09 pm
I’m with Brady hoping that early detection is the reason so many come to the cancer center. I wish your friends well and that NED comes to visit and stays.
I wrote about my time in the chemo room….I made several visits to a very large chemo room over the Christmas holidays when my regular chemo room was closed that had about 30 barcoloungers waiting for us. On my visit all were full including me. I asked the nurse “why so many here today?” Her answer was “You are just the 1st shift. There are several more shifts after yours.” One thing to notice if you go into a chemo room….the quiet, the silence except an occasional noise from someone’s TV…everyone lost in their own thoughts and prayers.
January 27, 2012 @ 8:13 pm
Is it that early detection is bringing more of us to the infusion rooms or is it that there is way more cancer? I like to think it is the early detection that is cause, the other is too bleak.
And it is bleak enough to think of the times you will sit through an infusion or a radiation treatment or both.
Yet always remember to keep hope, that little flicker of light that keeps us going, remember to hold it and feel it’s warmth and expectation of a future when there won’t be a chemo drip or a radiation day.
I hope for your friends Laurie, I hope there stay in crazy land is short and that they get to hear the other words we all longed for, Congratulation, you’re a NED.