Who’s the survivor?
What does it mean to be a cancer survivor?
Is there such a thing?
How does some one make it to that special place?
I heard a breast cancer patient talk about that today. She doesn’t like the word “survivor” when it’s used in cancer world. She said it sounds like there’s a beginning, middle and an end to having cancer. She’s been through a tremendous amount of cancer treatment and has been told that she doesn’t have the disease any more, but that doesn’t mean she’s a survivor; at least it doesn’t mean that to her.
She’s still on strong meds to help keep her cancer free…that’s the plan any way. So she doesn’t call herself a “survivor.”
She a strong, realist of cancer’s wrath.
Leroy went 4 1/2 years without a trace of cancer and then, BOOM, a drooping cheek led to a brain CT and his “survivor” status changed in a heartbeat. He was never a fan of the word either.
“It’s not what we see, it’s what we don’t see.”
That’s what the doctors are thinking, when they send their patients back out into the world after successful treatment.
Is the cancer gone or is it moving through the blood stream in search of new places to conquer?
This breast cancer patient might be on to something. Who’s the survivor then?
February 26, 2014 @ 8:27 pm
As I approach my yearly visit, after having been NED since 07, I still quiver inside. I still ponder what if, how will I explain to my kids, How will I..
Not sure I ever will get over this. I just continue to put one foot in front of the other and hope.
February 27, 2014 @ 8:53 pm
NO quivering allowed!!!
All good thoughts building to that day, Brady!
February 26, 2014 @ 9:42 am
I have considered myself a survivor ever since the day my tumor was removed. I needed that positivity to fuel me through the treatment regimen that I was yet to undergo. I would have done so with whatever word was being used. I agree with Beegee. Each day that I wake up in the morning is another that I’ve been given in spite of breast cancer and multiple myeloma. It doesn’t matter that one is curable and the other is not. What matters is each day. I would embrace the word “du jour” if another takes the place of “survivor”. It is the positive that we all need. And this does not apply just to patients. It also applies to our dear caregivers!
February 26, 2014 @ 9:58 am
I completely understand the need for the word survivor in cancer world. It does everything Judie and Beegee feel and then some. I guess we all have to interpret it to fit our needs.
Yes, Nan, I heard Madhulika Sikka on NPR. She is an old, dear friend who was a member of Leroy’s staff at Nightline for many years. She is a strong, determined and lovely lady. She has done what she has needed to get through some very tough cancer treatment and she has “survived.” It’s just the word that isn’t in her vocabulary.
February 26, 2014 @ 7:20 am
Unlike the book’s author (and likely NPR interview subject) I am a cancer survivor who embraces the word–because to me life itself has a beginning, middle and end. And while I am likely in the last years of the middle of this journey, aging toward the end, I do not connect it to the word “terminal” but rather to “inevitable.” Be it from cancer or car accident, tsunami or the effects of aging, we will all die. But in the meantime I believe each of us is a survivor and, if we are bright or lucky or courageous, we can make these years the best of all.
February 25, 2014 @ 9:07 pm
Heard an excellent piece on NPR this morning about a new book “Breast Cancer Alphabet.” It is worth a listen if you go to the NPR web site. Might be the same one you heard, Laurie. Really made me think.