An ending and a beginning…
Let’s call it the vicious cycle of cancer.
The beginning goes something like this: A discovery, a probe to discover more about the discovery, a biopsy, a scan, a plan and then it begins for real.
The “You have cancer” moment has moved to the “You are living with cancer” reality.
Such is the case with a close friend who heard the words chemotherapy and radiation in a conversation with her doctor today. A treatment plan is being assembled. She’s decided to leave town for the long weekend. She’s planning on leaving her cancer at her door. It will be there when she returns.
Then there’s a wonderful young man who lost his Dad a few months ago. Death from cancer.
That goes something like this: The discovery, jumping ahead to the plan, treatment and more treatment when the first line therapies are not successful, possibly a clinical trial, always holding on to HOPE, even when HOPE runs out.
He says he’s doing OK. He says there are good and bad days, but it’s his Mom he’s worried about because she is just so sad. I try to explain that this grieving is a process. We all do it differently, but we all need to do it.
Death from cancer.
A vicious cycle.
September 5, 2016 @ 6:37 pm
We are all too familiar with the bad news when discussing cancer!! Every once in awhile, there is good news that penetrates the darkness. Now I know that sometimes we are reluctant to talk about the patients, friends and family members who seemingly have beaten the beast, for this moment.
I have a friend, a young woman, who I call Super Woman. She has fought melanoma toe-to-toe in a steel cage death match and has won, for the moment. Melanoma has been in most every vital organ in her body except her heart. It will just not go away or concede that it has met its match. Spoke to her via email. She is doing well. NED. Her major complaint is that she has minimal to no hair due to chemo and radiation. She says that hats and scarfs are her statements of fashion. I encouraged her to shave her head…be bold and be bald as a symbol for others. Cancer may cause what we and she claim as vanity..her hair….but I see her baldness as a sign of strength and courage when the foe she fought usually wins. I suggested that she and so many others need to be heard and seen to give HOPE to those who are in the fight now or are just newly diagnosed. Super Woman may have lost her hair but she stands tall and beautiful to so many. Prayers as always Cathy.
September 2, 2016 @ 8:21 pm
It is a cycle indeed…sometimes an ugly one! The children that are fighting are the ones that truly break my heart…no child or parent should be at the mercy of the beast!