Can I get a hearty round of “Fuck cancer!”? Ok… 1…, 2…,

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

[Just needing to vent a little.]
There is something to be said for having a physician with a poor bedside manner. They may act like a jerk but one thing is for sure: they don’t mince words.

Three months ago a friend of mine was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. We go to school together, so I sat ringside as she underwent multiple surgeries and suffered a slow recovery from each one. She was determined to attend as many lectures as she could, so we all saw her on her worst – and thankfully best – days.

Saturday the 18th someone I know as a casual acquaintance (friend of a friend sort of thing) posted to FB that she was going in for some “scans”, and that the doctor was treating “it” as cancer. No further information at that time, and it was clear that the post was meant to provide more info for friends that knew more than the FB denizens.

This past Tuesday, a week ago today, my mother called me and informed me that an old friend of the family was diagnosed with liver cancer a couple weeks ago. When asked how bad it was, the oncologist stated point-blank “on a scale of 1-10, it’s an 8”. This woman, and her entire family, has been very close to us our entire lives. Her son and I grew up together. He was the best man at my wedding.

Saturday I learned from some people at church that a very prominent, popular member of the local healthcare community has been diagnosed with cancer as well. He attends the same church, but has been absent for several months.

That evening I logged onto FB and the FOAF posted that it had been diagnosed as cancer and the doctors believe it may have spread to her lymph nodes.

Four people I know, two of which I consider close personal friends have been diagnosed with cancer in the past three months. I learned about three of them in the past week.

I’ve seen more people die than I can count, and long ago learned to emotionally distance myself, as best I could, from death. But this time… I don’t know. Perhaps Providence is telling me to find a different line of work.

My wife and I are being evicted from our home and both of us are struggling in school. I was stressed, but then this… makes our troubles seem so insignificant.

So. Fuck cancer.

2

My Mom and Dad and Father-in-Law all died from cancer or cancer-related illness. I’m with you. FUCK CANCER!

3

My mother was one of 11 children. Of the 11, 6 have had cancer. My mother had it twice. My aunt is still battling breast cancer after about 20 years and several reoccurrences. Mother had breast cancer. My sister had breast cancer and thyroid cancer in the same year. My aunt (father’s side) had thyroid cancer. My nephew had thyroid cancer. My father, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer. His mother died of pancreatic cancer. A cousin and uncle have had kidney cancer, two uncles with colon cancer. And that’s just close family. Cancer sucks.

StG

4

We found out 2 weeks ago that my Mom’s ovarian cancer is back. It’s barely been a year since the last round of chemo. I knew that it would probably re-occur, because that’s what this cancer does, but damn, I would have given a lot to have another year or two before it did.

I find the hardest part is staying in balance. It’s easy for me to flip to either side of the outcomes - I can easily forget how serious it is because she’s doing well, day-to-day, or I can dive down into the depths and start planning her funeral, because the 5-year prognosis on what she has is about 75% of the people die from it. The reality is that nobody really knows what will happen, she’s responds well to chemo, it could go either way, and there’s really absolutely no benefit in worrying about things or over-analyzing them. But hell, it’s hard to stay there.

It’s also hard that it’s happened to MY mother. I seem to be surrounded by people who aren’t close to their parents, or who have a not-so-great relationship with their mothers. My mother, on the other hand, is absolutely perfect and it sucks that she has to go through this. Why can’t one of the BAD mothers get this?!?

(and yeah, I know, nobody needs cancer nor deserves it. The above paragraph is just me venting.)

5

Someone recently posted a picture of an 8-month-old girl whose cancer was in remission, wearing a t-shirt with that phrase on it in pink glittery letters, on Facebook with hopes that it would go viral.

Most of the response was negative, because they felt that was highly inappropriate for a child that young to be wearing a shirt like that. But I do agree with the sentiment.

6

My grandmother died from cancer, my mother died from cancer and my step mother died from cancer.

Also I have cancer.

So, yeah, Fuck Cancer!

7

Fuck cancer!!

8

I am willing to stand up and tell cancer to go fuck itself.

I fully realize cancer cannot hear me.

9

My favorite uncle just died after struggling for oh, maybe ten years? He was only 59. He had five grandchildren who absolutely adored him (although the youngest was just a baby and really won’t remember him) and now another was just born who will never know what an awesome person he was. FUCK CANCER. I mean, seriously, FUCK cancer.

:mad:

10

My mom died of cancer in 2011, and a good friend of mine is going through chemo for lymphoma right now (though, thankfully, his prognosis is very good).

So yeah. Fuck cancer. Sideways.