Not that giraffes are not amazing creatures, because they totally are, I wish to also post about something else today: cancer.
In the last 2-3 months the amount of caner that has become apart of my life has greatly escalated. In June a neighbour and long time family friend was diagnosed with secondary cancer and only survived for 3 weeks passing away in early July. This was such a shock to everyone as this woman was extremely healthy and rarely sick until one day when she just 'didn't feel quite right,' at which point her body simply shut down because they were too late.
Up until a few years ago I was fortunate enough to not have had cancer affect any members of my family. 3 years ago my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer and my grandmother with esophageal cancer. My grandmother is no longer alive, however my aunt has demonstrated huge amounts of strength undergoing a number of rounds of radiation treatment, surgery, and many months at home unable to return to work.
A close friend of mine's mother was also recently diagnosed with breast cancer and she is undergoing chemotherapy. I am truly amazed at how well he is handling everything considering what his mother is going through. I suppose what really hammered the nail on the head was today. I had lunch with one of my oldest friends and as we were driving to our lunch location she received a call from her father and he asked her to pull over because he had some bad news. He proceeded to tell her that he has prostate cancer and that he will be having surgery in late october. Since we had literally grown up together I know her father pretty well and I have many memories of him joking around with us, etc...
Up until today I believed my family to be a rather healthy bunch, and for the most part we are, but cancer seems to be everywhere these days and its quite creepy how quickly it has inserted itself into my life. I just feel like it's only a matter of time before someone in my immediate family is diagnosed with it. I know you can't live in fear of something that may never happen, but I just wonder how many more people are going to have to be affected by this terrible disease before a cure is found or revealed (as I'm sure there is one and the man is just not letting the masses have access to it).
Since cancer has never been apart of my immediate family I often don't know how to react when people who are heavily affected by it speak to me about it. Today I gave my friend a hug and was there for her as she cried because that's what she needed from me. For me that's pretty easy though. My other friend whose mother is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer a few days ago mentioned off hand that his mothers hair had begun to fall out. Since he simply mentioned it in passing, I was not sure if he wanted to talk about it or he just said it because he needed to say it out loud. How do you know what to say to that?
Cancer, what the fuck? Coming into our homes, stealing our family.
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