OK, before you read on be forewarned that this is mostly depressing, I think.
Cancer seems to be the word circulating among my friends and acquaintances these days. I have a small group of friends and it is touching us all in some way. Now, my dad died of lung cancer many years ago but he was 1. a smoker and 2. involved in nuclear testing in WWII. And at that time he was the only person I knew with cancer. Fast forward 20 some years and in just the last 6 months-
-my sister in law lost her long battle with breast cancer, she was 52
-my aunt had a reoccurance of her breast cancer, she is 80 and was 72 the first time
-one of the women taking care of my niece (the niece that lost her mother to breast cancer) was diagnosed with breast cancer, she is 50
-one of my best friends childhood friends ( and my acquaintance) is now fighting breast cancer - she went the full mastectomy route and is doing chemo, she is 45
-the same friends co-worker has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and despite going in for a yearly mammogram because her mother died of ovarian cancer and her sister got breast cancer at 19, they did not notice it (it was there for like 4 years unnoticed). She now has it in her lungs and liver so things do not look good. She is in her late 40s I think and has a 19 year old daughter.
-an acquaintance's mother is currently in the hospital with a colon tumor. No one has said cancer yet but I am a bit removed from the immediate situation so it may be. I guess in light of the others my mind goes right to it.
It just seems to me that this word has been coming up a lot lately. I don't know if it's my age and thus the age of my associates, or if there is some increase going on. It seems to be awfully damn close. And the one that bothers me the most is the woman that did the right thing, and though the cancer was growing on the mammogram they didn't catch it. Is it a womans' health care issue? Is it increasing? Am I reaching the age where we just start getting it and seeing it more? 50 isn't old to me. Not even when I was a teenager. And most of the people I hear about are 40s and 50s. Is the planet trying to thin the herd because we keep curing things it throws at us?
Sometimes I actually believe that one. We've done such a good job of protecting those that would normally extinguish themselves through stupidity that the world has had to counter with things much more aggressive. Hmm.
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well, my bro had cancer, my grandma had something cancerous, and my great-aunt did as well. my grandfathers probably would have as well, had they not died of heart disease first. there's also my cat. ;) people didn't talk about their medical conditions before like they do now, so i'll bet far more people we all know had cancer at one time or another, just no one said things. but there are a lot more carcinogens out there nowadays...
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