Editor’s note: In celebration of our company’s third birthday, Wasabi Media Group will be donating up to $1,095 to our readers’ favorite charity. Four charities have been chosen by the editorial team, and each has been aligned with an article on one of our sites. To help Cancer Research Institute win, simply click the Facebook Like button. You can learn more about this contest by reading this article.
There’s a sadness that permeates my life. It’s a nagging ache that makes its presence known, day after day, year after year. I’ve known this sadness since the age of seven, and I’m almost 48. That’s a lot of years to wrestle with a demon.
The cause of this sadness is cancer.
Cancer is as much a part of my life as my most personal attributes, a stable force. It never goes away; I guess it’s similar in a way to my unchanging love of words or even the color of my eyes. You see, my family has suffered terribly because of cancer. Aunts, uncles, cousins, my grandmother, and my mother have waged battles with this formidable foe – some died very young, some died a little older, one is currently battling the illness for the fourth time, and there are several in remission.
So far, I have been lucky. I’ve gotten married, had children, and been able to watch them grow.
Recently, I saw an advertisement for a show called the big C airing on Showtime. Curious, I had to find out about the storyline. What I learned is that the plot surrounds a woman and her family who confront her cancer diagnosis with humor. On the big C web page, the star – beautiful and fit Laura Linney – stands defiant in the face of death…an hourglass in her hand. There is a look of resolve on her face, and her golden hair flows like a crown around her head.
To me, cancer looks nothing like that. Cancer is a shaved skull weeping blood after brain surgery. It’s a cotton swab doused with water touching the lips of someone who can no longer swallow. It’s uncontrollable nausea, retching so fierce it leaves a person exhausted. No, cancer is not pretty like Ms. Linney.
I realize that each person must deal with cancer in his or her own way. Some may embrace the big C, but I will never be able to watch an episode. How could I ever laugh at something that has killed real people, including children and family members I have loved?
And it’s hard to believe that cancer (and its implications) can fit into neat, hour-long episodes, including such things as character development and inspirational soundtracks. Cancer itself is erratic and ugly…its true soundtrack is that mind-numbing sadness I mentioned earlier.
Believe me; I have searched for the up-side of having had cancer as a life mate. And what I’ve found relates back to the hourglass in Laura Linney’s hand I described above. Since I was a child, I haven’t taken time for granted. I am mortal. Each day presents itself to me as a gift. I drink in everything good, from the hug of my child to the tangy sweetness of a just-picked raspberry. Should I thank cancer for giving me this heightened awareness of life’s brevity?
No, instead, I’ll just keep going as I have been for the past 41 years – praying for better cancer treatments, or better yet for a cure. And I’ll accept shows like the big C, as anything that raises awareness of this dreaded disease deserves my praise.
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[…] the immunological treatment, control, and prevention cancer.” To support this charity, Like In Defense of the big C on Health […]
The Big C, Cancer, is not to be taken lightly. It knows no bounds. Any person, any age, any location, any organ, any time. Only through research do we get to know this enemy well enough that we may someday be able to control it. I said control it. A cure is well down the road. I hope and pray for control. This is not a glamorous illness, it is an ugly enemy. It can change who you are before you know it is there. Your physical and mental characteristics change and distort without your control. As stated in “In Defense of the Big C”, you don’t have to have cancer to be affected by it. Members of the family have to deal with the physical, emotional and financial effects from cancer. It can drain them into a weakened state of illness.
I could talk for hours on the effects of the illness and surviving. About the dedicated Physicians and Nurses that search for early detection and treatment. The ones that helped me. I am the Uncle that Lori S. mentioned in the article. I lost two sisters to cancer and Lori’s mom, my sister, is battling it for a fourth time. Luckily, I have fought off cancer twice. But, it’s there lurking…waiting.