"Cancer" is a dirty word

     Cancer is a disgusting, vile, dirty, cold-blooded killer. It doesn’t care who you are, who your family is or even how old you are. It sneaks up on you and only if you’re quick enough do you catch it early enough to get rid of it. It is also THE most terrifying word in the entire human vernacular, no matter what language it is spoken in, despite it being only six letters long. I absolutely, positively, to my dying day HATE cancer.

     Yes, there is the ‘cancer’ astrological sign, which has a meaning all to itself. But the diseased definition of the ‘C’ word is terrifying. It strikes out of nowhere and if you don’t catch it quick enough, it spreads and spreads until it consumes you. I absolutely, positively hate it.

     This comes from a few different places. One: my hatred of the disease from a young age due to the death of my grandfather (as mentioned in a previous post). I feel that his disease could have been prevented, had he been born in my time, where there is abundant information on how awful smoking is for you. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. And he was taken over first by lung cancer, which spread to his liver and his brain.

     Two: I have a terrifying fear of breast cancer. I have no family history of it, but cancer doesn’t care about your family history. I have made it a goal for myself to participate in one of the breast cancer walks in the next 5 years. I make that broad goal because I have no idea when I will have the time to train for that. I can remember my mom training for it and she did it with a large group and it was intense. I want to make a difference somehow. Eventually, as a career goal, I’d like to work for a cancer group, either American Cancer Society or Livestrong. It’s just not realistic for me right now.

     Three: I watched a movie the other night called One True Thing. It starred Meryl Streep (I LOVE her) and Renee Zellwegger. In it, Streep’s character was dying of cancer. I cried during the last few scenes of her life and if it hadn’t been so late, I would have called my mom sobbing and wanting to hug her and never let go. Hell, I want to do that on most days with no provocation. I can’t imagine having to watch my mother go through that experience, which brings me to reason number four.

     Four: I just found out that an old friend from Camarillo was diagnosed with cancer and it has already progressed to stage 4. That has got to be absolutely terrifying for her and her family. I remember her and her family growing up. Her daughters played softball with my sister and our parents are friends. They moved to Washington a number of years ago and we’ve lost touch but my parents interact with her and her husband every once in a while on Facebook. I can’t imagine (as I’ve already stated) having to watch your mother go through this. I know her daughters and I know they’re going to be there 100% for their mom and supporting her all the way, along with the rest of their family. I am praying she gets better, overcomes this, kicks cancer’s ass. I sincerely hope for the best because she is an absolutely wonderful person and this world would be worse off without her.

     There are plenty of cancer foundations, groups, and societies out there to battle this ugly thing. I just hope that someday there will be a cure for it. The unfortunate thing is that cancer has many forms; there are hundreds of strains of the thing and some of them are rare and absolutely lethal. Some, even if caught early on, can still kill within a few months. You never know where or who it’s going to hit. It makes me want to live every day like it’s my last. You should too.