FUCK CANCER!!!!

I just read our next door neighbor's Caring Bridge update. This is the "other Jenny" I was running for this year. Tumors in her lungs are growing so fast now that they are pressing on her heart, her esophagus, etc... It all started with what they were sure was a benign tumor on the back of her neck a little over a year ago. She's had chemo, radiation, surgery, more chemo, radiation and surgery, and now more radiation immediately today just to try to buy her a little more time with her 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, who are both good friends with my DS. Her doctors say she has weeks, or maybe even just days. She is 35.

FUCK CANCER! FUCK IT!

That is so, so sad! Not fair!

Thoughts and prayers sent her way.

Thoughts and prayers - I'm really sorry to hear this, Shari.

Hopefully she beats the odds.

This breaks my heart, Shari. It seems like just too much pain for one human being to endure. My prayers are with her and her family. And you too. (((Shari)))

I don't know if "our" Jenny will chime in here, but yes, cancer is evil......pure.  In fact, I know a guy who used to work at a blood lab for a large pharma company who did nothing but test blood all day & he always used to tell me about how evil he thought cancer was because he could see what cancer did in the blood.  Cancer is undisciplined cells that go rogue.  It's no different than when somebody goes evil.  The body produces healthy cell, healthy cell, rinse repeat & then one day, cancer cells spit out & try to take over.  EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I know this is morbid, but does anybody else ever feel like cancer is coming for them??

 

I feel like it's only a matter of time before one form of cancer or another comes to get me (or any of us) because there are so many avenues for cancer & increasily so, it seems.  Anyway, I hope the opposite is true & we gain on it more & more but it just doesn't fel like it.

Let's start with the obvious.  Ain't none of us gonna live forever. However, the majority of us will die either from heart failure or from some other acute illness that weakens us to the point that we have multiple organs that begin to fail.  If you are a male, you will get prostate cancer if you live long enough.  The good news about that is that most of us will die with it rather than of it.  In the U.S. cancer is a very close second to heart disease in the number of deaths at 574,743 for cancer and 597,689 for heart disease (per CDC data for 2010 - the most recent report I could find in a very brief search).  Link to Data

Another reality is that we still can't do a hell of a lot about cancer.  I speculate that much of the reason is that many cancers don't manifest themselves in the early stages and once they have progressed to the later stages, there is little that can be done other than to prolong someone's life by a few months.  The cancer can't be cured.

The good news is that you can substantially reduce (not eliminate) your risk of contracting cancer by doing exactly those things you know you ought to do such as exercise, eat a variety of foods including lots of fruit and veggies, watch your weight, and don't smoke.  Importantly, regular exercise both reduces your risk of getting and increases your chances of surviving various forms of cancer.

Oh, no.  That's so awful, I don't even know what to say.