I met a courageous man this morning. Hes fighting a rare form of chronic lymphoma, and although hes had a remission a few times, the cancer recurs. With each recurrence the treatment protocol is harder, more aggressive than the one before. A highly educated, professional man, hes lost his career, his livelihood, and at one point his insurance because of cancer. Chemotherapy exhaustion has made his working more than a couple hours a day impossible. Hes fighting this battle alone. I didnt ask personal questions, but I could tell that his situation, although manageable, is far from comfortable. He has access to treatment, but has to travel 45 minutes or more one way each time, and sometimes his treatment stretches over three days. Still, hes smiling and optimistic. I know that takes energy. As I was listening to his story, I remembered that cancer is more than a disease of the body; cancer ravages careers, faith, resolve, hope, and most of all personal identity. Staci always said that she was determined that cancer would not change who she is, but she had to work hard to guard against pessimism and hopelessness. I could almost see her expression change when she, once again, had to muster up the courage to continue the fight. Stories like the one I heard this morning, like Stacis and so many others, just makes me angry. We ought to have a handle on this disease by now; after all, cancer has been around since the days of the early Egyptians. I try to remind myself, as often as Im able, that we have come a long way; some cancers with early detection are curable and some cancers have an almost guaranteed period of remission. I am grateful; dont get me wrong. Im grateful for the wonderful, compassionate people who work in the cancer field; their jobs are hard and draining, but oh-so important. Im grateful that funding is available for research, though its not enough. Im grateful that even for the disastrous cancers, there is hope. Still, all of that just isnt enough. For some of us, attitude is a problem. There is a tendency to blame the patient for contracting cancer; one cancer is more acceptable because the patients lifestyle didnt open the door, while another cancer is just the patients fault. I hate that! Cancer is cancer. I dont care about personal decisions; I dont care about exposure. Those are battles I cant fight. Geaux Past Cancer can fight the cancer battle by making sure patients have access to treatment with gas cards. If you want to help us, you can go to geauxpastcancer.org and donate to Geaux Past Cancer at BRAF. We can do this together.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 17:37:15 +0000