No More Empty Fortune Cookies!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The C Word

When did people stop calling it "The Big C", or "The C Word", and just start saying it, "Cancer"? I remember my parents and grandparents in the kitchen in hushed voices saying, "Did you hear? Shirley's got the Big C. It came back..."
I wondered if she was taking classes and not doing very well. I was young, and I was wrong, at least about the school part.
I recently found out that two of my cousins have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
One is my Tia Anita's daughter, the other is my Auntie Maggie's. My friend lost his wife last year after a very short, dramatically short battle with pancreatic cancer. It was only a couple of weeks after her diagnosis before she lost her battle. She was young, and left behind two young daughters. I hate that for their family. Hate it.
Then again, I don't know whether that was a blessing or just another one of life's cruel twists of fate. I suppose it was a little bit of both.
I watched my aunt die slowly, painfully, mercilessly from cancer. She was deluded by the morphine, overwhelmed with pain, and frightened.
It took that woman two years to pass. Two years of bed baths, tubes, needles, nurses...
Two years of my uncle tending to her dutifully. Two years of her children and family watching her suffer day after day, after day...
Cancer. She doesn't care who you are, how old or young you are, how much money you do or don't have to spend fighting her. She pays no attention to how kind and generous you've been in your life. Karma is not in her vocabulary. She'd just as soon pick you as anyone else on this planet.
No rhyme. No reason.
Cancer is an equal opportunity bitch.

4 cookies cracked:

Lisa Price said...

Equal opportunity bitch, indeed. :( And everyone seems touched by it, whether it is us, our immediate family, a friend, or just someone we know from online. Maybe this generation will be the one to wipe it out...

Reb said...

Yes, it knows no bounds. I am sorry to hear about your cousins diagnoses and sorry too that your Aunt had to suffer for so long. We need to allow euthanasia for people in extreme cases like this. We don't allow our pets to suffer, but yet, people, who can tell us they want to die are told no, your have to let nature (or Doctors) take it's course.

Anonymous said...

One of my good friends (Drew - a coworker) died a year and a half ago from pancreatic cancer, less than 2 months after diagnosis. He had been having "stomach" troubles for about 2 weeks and just feeling bad in general. He turned really white and ashen looking one weekend, and his partner took him to the ER. They admitted him and kept for a few days to run some tests. He was absolutely shocked of course. Once they found out what it was, they staged it, and said it was too far gone to treat. He could have tried, but they said the treatments would only make his last days uncomfortable. He chose not to do a thing about it. He kept working until he was too sick to make it in each day...I remember hearing about the diagnosis from another friend who had talked to him that weekend...when he came back to work that first day after, i walked up to him and just stared. We both got tears in our eyes and said nothing for a few minutes, just looked at each other. He was so young, only in his later 40's. I loved him to death....some of my favorite smoke breaks at work were spent with him, gossiping like the girls "we" were...hearing him joke about how he wanted to wear high heels on his hot date with "my young stud" that night...hearing him say bye every single afternoon with his signature phrase "See ya'll bitches lataaah, this girl is headed to the trailah park!" (He lived in a 3000 sqft house LOL) We didn't even know each other that long, but knowing him had a profound effect on me....he was a cooky, wacky, eccentric, outspoken, brazen, "out" and WONDERFUL person. I miss him so much. He left behind a 3 year old granddaughter whose life will never be the same. If we have a son, his name will be Andrew and we will call him Drew. :)

I'm sorry your family is going through this. I hope it passes quickly and with the least pain possible, for everyone. :(

Fortune Cookies said...

Lisa- I hope so!
Reb- I totally agree. I just used that analogy about how we are more humane to our pets the other day.
Summer- I'm sorry for your loss! Cancer is such a bitch! I hope Lisa is right and this generation will be the one to find a cure.