Cancer Sucks

You've seen the signs, right?

I HATE CANCER

Well, I can't agree more. For some reason, over the last few months, it is running rapid among my friends and family, and it feels like it's taking control of lives that shouldn't be affected.

Take my uncle for example. He's been a successful farmer for years, worked hard, paid his dues, married my wonderful aunt and continues to treat her as a queen, raised three beautiful kids who provided him a wealth of grandbabies, manages a sense of humor to make anyone's day. And yet, cancer has invaded his body. He's fought the fight, dealt with the headaches, completed bounds of treatment, and now the doctors tell him it's not helping.

Or what about our close family friend, who won a silent auction basket providing her a health exam that she probably wouldn't have considered doing otherwise. It led her into the surgical room with the likelihood that she had thyroid cancer. After the scare of who would mother her young girls at home, she was discharged with good news.

If one case of thyroid cancer isn't enough, I recently learned of another -- my cousin. She's younger than I, recently became a mother, and now scared that she may not be able to produce another baby. Her surgery was a full removal of the thyroid, and again successful. She's home relaxing now with her daughter - the best place to be.

Another uncle of mine is now experiencing multiple, consecutive days of chemotherapy each week to fight off the swelling tumors in his neck. He, like all others I speak of, doesn't deserve this. He has three grown girls, who lost their mother young from an MS battle nearly 5 years ago. The last they need is to watch their father struggle through a similar fight.

And finally, a dear friend from our days in Minneapolis recently went in for routine exam, ended up with a scheduled hysterectomy and stage 3A uterine cancer. She provides speech therapy for early childhood kiddos and truly spends her days with the children as her main focus. She isn't self-focused, arrogant, or selfish.... she's just the opposite - caring, considerate, and modest. Why her?

And then I remember my first, memorable interaction with cancer. I was in high school and I witnessed my young aunt, in her twenties, fighting breast cancer. She had (and still has!) and amazingly beautiful husband, and two precious baby girls at home, and yet I sat with her on the floor of her living room, crying about a boyfriend that did me wrong. That was when she looked at me, and shared how short life is. She divulged her experiences and showed me that her beautiful hair was a wig. Her story really affected me, touched my heart, and changed my life. I watched her continue to battle this terrible disease, and nearly twenty years later, after many prayers, she remains cancer free.

It's courage like hers that we need to remember. Here's to hoping that all those I love so dearly can fight this battle as strong as my aunt has. And as hard as it is, we need to remember that cancer really is limited...