Saturday, July 28, 2012

F$@#!^ Cancer

I'm not that old, but all of a sudden, people around me seem to be getting cancer.  Growing up, I always thought it was just old people who got it.  Okay, sure, there were the odd kids here and there who did, but it wasn't the norm.  Was I just perceiving these people with cancer as being much older than they actually were, or are people getting sick younger?

In a way, that second one makes sense.  There are so many new chemicals around that we use daily, so much more pollution.  Who knows what effect these things are having on our bodies?  It's kind of scary!  I already lost one friend to liver cancer a few years back, and he was far too young to die.

And this week one of my best girlfriends was told that her second round of breast surgery didn't get all the cells and she's facing a masectomy.  She's only a few years older than me.  Not even five.  So I'm getting nervous.  My mother had cancer a couple of years back.  Her surgery was successful, thankfully, but clearly there is a pre-disposition to it in my family.  And I haven't lived as cleanly as my mother has.

I'm not sure what my point is here.  I'm just angry, I guess.  And scared for the future.  And unsure what I can do to make things better for the people growing up behind me.  I know medical technology is getting better and better, and a cancer diagnosis isn't necessarily a death sentence.  But it's still one of the biggest killers and it's picking on my friends.  I don't like it!

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