I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
However.
Is it not great who it happened to and what part was affected? Even her own body is telling her to shut up.
No.
Cancer. Fucking. Sucks. It's waiting, and horror, and misery, and being stripped of basic dignities. It's your body betraying you at a level you can't see, only live with... As long as you can. If you can. It's your family, sitting by and watching you fade and pray for a clean death that you know isn't going to come. It's your family being messed up when you're gone, because you miss them, but also you're glad they're finally not suffering anymore. It's knowing that even if you beat it, you've never completely escaped it... It's always there, in the shadows. Every year, you have to get screened for it, and all the horror and uncertainty crawls back out of the closet until you get the good news and you can relax for a few more months. It's having to live with knowing every time you say "Next time I see you," it might be an empty promise. That everything you want to do next year, might never come. On some level it's true for everyone, but when cancer is involved, you can't push that into the closet and forget about it anymore. It's always there.
I lost one parent to it. Watched them die slow and awful. I
nearly lost the other parent to it, and they have never been the same since. I have to live with the genetic Sword of Damocles over my head, too, because one of them has a genetic component.
There's nothing funny about cancer. It's not karma. It's not fair. It's not justified. It's just fucking awful.
nypost.com
