Is Cancer a Journey, a Quest, Or and Adventure?

a beginning lexicon, part 1

I’ve called my experiences with cancer by a number of names, and different ones for each step from diagnosis through two kinds of radiation and a year of anti-hormone therapy as I encountered fear, trauma, and loneliness, to where I am now, in surveillance, with post-treatment uncertainty as to whether the cancer is gone. I continue to deal with a number of side-effects that stubbornly don’t want to fade away, and I’ve had to make adjustments in my life to accommodate them. In the coming weeks, I will see a urologist and a cancer dietician looking for solutions.

I’d love to hear how you describe your experiences with cancer, and I’ll post what I hear back. 

Turning Cancer Into Art

 

Tony Hoagland, pancreatic cancer

Tony Hoagland died of Stage 4 pancreatic cancer on October 23, 2018. He knew he had the cancer for only two years because this kind is hard to diagnose before it becomes terminal. Pancreatic cancer is potentially curable if the cancer is caught early, is on the head of the pancreas, and it hasn’t spread, then it can be surgically removed, followed by a course of chemotherapy.

Music, Cancer, and Creativity

 

Franz Liszt and grief

As we get older, more of our friends and family pass away. And while we expect this, it’s still a shock. Some die from cancer, some from old age or accidents. Too many die young, we think, before their time. Yet a life of attention and service to others is not diminished by the shortness of time, nor does the length of a life bestow any particular honor.

Not realizing how fragile life is, and how quickly death can come, we can be so unnerved by an unexpected death that we wake up every morning fearing that someone else we love has died. And every strange ache, every cough and tick of our body, can make us fear that something is seriously wrong with us and we’re next to go. 

Continuing To Live While Dying

 In her book, The Bright Hour, Nina Riggs talks to us as a friend, keeping us up to date with what’s going on in her life and with her triple negative breast cancer. We don’t have to the building tension of wondering if she is going to survive or not because she lets us know in the prologue that she has eighteen to thirty-six months to live. This allows us to relax and be with her in her day-to-day life. She shares how she continues to live her life in between cancer treatments as she raises two young boys with her husband John. The writing is presented in snapshot moments.