Cancer Sucks

Lance Armstrong beat cancer. It is difficult to comprehend his recovery. His testicular cancer spread to his lungs, his brain, and throughout his body and yet he not only survived, he went on to have such good health that he won seven straight Tour de France bike races. Winning one Tour is one of the singular most difficult things to do in all of sports. Seven? Seven. It shouldn't be possible. He should be dead. But he isn't. And that fact gives hope to everyone who wears one of his yellow bracelets.

My mom is one of those people. Her diagnosis of stage four lung cancer which metastasized to her brain is every bit as grim as Lance Armstrong's was. She chose to fight, like he did, and has survived a full year since her diagnosis. She has endured hours of radiation, months of chemo, three hospitalizations, and brain surgery in that span of time. This week, Mom had to be admitted to University Hospital due to complications caused by the tumor in her lung. You see, it didn't get the memo from Lance that it was supposed to just shrivel up and go away. It decided to fight back and has managed to keep growing throughout the past year. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that the tumor is winning the battle right now. But it hasn't won. The doctors have a procedure planned next week that may help relieve some of Mom's symptoms. In the meantime, Mom checked herself out of the hospital (against her doctor's wishes) in order to wait for her surgery in the comfort of her own home. Have you ever tried to talk my mom out of doing something?

Cancer sucks. My mom's mom died from it. Her grandma died from it. Bethany's grandma died from it. A good friend of mine who was 29 years old died from it. (Jen was an only child and I'll never forget watching her parents kiss her goodbye at her funeral.) Cancer killed John "I'm the toughest sombitch there ever was" Wayne for God's sake. But Lance Armstrong- he beat it. Not just a tiny little cancerous mole. He beat stage four cancer that spread throughout his body. He went on to greatness. He proved that nothing is impossible. And guess what: he isn't half as tough as my mom. But then, you already knew that, didn't you?

So please keep sending those positive vibes Mom's way. But don't feel sorry for her. Feel sorry for the cancer whose ass she's gonna kick. (And feel a little sorry for the doctors and nurses who tried in vain to convince her to stay at the hospital.)