Vile F'n Cancer

[jim]

The day Pujols hit 3 homeruns, I was sitting in Wrigley Field before the game with my two sons. I had gotten some vague word that one of my best friends wife had cancer, but I didn't have the details yet. I figured it was something treatable, she was too beautiful for something like cancer to take her. I got a call from Mike, who informed me it was in the liver. I knew that was a death sentence.

Fast forward one year, and she passed the day before her youngest daughter graduated HS.

We saw her several times at 2-3 month intervals, and the decline was exponential. The first few times we saw her, she looked more or less normal. By fall, she started to show some wear. At Christmas, she looked bad. I never saw her after that, the last few months were just too hard on her.

Everything has two sides, and her cancer woke me up. I hadn't seen my buddy in over a year, and since her illness we have been in constant contact. It really woke me up to the fact that life is short, friends matter, and you better take advantage of it while you can. I remember soaking in that day at Wrigley with my two boys, knowing that it was a special day and that I had better not one second go unnoticed. Albert did his part too. I'm closer with all of my friends today because of her passing, a hell of a price to pay to remind folks of something they shouldn't be reminded of.

[sighyoung]

I'm sorry for your loss, thrill. She sounds like a special lady, and I'm glad that you could share the love of sports with her.

[IlliniAmy]

My 37-year-old cousin, who is like a sister to me, and a rock I've leaned on during some tough educational challenges with my son, is currently fighting mouth cancer for the 4th time in 3 1/2 years. In December 2008, the doctors peeled back the skin under her mouth/chin and took out cancer cells and 36 lymph nodes. She had to have a skin graft with tissue from her thigh. They were confident they got all of it. In December 2009, she had a similar surgery. It was a new cancer, not a spread of the previous one. They were confident they got all of it. In December 2011, it was on her tongue (the previous two were the floor of her mouth, and they went in from underneath). They removed roughly 1/3 of her tongue. They were confident they got all of it.

This summer, they found a spread. This was the first time that it wasn't a new cancer. They mouth cancer has found ways to get to other parts of her body. They cut into her neck and removed 2 lumps and several lymph nodes. A few weeks ago, they did a facial mold in order to make a face mask. They also put in a feeding tube and a port for chemo treatments. Today she is undergoing her 10th radiation treatment. Her radiation treatments began on July 30th and will last for 7 straight weeks, Monday through Friday. She is entirely immobile during the treatments, which thankfully only last about 30 minutes. That first day she also went through a full day of chemo treatments. She will also receive full day chemo treatments on August 20th and September 10th. She is expected to lose her hair (which will grow back, of course), endure 2nd and 3rd degree burns in her throat (which will eventually heal), permanently lose her salivary gland, and suffer either a partial permanent hearing loss or permanent ringing in the ears.

I repeat. She is 37 (will turn 38 on Monday). She is currently a professor (though she'll miss this entire fall semester) at Illinois State University, teaching future Special Education teachers. She is a former Special Education teacher, grade school principal, and Special Education Administrator (unrelated side note: her former employer was Jason Isringhausen's alma mater, Southwestern School District in Brighton, Illinois). She loves, loves, loves teaching. Loves it. When the cancer was found again this summer she was emphatic that she wouldn't let them take anymore of her tongue. She already undergoes speech therapy due to the December 2011 surgery.

She defines herself by her teaching and insists she's never had a day where she went home and told herself it was a bad day teaching. She is witty, funny, smart, and caring. I love her to pieces and I think it sucks that at such a young age she is already having to weigh quality of life versus extension of life types of questions. Yes, cancer sucks. Cancer is vile. F cancer.

[IMADreamer]

I hope this is not inappropriate but I feel like this thread could use some good news, and that is my Gf just called me after leaving her big check up where she got the results of her latest round of scans and the doctor told her everything looks great, keep doing what she's doing, see you in three months. It appears that this may be one of those extremely rare cases where it was actually caught early enough that it's all gone. I know the last time she went I was with her and the doctor was really positive and basically said that this has gone as good as it can and basically it sounds like this appointment was the same.

It's really awesome because it's really just been recently where I feel like our life has regain some sort of normalcy and it's not hanging over our head. We are making long term plans and all.

I guess my point is for those of you with a loved one that's fighting, keep it up. You can beat this vile F'n cancer.

[JackofDiamonds]

That's phenomenal news. My boss is 18 months out from her breast cancer and my brother-in-law is 6 years out from kidney... so great when that [expletive] gets beat. [expletive] you cancer.

[thrill]

I hope this is not inappropriate

News about good people getting the better of cancer has never ever been inappropriate. Happy for you, man!

[lukethedrifter]

Really good news,

[phins]

I hope this is not inappropriate but I feel like this thread could use some good news, and that is my Gf just called me after leaving her big check up where she got the results of her latest round of scans and the doctor told her everything looks great, keep doing what she's doing, see you in three months. It appears that this may be one of those extremely rare cases where it was actually caught early enough that it's all gone. I know the last time she went I was with her and the doctor was really positive and basically said that this has gone as good as it can and basically it sounds like this appointment was the same.

It's really awesome because it's really just been recently where I feel like our life has regain some sort of normalcy and it's not hanging over our head. We are making long term plans and all.

I guess my point is for those of you with a loved one that's fighting, keep it up. You can beat this vile F'n cancer.

That's great news friend. Cancer is awful. It took my grandmother from me and I still bite my lip from even thinking about it and that was 18 years ago. F cancer.

[Diddy]

That's awesome news

[sighyoung]

That's great, IMADreamer. Thanks for sharing, because that brightened my day, too.