Ten years


Yes, Doc, I have a clue

My endocrinologist said to me yesterday, "It'll be ten years this December since the second surgery. Do you know how lucky you are?"

As David Tennant says in his appeal for The Association for International Cancer Research, there isn't anyone who hasn't had cancer effect their lives in one way or another, and it's taken friends and loved ones from many of us, or we've watched them go through physical and mental anguish fighting it.

But me, I had a couple of short surgeries with none of the possible whoopsies that come of mucking about in one's neck; no chemo, no radiation; it wasn't the inheritable kind, so none of my kids had to deal with a thyroidectomy at their then-tender ages. I've a wee scar on my neck and I take a pill once a day when I wake up in the morning. The side-effects of the general anesthesia was the worst part of the whole process. Having my wisdom teeth and a Morton's Toe removed were more obnoxious to recover from.

I have an odd sort of survivor's guilt -- who am I to be Fortune's Son (well, ok -- Daughter) when a diagnosis of "malignant cancer" is the start of a decent into a living hell for so many?

But, unless I have somehow jinxed myself by posting this and the cancer marker that hasn't shown up in 10 years and well over a dozen blood tests magically reappears in my lab report this week, I am a cancer survivor, and cured.



Posted: Fri - October 10, 2008 at 04:33 PM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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