Hi! I'm Cancer! No, Not the Astrological Sign. The Disease.

[Berry Cool]

This is a picture of me. I happen to be a breast cancer cell. But I have lots of relatives that are other kinds of cells that form in other parts of the body. We can set up shop just about anywhere.

Once upon a time, we were just normal cells in your body, sorta like Tim McVeigh was once just another American boy. But then, as with him, something went wrong. Something inspired us to go crazy, and we just started crankin' out kids--being fruitful and multiplying. A lot.

Some of us are kind of lazy and don't go much of anywhere else, but others among us like to travel. For example, some of my closest friends like to move and set up residency in the liver, or the bones, or the brain. Hey, whatever's hospitable to us.

Supporting our huge families takes a lot. It pretty much takes everything out of your body, unless you can somehow stop us--including your life. Yeah, that's the downside. We steal and steal and steal what we need from you, and then, if you die, we don't have much of a choice but to die along with you. Not really thinking ahead, were we? But hey, no one ever gave us points for being smart.

In fact, we have no brains capable of higher thought. All we really know how to do is keep multiplying. The only instinct we have is to stay alive and make more like ourselves. We don't really care about anything else.

Why am I saying this? Because it has come to my attention that some people in DU, whom we have obviously never touched personally, seem to think that we make our decisions as to whether or not to "go crazy" and multiply in someone's body according to what they do in their personal lives. You know, according to whether you're a good or a bad person in THEIR eyes. A conservative or a liberal. A Republican or a Democrat.

In short, some people think that if your body cells go nuts and join our family, and try very hard to establish a large one of their own, you must have done something to deserve our actions. Karma and all that.

Well, guess what. WE DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR EFFING KARMA. We have no clue what the hell you've done with your life, and we don't care. You could be a person who eats live babies with ketchup, and never know the agony of dealing with us for a day. You could be a person who gives away all your money and lives with the poor in a hovel, and tries to help them every day--and bam, one morning you go to the doctor, and there we are.

Sorry. We're cancer cells. We really don't understand human concepts of justice. And we don't care.

Are there things you can do that might keep us from showing up? Sure. Staying away from tobacco in all forms is a good idea. Other healthy habits can also help. But the bottom line is, we can happen to you anyway. And your moral behavior is of absolutely NO concern to us. It doesn't matter how much money you donate to charity, or how nice you are, or who you vote for. Your virtue won't protect you from us.

Yeah, I know it's frightening. You'd like to believe bad things happen only to bad people, that if you're just a good liberal and not like those nasty conservative wingnuts who rape and rob everyone blind, you'll never have to worry about us. Cancer happens to Tony Snow? Well, that's only what he deserves, isn't it? It can't happen to you or someone you love, because you're too good.

But you're wrong.

I know. It's depressing. But look on the bright side: if you or someone you love should ever make the personal acquaintance of us, you can know right now that you, or they, did NOTHING to "deserve" us. And since the odds of that are frighteningly high, best to prepare now.

Best prepare now to give the finger to everyone who asks what you did to bring this bad karma upon yourself--whether it's something like voting Republican, or maybe just not having a positive enough attitude in life.

You have our permission.

Because we're Cancer. We happen to men and women, straight, gay, lesbian and transgendered, all colors, all ethnicities, all ages, all political leanings, all religions and no religion, all levels of intelligence, people who take care of themselves and people who treat their bodies like Satan's playground, all over the world.

And we just don't care how good you are. And we just don't care how "bad" the people are who some of you claim "deserve" cancer or the "schadenfreude" of others.

If you ever are unfortunate enough to have a close encounter with us, we hope you'll remember that.

[MercutioATC]

1. I am Jack's colon. I get cancer and kill Jack.

sorry...obscure Fight Club reference...go back to what you were doing

[Aviation Pro]

13. What's my name?

Tyler Durdin.

[tavalon]

23. Stolen from Reader's Digest, actually

[Lars39]

2. Thank you for writing this wonderful piece.

I have some family members who truly believe that I developed cancer because of sin, and that they are immune because their god will not let anything bad like cancer happen to them. :banghead:

I'm going to save this to pass on if I may. :hi:

[Berry Cool]

6. Go right ahead.

I hope it helps. And I sincerely hope none of them have to learn this lesson the hard way.

[Patsy Stone]

3. Excellent, Berry

I hope people listen.

K&R

[CC]

4. Ok Berry, what did I miss?

I know I am not around much these days so tell me what I missed.

BTW so true and very well put. Then again I expect nothing less from you. You are a gifted writer.

[tavalon]

24. You missed the gleeful joyfest at Tony Snows fight with colon cancer

[CC]

29. Glad I missed that

though sorry to hear he is doing worse.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. Outstanding Berry!

:applause:

[dysfunctional press]

7. it is impossible to describe how you feel when your dr. tells you that it's cancer...

for me it was my bladder, when i was 39. but it was very early, and i did just fine.

but that moment in the office when the c-word comes out is extremely...surreal. and not in a good way.

[emilyg]

14. When my doctor said cancer

I blanked out.

[Forkboy]

15. I'm so cynical when I found out I said, "Typical".

:)

[emilyg]

16. Bless your heart - I couldn't speak.

Although the next day I raved and ranted at my poor oncologist.

[Forkboy]

17. My father and I were joking about it on the way home.

Life just keeps hammering away to the point where it gets comical at times.

What really helped was one of the first things I thought of, an episode of Nightline with a young boy from Africa who had AIDS. He was 9 0r 10, and had become a spokesperson for the disease around the world. The story was mind meltingly sad (I cried through the whole damn thing, not just tears, but deep sobbing) as I knew the boy had died since the interview. But at one point Koppel asked the boy if he ever wondered "Why me?" The boy shrugged and said, "Why not me?"

Put my own situation into instant focus and perspective.

On edit, here's the boy I'm talking about.

http://www.simplytaty.com/bios/nkosi.htm

[emilyg]

18. I remember that boy well.

His death made me cry for days.

[tavalon]

25. Why not me?

Fuck, that is seriously profound and from such a young one. Old soul, for sure.

[Forkboy]

28. Even Koppel said he was crying putting the story together that day.

My wife at the time was on the phone with her son, and when she came out the show was over and I had put Letterman on and she didn't know what he said that had made me so damn sad. :)

Nkosi's story is both devastatingly sad and very uplifting at the same time. A special boy we need to remember. I know I'll never forget him.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3207296&mesg_id=3207296.

I was told this morning by the mother

[Berry Cool]

11. How terrible.

My deepest sympathies to you, the family of that poor child, and all the rest of you dealing with this.

[brer cat]

9. Well written post, Berry.

As soon as I started reading, Dana Reeves came to mind. A non-smoker dead of lung cancer so young.

Thanks for contributing quality writing and thought to DU!

[JDPriestly]

10. This is just so well written. It is great.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Thank you, Berry.

Someone very precious to me has gotten that diagnosis twice, once as a small child, and I've been there through every step of the aftermath. (At present, we are okay.) I really appreciate your post.

[LeftishBrit]

19. Great post - thanks!

There have been a few posts recently that reminded me of the RW attitude that AIDS and other diseases are God's punishment for sin.

[DFW]

20. I saw my wife through cancer, chemo, etc etc etc and on through to the end of the tunnel

There happened to be light at the end of her tunnel, and so I still have her with me.
Nothing on my end yet, but there is a good chance that will not last. Both of my parents
had it, and plenty of their siblings as well.

Not everyone is as fortunate as my wife, either. A colleague of mine Stateside, one of
those "never been sick a day in my life" types, was just diagnosed with incurable bone
cancer. He has five years if he's lucky, most of them in pain, or five months if he is
not lucky, and they will involve either horrible pain or drug-induced la-la land.

$1 trillion for Iraq. How much for cancer research, George?

[spoony]

21. Very well written and an excellent point

In the future instead of fighting people when that sort of "karma" argument comes up, I'll link to this from my bookmarks. Bravo and thank you.

[woo me with science]

22. Thank you. nt

[ulysses]

26. great post.

Thank you.

[driver8]

27. I lost my father to lung cancer two months ago, and I had a brief bout with cancer

in the form of an occular melanoma. I had radiation and the tumor appears to be dead -- I saw my oncologist last Friday.

Cancer fucking sucks -- an NO ONE deserves it.

[Cabcere]

30. Thanks for this post, Berry

K&R. :thumbsup:

[kitty1]

31. You're right on . The rain falls on both the good and the bad equally...

I guess the jury is still out on whether or not there is some emotional component to some forms of cancer such as breast.
It's more than obvious that physical precursors are there, hormone imbalance, too much acidity in the body, toxins etc etc....
I don't know what to think or how much emphasis would or should be put on the part stress and depression have in the eventual condition though. Scientists now admit that there is a definite emotional/spiritual connection to all of our living cells and there could be a correclation between high amounts of stress or sorrow and the start of certain cancers.
Mind you, there are very fit and content people out there who also get cancer. It's not a black and white kind of thing I guess.
Studies done on women (especially older women) who have suffered a major loss or trauma in their lives, seem to show a higher predisposition for developing breast cancer. But there could be other factors involved as well.
I guess our genes all come to play to some extent. Everyone has heard of the 90 year guy who swills back scotch every day and has smoked for decades and is still out there playing golf and doing well.
Whatever the reason, no one deserves to get it, and it is no respecter of persons. Both my parents were inflicted with it and each of us personally knows someone or a few people who have or had it.
Let's hope they keep making inroads through research on this horrible thing.