Today, I overheard the story of a sixty-something-year-old lady telling her story with breast cancer:
Seventeen years ago, she felt a small lump on her chest; it was persistent and did not go away. From what I could gather, she knew from the start it was something that had to be checked, but she decided to keep it hidden (both under her clothes and from her family) until she got her youngest kid married.
When did he actually get married? Last year. Yes, that means SIXTEEN years after she first felt the lump. She lived with a small ‘thing’ growing on her chest for sixteen.straight.years without notifying anyone, not even one of her 12 children.
Now, by last year, the small lump wasn’t so small anymore. It had grown to become larger than a tennis ball, and it had also metastasized to her lungs. Her granddaughter (who was sitting next to her when she was telling the story while getting her chemotherapy) said it looked so bad that some of her aunts and uncles actually fainted when their mother finally showed them the tumor.
What I don’t understand is this: what could she have possibly gained from not getting herself checked 17 years ago? 12 years ago? Five years ago? Who/what was she protecting? What has her now-married son gained now if her ‘sacrifice (I thinks sees it that way)’ might very well end her life? I honestly don’t understand, and I’m not sure I want to.
Cancer is not something to be trifled with. Life is not something to be trifled with. Get yourself educated, and get yourself checked.
M
and you’ll never understand … no one understands what cancer patients go through except cancer patients , that little thread of hope that what you’re feeling isn’t cancer, it’s just some pain or “lump” -as in her case- and it will soon go away ….
and M it’s not about education .. nobody deals with this rationally ! forgive me for saying that you should get yourself educated about what cancer really means for a patient …
Yazan, I understand what you’re saying and I know where it’s coming from, but I know what cancer does to families/people more than you think- I deal with it every day. And I can assure you that delaying the inevitable will not make the issue go away.
Had the lady gotten herself checked years ago, she could’ve avoided the fate that’s coming her way now.
I’m with you … delaying the inevitable is useless and often harmless , but it’s just so damn hard ! Everything is …
and i’m sorry if I came on too strong in my comment , it was just on the spur of the moment …