The Big "C"

There is a world where everyone laughs, loves, dances, travels, starts a family, adopts a family, and well just about anything you can think of and claims it as their own and sometimes shares with others. There is also a world where we come to find out something within ourselves isn’t right and learn that our cells, aka the elements of who we are, are growing and growing and dividing and dividing at a rate unlike their usual life cycle of growing, dividing and dying.  That’s right, there is a world where within ourselves, someone we may know, someone we may love, or someone we may simply pass by on the street, out-of-control cells are becoming our world.

In my day-to-day job, I go to work for one reason, to lend my support in the fight against breast cancer. I go to work hoping I don’t receive a call about a loss, but rather a story of hope and encouragement. I love the work I do and the work I’m surrounded by because I get to fight these cells who fight our loved one's world.

The Big “C” isn’t so much the big thing anymore, but simply the only thing anymore. We all sadly seem to know someone, or someone who knows someone, that has been affected by cancer. We know too many people and we hear too many stories about cancer. I’m over the hurt it causes my friends, I’m over the tears I’ve seen it produce, and you can rest assure that I am over the lives it continues to take.

In the midst of learning about the loss of Steve Jobs yesterday, I’m saddened at how one disease can affect a man of many wonders. In the midst of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’m shocked by the number of women who neglect their annual mammograms. In the midst of it all, I’m ill at the thought of cancer and what it does and can do. A friend of mine lost her dad to this awful disease and she had this amazing frame that said, “Hey Cancer, F*ck you!” I think it sums up the words we all are thinking. 

I wish and pray that the Big “C” will quickly be replaced by the even Bigger Cures, and I hope that one day our world will resume to being about laughing, loving, dancing, traveling, baby making, family adopting, and everything else under the sun except for fighting a fight that sometimes doesn’t let you win.

Ladies – please schedule your mammogram and know at the end of each day, the care you give your family and friends needs to also be something you do for yourself. Guys – please know that doctors aren’t all that bad. They would like to see you live a long and healthy life. Everyone – know that this life is all we have (or at least I think it is). Treat yourself right and know your body. Check it out and know what you’ve got now and compare it to what you have next year. Everyone, please just be cautious and aware.

I hear stories everyday about someone who has lost someone or has to watch someone else struggle . . . Not to be blunt, but definitely being blunt and honest, I’m over these stories and the ill feeling that sits in my stomach.

Cancer, I’m over you.