My Life with Cancer

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In a taxi en route to lunch on that awful Super Tuesday, I experienced a powerful premonition: I have cancer, it's going to be bad, but I'll live until I'm 90. Probably not, but I turn 50 this year and, full of hope, recall that great line from "The Shawshank Redemption": "You can get busy living, or get busy dying." For me, it's no contest.

© 2007

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: RobertSC2008 @ 11/12/2008 3:30:56 PM

    just over a week a go, my brother was diagnosed with MCL. Hopefullly he will begin his treatments soon. We feel overwhelmed with the technical and cryptic medicalese which well-meaning physicians use and I immediately googled anything I could find on MCL...a very depressing endeavour. Until I found your article and felt hope and a clearer understanding of this disease. Thank you. God bless you and your family and my brother.

  • Posted By: heckertr @ 08/13/2008 9:53:31 PM

    A word of caution about your children's reactions. Don't let their silence fool you. Adolescence is absolutely the worst time to face a parent's mortality. I lost my father to cancer when I was twelve, and believe me, it had a lifelong effect. Of course I didn't talk about it to anyone - my mother and sisters were so overwhelmed that I couldn't add my pain to their burdens. So I soldiered on, helping my mother care for my father, and not making a fuss despite my own turmoil and pain.
    Of course your children aren't going to talk to you - they don't want to increase your burden. But make sure they have someone else to talk to, where they can let out what they feel without feeling guilty about it. Otherwise that "adolescent indifference" may turn out to have been something entirely different.

  • Posted By: dwbush@aol.com @ 06/14/2008 12:54:21 PM

    Your story sounds very similar to my own. I felt that I could really connect with so many things you experienced. My diagnosis of MCL was confirmed several weeks ago. I begin R-CHOP next week at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Since it seems you live in the NYC area, perhaps we can connect in person at some point?

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