Another cancer post...

Last week my ACS staff partner told me her father was diagnosed with cancer. I find this to be perhaps a little bitterly ironic, that someone who devotes herself to fighting cancer through her job now has to deal with it on that level.

What makes it tougher is that her parents just moved back to the Philippines for their retirement. Haven't been there even a year. Their family was worried he wouldn't receive proper care over there, or worse that they'd be taken advantage of because they're American (and hence must be made of money). When I talked to her last week, she told me they were going to make plans to have her parents come back to the states.

Then I got a phone call from her today. The cancer, which started in his lungs (he's never smoked, by the way) spread throughout his abdomen, effected his liver and other organs and will eventually reach his brain. There isn't really anything they can do, and it was suggested that the family see him while there was still time. She had to plan a trip to the Philippines with her 5 year old daughter in two (2!) days and is leaving tomorrow night.

I was pretty flabbergasted. I mean, what do you say to that? How do you even react to that? I felt awful, and in light of what's been going on--my earlier posts, not to mention GB's coworkers' (yes plural) family members dying of cancer or my co-worker's hygienist being diagnosed and passing away from a brain tumor in the 6 months between visits--I feel like I'm running in circles with all of this. I can't imagine what she and her family must be going through. It was tough enough for my family. Part of her's is on the other side of the WORLD. That's messed up. And being so involved with the ACS, I'm sure she knows more about what's going on than the average person would. I can't imagine and it sucks.

There was an article in Reader's Digest this month that I can't bring myself to read at the moment. (I actually read the whole rest of the mag practically cover to cover for the first time ever... It's a pretty sweet deal! More on that another time.) All I saw was "If you think of all the different varieties of cancer as making up an iceberg, cancers that cause symptoms represent only the part of the berg above the waterline." Wow.

So I know I'm pretty much fully vested in Relay. I'm also trying to keep myself calm with the prospect of my co-chair and I pretty much doing this whole thing on our own for the time being. (Being Online Chairperson in addition to Chairperson and a Team Captain... What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't anyone else step up to the plate??) I wonder if I'm building good karma to make up for the shitty person I am.

I'm going to need a very long vacation...

And cancer? You can fucking suck it.