Cancer Is A Hurricane

With hurricane season upon us, it occurred to me that cancer is a lot like a hurricane or other serious weather event like a tornado, blizzard, or tsunami. Just like we can’t control the weather, we can’t control cancer. We don’t know where or when it can happen, or how destructive it will be. Cancer, like weather events, is completely random and there is nothing we can do about whom it strikes.

Many people like to use battle and warrior metaphors about cancer. I personally do not like hearing that someone lost their battle with cancer when they die. To me, this implies the patient is somehow at fault; that they didn’t fight hard enough; that the patient actually had some control over the cancer. Interestingly, this battle metaphor is not used for other chronic diseases that can cause death. No one ever says a patient lost the battle with heart disease, diabetes, COPD, etc.

We metastatic cancer patients hope to live with cancer as long as we can. There are periods where the cancer has retreated or is stable and periods when the cancer is active. Surviving does not mean we conquered cancer. When we die, it’s not because we failed to “beat cancer”. It’s much better and more honest to say someone died after living with cancer. #metastaticbreastcancer #breastcancer#baldballerina #gmartist