Cancer is fairly ordinary
Cancer in our society is fairly ordinary, nothing exceptional.
My mother died from cancer. She smoked too much. My loved cousin ( he was more of a brother) died from cancer. He worried too much. My daughter’s mother in law has just had news of breast cancer. She loved her kids, too much(?).
At 68 years of age I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. This is fairly ordinary. I am not sure what it was that I did too much, probably something my teachers told me to stop doing as a kid, to which I didn’t listen.
I understand that 80 percent of men over the age of 70 who die have prostate cancer, its often not that they die from cancer of the prostate, but some other cause. I don’t mean to negate the problem of prostate cancer, With care, I believe its possible to still have a bunch of years of being an active grandfather and father left in my portfolio.
I have had annual physical checks for a while, and they found no indications of a problem. It was a chance blood test on another issue that alerted my GP to the possibility. The cancer was verified though a biopsy.
My carers have prescribed hormone treatment, to keep the cancer in remission. My daughter assures me that if she can live with enlarged boobs and and mood swings, then so can I, as a side effect from the treatment.
Read http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/02/cancer-positive-thinking-barbara-ehrenreich
Cancer is not a problem or an illness – it’s a gift. Or so Barbara Ehrenreich was told repeatedly after her diagnosis. But the positive thinkers are wrong, she says: sugar-coating illnesses can exact a dreadful cost
Extracted from Smile Or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America And The World, by Barbara Ehrenreich, to be published by Granta on 14 January at £10.99.