Friendly Cancer Patients

On Saturday evening, my co-worker Rita and her fiance held a birthday bash for his 30th. I had heard about many of the people attending but had never met any other than the two hosts. We ended up having a lovely time chatting to some very interesting people.

I spent the evening speaking mostly to Rita's housemate. She too has a line across her neck from where she had surgery only a few months ago. I have not spoken to many other thyroid patients or cancer patients in general. However something odd happens when two people with this in common come together. They instantly have a tremendous amount to talk about. The surgery, comparing the scars, the pills and what medication you're on, what pain killers you used, how you found out, what hospital and what surgeon was used, and radiation. It's actually really exciting and fun to talk to people who not only had cancer, but had the same type of cancer. Instant bonding. Both bodies malfunctioned in the exact same way. We have something in common if only by the fact that we are humans and subject to disease. Now, one might argue that all people can get diseases and therefore have that in common- but the truth of it is that until they become ill in some significant way, they don't understand what it's like to be "sick" and they also don't understand that it is very easy to get sick. She and I joked that we were cancer free "as far as we know" since we didn't know we had cancer the first time.

She had the odd experience of only finding out about hers after it had been removed. She had other thyroid problems and then later on was told that it had two nodes which contained the dreaded disease. We bitched about biopsies and the odd and painful feeling of needles being stuck in your neck. We talked about being intubated and basic mischief our bodies had gotten into.

Oddly, I'm perfectly healthy. I get a cold once a year. I'm at the gym all the time and besides for some cookie binges I eat quite well- no meat, poultry, or fish, mostly organic and maybe one glass of wine a month if I'm sipping a glass of wine at a party or at our neighbors who loves to hand me a glass of white. The point is, I don't abuse my body, I work out, I don't smoke, I'm probably underweight for my height, but I'm a healthy weight for me and I still got cancer. Once those words are said to a person who has never been sick, they immediately get the pity look- understandably since it's not a great thing to get. But talking to someone who has had it is nothing short of refreshing. It's good to relate instead of lecture.