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Sneaky, Sneaky Cancer

Read more articles on Let Me Share With You and Mesothelioma.

January 15, 2007

About This Editor: Karen has enjoyed her many varied experiences in corporate business management, dance education, and preschool assistance. She hopes to write about these past lives-and more-from her home in Pittsburgh, PA, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and 3 cats.

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I hate sneakiness. Cancer and pre-cancerous conditions are sneaky…one more reason to despise that horrid scourge of mankind.

In the last week, I have heard 3 separate stories related to the sneakiness of that particular disease. My good friend had an abnormal pap smear and as she was getting ready for her biopsy, found an immovable lump under her armpit. Her daughter-in-law, having had 2 chemo treatments already for breast cancer, has also developed gynecological abnormalities, but right now is too weakened to face surgery. In addition, another friend told me that her mother has finished a 3rd chemo treatment for mesothelioma, but now has been diagnosed with a malignant polyp in her brain lining.

What can you say?

My mother’s cancer snuck into her bones and rendered her an invalid by age 64. We all know somebody who seemed to be going along just fine until hearing that diagnosis. Just knowing that they had the big C was enough to start a downward spiral into a death sentence.

It’s a sneaky, sneaky move: lay in wait, and then pounce.

I fear cancer more than any other disease. With a family history and one close call already, I take vitamin E and selenium daily. I drink green tea and try to avoid packaged and processed foods. I tell myself that eating at close to the earth as possible will lower my risk of toxins. But it’s the stress that scares me. I do believe in theories that anxiety, by affecting the nervous system, deprives cells of the chance to reproduce as they should, and causes abnormalities that can escalate to malignancy. I must say that my friend, her daughter-in-law and my mother all appeared to have lives filled with stress. So what does one do to counteract it?

All we can do is to try to minimize anxiety, and to relax thoroughly, whenever possible. I’ve given up trying to use Zen breathing or meditative practice; for me, it just delays the inevitable. So I just worry until I’m done worrying and then try to undo the damage with some positive thoughts. Perhaps it will work; perhaps not. All we can do is try our best to keep our lives on as smooth and as natural a course as possible. And hope for luck against sneaky predators.