Remain Vigilant

I worry when I hear the word cured. I hope I can explain myself succinctly. These are only my own personal views, they are not meant to frighten or discourage. In fact, I want you to become empowered to take care of yourself. This post is meant to remind all of us to stay vigilant in the fight against cancer. With this disease we can never become complacent.

If there was a cure, we wouldn’t have the Race for a Cure, the Relay for Life, etc…I’m not saying this to scare anyone. I am saying this to remind you to stay vigilant. I know if a doctor said to me “You’re considered cured now.” I would probably give him a beaming smile and bop right out that door and move on with my life, never looking back, and that might mean there would be no more doctor appointments, no more checks, no more paying attention to my body (and what its telling me), and no more breast self exams. Who would want to be reminded? You wouldn’t! Like a bad accident, you’d want to move on and get on with your life. We’ve got to be careful. I don’t feel medical personnel should ever use the word cured in cases of cancer. It lulls an individual into a false sense of security. While we would relish security…it wouldn’t be prudent. We need to stay watchful, and our doctors do too.

When I was first diagnosed I would always hear it said, “If you get to such and such (meaning a certain number of years), then you're cured! The truth of the matter is, at this writing, February 2008, I don't know as that's correct. I don’t even know as you could truthfully say remission. Remission means a pardon or abatement. I’ve heard that thrown around too. I don’t know as you can safely say it’s stopped for a time. Maybe is has, maybe it hasn’t.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t get rid of the cancer, and have it never show itself again, because it can and does happen, yet there is no real way to know for sure, even with all the scans they have today; cancer being and doing what it is and does…it is a shifty beast. Cured in my own opinion means absolute, and with cancer there are no absolutes.

The cases where we go on with NED, is just a wonderful blessing from God. NED means no evidence of disease. No evidence of disease means exactly that – they can’t find evidence of it. We may go on to live out a normal life expectancy; still, we must stay vigilant. This is the message I'd like for you to get. Stay on top of your check ups, follow the recommendations of your doctors, do your own breast self exams. Take back your life and your health. You can only do that by remaining vigilant. Then, get out, enjoy your life and loved ones. Make your life as much of what you want it to be as you can, and maybe someday soon – there will be an absolute cure for cancer.