Drisel
February 11th, 2003, 12:33 AM
Today at school one of my closer friends and classmates announced that she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
She had a brief battle with this same cancer eight years ago and thought she had won.
The fates however seem to have had other plans for her.
I can't say that this has come as a total shock. I've had an incling of what was going on with her since last fall and ever since she came back from christmas break her condition really was glaringly obvious.
This is a woman I have come to respect greatly. While getting to know her she shared her views on everything from child rearing to religion. While her views varied greatly from mine at times I still found that I respected her views as much as she respected mine.
That said I have found myself really taking pause to think on what is cancer. Some theorists believe that there are cancer cells present in everyone but that they only develop in a small percentage of the population. The majority of reserch has still been unable to determine what exactly will cause these cells to become active. There has been much debate on various lifestyle choices that may or may not perpetuate the activity of these cancerous cells.
Sadley she was of the manority of people that lived a healthy lifestyle, did not smoke, did not drink, did not engage in any type of activity that would otherwise compromise her ability to stave off the catilization of these cells.
As a nursing student this is especially difficult to come to terms with. I understand the basics behind cancerous developments and the probable outcomes for the various forms of cancer. At school they assured us that "when" she chooses to return to school that she will simply start back to the point at which she left. While I can appreciate the sentiment behind this statement I find it to be very unrealistic given her current condition. As much as I would like to hold out hope that she will once again win this battle I find myself slammed again with the overwelming feelings I experienced last fall when I first realised that something was terribly wrong.
Truely I sit here in tears trying to fathom why her. Why did this of all things have to happen to someone so bright and full of life? Why someone who lived the right way and cared so much for everyone else? Just why?
She had a brief battle with this same cancer eight years ago and thought she had won.
The fates however seem to have had other plans for her.
I can't say that this has come as a total shock. I've had an incling of what was going on with her since last fall and ever since she came back from christmas break her condition really was glaringly obvious.
This is a woman I have come to respect greatly. While getting to know her she shared her views on everything from child rearing to religion. While her views varied greatly from mine at times I still found that I respected her views as much as she respected mine.
That said I have found myself really taking pause to think on what is cancer. Some theorists believe that there are cancer cells present in everyone but that they only develop in a small percentage of the population. The majority of reserch has still been unable to determine what exactly will cause these cells to become active. There has been much debate on various lifestyle choices that may or may not perpetuate the activity of these cancerous cells.
Sadley she was of the manority of people that lived a healthy lifestyle, did not smoke, did not drink, did not engage in any type of activity that would otherwise compromise her ability to stave off the catilization of these cells.
As a nursing student this is especially difficult to come to terms with. I understand the basics behind cancerous developments and the probable outcomes for the various forms of cancer. At school they assured us that "when" she chooses to return to school that she will simply start back to the point at which she left. While I can appreciate the sentiment behind this statement I find it to be very unrealistic given her current condition. As much as I would like to hold out hope that she will once again win this battle I find myself slammed again with the overwelming feelings I experienced last fall when I first realised that something was terribly wrong.
Truely I sit here in tears trying to fathom why her. Why did this of all things have to happen to someone so bright and full of life? Why someone who lived the right way and cared so much for everyone else? Just why?