CHAPTER 11 REFLECTIONS/THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS



Reflection 1 Base of tongue


I was diagnosed in 2009 with what is called “base of tongue” cancer. The doctors have theories as to what causes this. Smoking. Of course. But I never smoked. Drinking alcohol to excess (although one doctor told me I would have to drink almost a fifth daily to contract it that way). I didn’t do this. Another theory is that it is caused by a virus. That’s frightening.

A recent Pulitzer Prize-winning novel called “The Emperor of All Maladies” offers a sobering historical “biography” of this disease that reveals the many faces of cancer and how complicated and tenacious it can be. We hear cheers about “winning the war” and making cancer history, but hundreds and hundreds of years after the first reported cases, it still lives.

Every day a friend or relative gets diagnosed; each of us has had this shocking news delivered to us. We listen in disbelief, but the news is the same. I don’t know if there are really more cases, or if people are just more willing to disclose the problem now. Years ago unfortunate victims simply suffered in silence and didn’t mention the “c word”.

Whether the problem is growing, receding, or treading water, it is still around, lurking in the shadows of our lives, or sometimes brazenly strolling down the streets defying us to put a stop to it. It now stands in the spotlight, in all its many forms. People run marathons, wear ribbons, and collect money – a call to arms for battle.

Maybe in someone’s lifetime we will defeat this enemy for good and that war will be over.