The Dreaded C-Word

Whispering is required when discussing cancer.

It's amazing how one little word can upset your whole day, and maybe even your whole week, month, year or life. Yesterday I went to a physician to check out a recent health blip, expecting to hear it was nothing to worry about. Instead I was told a diagnostic test was needed to rule out the possibility of it being cancer. Now clearly the doctor did not say it was cancer, only that she wanted to rule out it being cancer. Still, all I heard was the word cancer, and that it could be cancer, and there went my whole evening. And of course my husband's too, since one of the unspoken marriage vows is "Your bad mood will immediately become my bad mood."

Medical researchers got HIV and AIDS under control pretty fast, considering. And although great inroads have been made in many kinds of cancer, still the word is synonymous with "I'm dead meat" for most of us. This is silly since even as more people are diagnosed with the disease daily, the cure rates are rising. Or so I tell myself.

Anyway, what's important is that if you were not told yesterday that you might have cancer and you are in reasonably good shape and health, I suggest you quit your bellyaching about whatever petty problem is currently dominating your amygdala and go out and have a great day.