"I will live"

On New Year's Eve, I got a "sad and bad" email from my sister-in-law. Her doctor had diagnosed Stage 2 breast cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation will kick off 2016 for her. Still, she wished us all a "Happy New Year" and declared, "I will live."

In 2015, another sister-in-law battled a cancer similar to my own and won. In 2014, a cousin beat breast cancer, following in her sister's footsteps of more than a decade before. The same year my mother's tumor proved to be benign, my father lost his life to the disease.

While we all tend to agree that cancer is everywhere, until it happens to you or a loved one, invincibility remains in tack. Sharing a chemo suite with 12 regulars every other week for four months submersed me in the middle earth that is Cancer World. It consumed 2008 for me. I have no memories of that year that aren't directly tied to my illness. It has given me my superhuman sensitivity to diagnoses suffered by others and appreciation for the life lessons learned in the oddest most unexpected ways.

Today, I'm thinking about my sister-in-law who is just beginning her fight and those who have won and lost their cancer battles. 

Below is an article about one of my own cancer challenges published in 2008. I always knew I would survive. I never considered any alternative. But my hair!


I know I'm not alone. Share your stories in the comments section below.

 
October 2008

(published in 2008)
I'm beautifully bald --- but not by choice --- by chemotherapy.

My fiancé has gone bald as well --- by choice. He surfed the BBC (Bald By Choice) web sites to pick up shaving tips when he decided he was going to go bald in support of my then pending hairlessness.

In May, I had a cancerous tumor removed and am now in chemotherapy for what I and my family and friends hope is a preventative measure --- to make sure no covert cells are hiding out planning to organize into another tumor. 

Still, like the nearly 1.5 million other new cancer cases in 2008, according to the American Cancer Society, I was destined to confront baldness.

To go publicly bald, wear a wig or get a hat has occupied more of my time than coming to terms with the toxic chemicals running through my bloodstream. I will admit my shiny white bob seemed to be one of my very few vanity points.

And yet, when the time came and the hair started falling out and kept falling out, I ultimately chose to go bald. I did so because of those who have gone before me.

I have been fortunate to have known or witnessed others who made the decision that their loss of hair, a limb, a breast has become another life process and nothing to hide. By chance and certainly unwelcome, cancer and all that comes with it must be confronted so that they could move forward in their lives just like everyone else.

"Nothing to hide," I believe my brave predecessors must have said to themselves, and something for all of the rest of us to accept and understand. So while I love hats as accessories, it struck me that on my bald head, they and wigs would become florescent arrows flashing the message, "hiding baldness, hiding baldness." That seemed like avoidance rather than awareness to me.

My inspiration also comes from the late Tony Snow, former White House Press Secretary, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Pope John Paul II.

Snow and Specter worked throughout their recent battles with cancer; one losing his struggle, the other winning. The ever impeccable and candid Snow was no less in his treatment of the subject with the media. As a result, we were witness to an honest battle not unlike that many private citizens are experiencing every day.

Specter, who is on the winning side at this point, recently published the book "Never Give In: Battling Cancer in the Senate" about working through a re occurrence of brain cancer. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, he wanted people to understand the effects of his illness. 

Likewise, the late Pope John Paul II is reported to have told his staff that he did not want to hide what was happening to him as he began to fail. He wanted the world to understand that dying was a natural part of the life process. 

And so I've put away the curling iron, the hair dryer, my brush and comb, and shaved off the few wisps of hair left behind. I'm not looking in mirrors much and air conditioning makes my head shiver more than my shoulders ever have. I really think I can feel the heat escaping out of my head.

Since I'm on the inside looking out, I forget that I'm presenting a bald head to the rest of the world. 
Still, those with whom I interact do so with great grace and sensitivity. I imagine them simply connecting the dots: "Bald equals cancer." And maybe that's all they need: awareness that sometimes health issues alter how we expect people to look or act...and that's natural. 

For now, I could just swear my ideas are flowing more smoothly. I think it's because they aren't getting tangles up in my hair follicles. And it will grow back. Long and lush and thick and curly and brunette...OK, white...but I can live with that.