A disease who cares nothing about your financial status, ethnicity, sex, education, or age nor does it care if your single, married, have kids, no kids, divorced, what have you... CANCER cares not! It strikes when you least expect it and does not wait for you to catch up or process your emotions. It continues it's destructive path without mercy; eating away at the very tissue that makes you whole, chipping away at your structure like a corrosive rain on a deteriorating house. Your strength is being drained in the trickle of tears now streaming down your cheeks as you think your time has come, fate has called upon you early and you're not ready to go. You try to hold back the sensation to cry, afraid of losing more of your soul, never to be found again.
Broken, your spirit yields to your plea momentarily as you go through the different cycles and raw feelings surfacing uncontrollably. Soon, the ringing subsides and you gain back your hearing and start to concentrate on the physician standing in front of you, their eyes hollow from having the same conversation with so many before. Then the treatment options are discussed and your survival mode begins to come to life and take the first shift before your body has a chance to jump into action. You are now completely in tune with your body and can feel all pistons simultaneously running as adrenaline pumps through your blood stream and rally's the rest of your being to take front and center in your most epic battle yet. Instinctively you begin to plot a 'plan of action' in your mind and make mental notes of small ways to engage revenge upon the disease seeping in your bloodstream with it's cowardly arrival and sneaky invasion. Meekness has now turned to anger and you ball your hands into fists so tightly your fingers indent your palms and leave embedded nail marks for several minutes after you release your grip. The question arises from the depths of your psyche 'why me?' and you impatiently wait for the answer to come from within, from God, from the doctor, from anyone. But your patience will be tested, for more times than not it goes without an answer.
Strength, resilience, determination, and tenacity has been entwined within us all in our web of intricate and delicate creation. Some have tuned into their direct link to these emotional qualities a lot easier than others, but we are all capable of portraying each of them along with many others that can help turn a CANCER victim into a CANCER survivor. Hope, perseverance, faith, and positivity mixed with a healthy lifestyle of smart food choices and vitamins can begin your journey to beating the word no longer worthy of all caps....from here on out it is known as 'c'. My hopes and prayers continue to go out to all those currently under assault from the disease and dredging through the trenches for a miracle and reaching for the rim to pull yourself out. I eminently applaud you for the sheer 'will' that keeps you going each and every day though there are some days you want to give it all up to rest your weary body, but the crusade marches on inside the essence known only as YOU and your resistance endures.
You are the epitome of fortitude, the definition of intrepidity, and the answer to another 'c'ancer patient who might of recently found out they too have been stricken with the disease; you can band together in your fight and show little 'c' what the human race is made of!
For more information about how you can volunteer or help fight the battle against cancer, please visit
http://www.cancer.org/?gclid=CKfbyrP7_aoCFWc0QgodVXfA1g
The element of strength waits for the call to rise up and deliver it's wrath! Fight the fight!
Kate Fuentes
