The Best Cancer to Have

This past Saturday my mother and I spent the afternoon together.  We decided we would catch a movie and then an early dinner afterward.  We both ate breakfast but skipped lunch and met at the theater at 11:30 for a 1:35 showing to buy our tickets early and shmy at Tuesday Morning first.  (It's a Yiddish word.  Look it up)

We sat on the phone earlier that morning while I went online to see what theaters were playing what movies.  My mother won't see any movie that has aliens, monsters, or men at war.  That limited our choices.  She likes schmaltzy love stories and with a few exceptions those usually make me want to barf.  We narrowed it down to one film we both wanted to see - "The Fault in Our Stars".

I knew it was supposed to be a movie that you either needed a to bring a box of tissues with you or grab a pile of napkins along with your popcorn.  What I didn't know was that the heroine of the movie had thyroid cancer that had advanced to her lungs and her prognosis was sketchy.  This tidbit of information assaulted me quite early on in the film and it was as if I was punched in the solar plexus.  I gasped.  I needed air.  I felt claustrophobic.

I was still in the miasma of the unknown waiting to hear if one of the lymph nodes left untouched by my last surgery was cancerous.  It was a hard movie for me to watch but I was very glad that that was the cancer she had.  Thyroid cancer has been minimized by most of the medical community for way too long.  "It's the easy cancer."  "We have thyroid replacement drugs and you won't even know you don't have a thyroid anymore."  I call bullshit!

I am not going to play my tiny violin.  I am not going to whine or stand on a soapbox.  I hope this movie makes people wake up to the fact that thyroid cancer shouldn't be patted on the head and told to be quiet.  It is important to also note that other types of cancers were represented in the film and not just the one that has pink ribbons or football players wearing pink athletic shoes.

This morning I am still feeling like a bird let out of a cage no longer trapped.  It is good to be free.