It's very treatable

Good news,
I finally figured out how to activate the comments. You can now leave comments 
by scrolling to the bottom of each post and clicking on, aptly enough, 'comments.
I look forward to hearing from you!


When someone learns that I have lymphoma, in an effort to reassure me, they quickly say, 'It's very treatable'. Then they usually tell me about someone who had lymphoma and now is fine. Im sure it makes the person who says that more comfortable. They are actually comforting themselves when they say it.  They are reassuring themselves that Im not going to die.  And they expect me to buy into this. Ive been researching Lymphoma. I didn't really want to do it until I had more information. There are statistics that say that 60 % of the people who have it 'do well'. What exactly does that mean? It means that they go through a very difficult period of chemotherapy and their cancer goes into remission. Sometimes it is completely eradicated from the body. Nevertheless they and their doctors have to be vigilant to be sure the cancer hasn't returned.
If it does return its back to chemo. There is also the option of radiation if the chemo doesn't work. But not to worry, its still 'treatable' If that doesn't work there is autologous stem cell transplant. We won't go there now. Hopefully we will never have to.
So, you see with each new development,when you say, 'It's treatable' That means, harsh rounds of chemotherapy when I may feel perfectly awful, or I may not. My hair will fall out, or it may not. I will be weak and tired and have a compromised immune system, or not.
When you reassure me that my cancer is 'treatable' you may not think about what I will have to go through to have my cancer treated.
Im just saying....