Cancer Sucks

Posted by kim on January 27, 2009

My 20-year old cousin had testicular cancer last year when I first heard the term “Cancer Sucks” from his mother. Thank the Lord he is now in remission.

My first close encounter with cancer was when my ex-husband’s grandmother, Marlene, died of cancer while I pregnant with my youngest daughter, Tatym (who’s middle name is Marlene).  I credit her for teaching me about couponing, plus we shared a love of collecting Holiday Barbies. I still miss her.

Yesterday we attended a benefit for a classmate of mine who is suffering from liver cancer.  He is such a genuinely nice guy with a wife and one-year old son at home, and it is so sad to think he has been told he only has months to live.  We have a close-knit class (50 graduates) and haven’t lost anyone from our class thus far. Makes me tear up to write this.

And then there’s my very good friends’ 14-year old son, Dalton, that was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma (which is extremely rare for his age) the week before Christmas.  The tumor in his abdomen is so large that he is on an aggressive chemotherapy treatment to shrink the tumor before he can have surgery to remove it.  Please keep everyone suffering from cancer in your prayers.

It’s Dalton’s mom and dad that have helped me out many a times from installing my new microwave, scooping my drive, fixing my vehicle, mowing my lawn, and the list goes on.  They were in the hospital during my dishwasher disaster (Dustie, Dalton’s mom was the last person I talked to before I sent my cellphone through the wash).

Luckily, I’ve become quite smitten by the “Maytag repair man” that ended up fixing my dishwasher.  Since then, he’s fixed several things around my house, plus he cooks and cleans (not my fortes).  When he read the list of my date requirements, he jokingly asked if chewing tobacco was okay since he couldn’t smoke.  Um, no.  So I’ve now revised the list to “non-tobacco user”.  I must say I have the teenager twitters of being lucky in love.

And speaking of teenagers, my twins are fifteen today!  Hard to believe it’s been a decade and a half since my 2 lb. million-dollar miracle babies were born.  Happy Birthday Macy & Mallory!

What’s playing on iTunes: “Simple Man” by Shinedown