Hello, and welcome to the inaugural edition of Real Cancer, Real Lives – a blog carnival dedicated to raising real awareness of what it means to live with a diagnosis of cancer…any form of cancer, not just this week’s celebrity-cancer-cause du Jour. My prime motivation for this project is to provide a more realistic and emotionally honest alternative to the same old feel-good cancer stories that the mainstream media seems to obsess upon.
None of this is to say that Real Cancer, Real Lives won’t include any warm & fuzzy cancer stories (indeed, I have a number of my own to tell!) but only that my wish for this project is to provide a space for all cancer stories, including the uplifting, the heartbreaking, and the downright pissed-off…
Cancer is not a feel-good disease – it’s a killer – and the serious nature of the disease deserves our honesty at the very least. Whether it’s crying in our coffee, or laughing in the face of death, all emotions are valid when facing a potentially fatal illness. It’s time to open up the doors and let the world know what it really feels like to battle cancer, even if we have to do it one blog at a time.
Blogs By Cancer Patients
I chose the first two posts today because they are a prime example of the disparity of emotion that can come from fighting cancer (emotion, I might add, that often changes by extremes from one day to another.) So which one is correct? They both are, of course! And I have a feeling that anyone who has been dealing with this disease for more than a few days will undoubtedly see reflections of their own experience in each of these beautifully written pieces:
Rae, who blogs at Limbodacious, has written Let It Be Known: I Am Pissed, a brutally honest portrait of the frustrations of a cancer patient who inexplicably doesn’t feel that “cancer is the best thing that ever happened to her.” This one hit home so hard for me. It’s one of the great unspoken frustrations of cancer patients and caregivers alike. Thanks for putting it into words, Rae.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, but no less compelling, is a post written by Minerva at her blog A Woman of Many Parts, it’s titled The GREAT things about having Cancer…. This post, too, contains so many thoughts and feelings that I recognize from my own experience. Cancer may be a brutal and unrelenting disease, folks, but it’s hard to be touched by it without gaining at the very least some insight into the value of your own life, and those of your loved ones. Minerva writes:
I never thought I would say this but thank you Cancer, thank you for showing me how rich life really is, for showing me the things that really matter, and thank you, in advance perhaps, for now disappearing and letting me get on with all that wonderful, splendiferous, halotastic living that I still have to do…..
Amen to that, Minerva : )
The third post today comes from Jen over at Jenny’s Belly, whose post Cancer Discrimination voices some of the frustration that many cancer patients feel when they discover that some forms of cancer are much more “popular” than others, and that even in the world of cancer there is a strange type of discrimination. This is a feeling I understand all too well, as my wife Lori suffers from a form of cancer that even most cancer patients have never heard of – it’s called Unknown Primary Cancer. Try explaining that one to someone who asks what type of cancer you have ; ) Jen mentions the numerous organizations that raise funds only for breast cancer research, and a local group that, incredibly, helps cancer patients get to their hospital appointments – but only if they are breast cancer patients. Believe me Jen, you are not alone in your frustration.
Blogs By Caregivers
Moving on to blogs by caregivers, my friend Gaela has written a touching piece about celebrating her step-father’s birthday only a short time after his diagnosis with lung cancer, and the stupid things we mere mortals find ourselves saying that we wish we could take back. It’s titled birthday wishes for steve (BTW, if you don’t live in Sacramento, and you’ve never had Zelda’s, you’re missing the greatest pizza in the world…though the help leaves a bit to be desired!) Gaela blogs at Disco Solitaire.
Since this carnival is new, and we only have a few submissions, I will fill this space out with a post I recently wrote about the interminable hell of waiting for the results of a CT-scan…note to doctors: if you have the results of a CT-scan, don’t make your patient wait two weeks before you let them in on what’s going on – every single day is pure torture. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. The post is titled Surviving Your CT-Scan: It’s The Waiting That Will Kill You.
Medical Blogs
And wrapping up the first edition of Real Cancer, Real Lives is a post by Hsien over at The Genetics & Public Health blog, titled Homologous Recombination Method and Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. She writes about the promising new technology behind the genetic re-ingeneering of mice, which will hopefully one day lead to effective gene therapies for cancer patients. She also admits frustration with the lack of professionalism that sometimes masquerades as journalism in the mainstream media…something I have come to understand all too well during my time blogging about the latest cancer news. I hear ya’ Hsien!
Real Cancer, Real Lives Needs You!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this first edition of Real Cancer, Real Lives…it was truly an honor to introduce so many wonderful bloggers. I hope this project turns into a great success : )
Because the project is so new, we are always in need of more submissions and more bloggers who would be willing to host an upcoming edition. So, if you are interested in hosting Real Cancer, Real Lives on your blog, just email me.
If you would like to submit a post for inclusion in Real Cancer, Real Lives, please do so via the Carnival Submit Form. When submitting your blog entry, be sure that Real Cancer, Real Lives is selected in the menu space provided.
Next week’s edition will be held at Jenny’s Belly on October 16th, so don’t forget to drop in!
All the best,
-Cary
Technorati Tags: Real Cancer, Real Lives
