Cancer

In the last year or so I've been made aware of just how many people are suffering from cancer. My best friend's mom died in August of lung cancer. My friend connected herself with people who had different types and caregivers through blogs and message boards. I started reading some of the blogs (well just 2 really), but through those have read a few posts about other people they know.
One woman is getting surgery for breast cancer this weekend. And another. . .she's my age and just lost her husband of 2 years to leukemia. I'd only been reading her blog for a few months and he had been in remission after having a bone marrow transplant. It came back and in only a matter of a few days, he died. I just can't fathom how hard, how shitty, how mind-blowingly-knock-you-on-your-ass fucking hard it is to go through the illness and also lose someone that is so close to you from it.
When I was back in IL, I stayed with a family whose little girl had leukemia when she was 3 and her 1 year old brother donated bone marrow. Now she's fine, as far as I know. That was the first time I had heard anything about someone who had cancer.
My dad's dad died of lung cancer before I was born. Other than that no one in my family has had cancer. We've been lucky. Other families aren't.

I've been thinking about cancer a lot lately especially in regards to my future profession. As wonderfully made our bodies are, there are so many things that go wrong. I've thought a lot about wanting to do lung cancer research, especially after hearing my friends thoughts about how its the least funded type of cancer research yet it kills the most people. A lot of people take the easy way out and say "well, people need to stop smoking, then they won't get it." I've realized that's crap. Lung cancer is the only type people get blamed for. One thing my friend said was that even if everyone stopped smoking today we'd still be dealing with lung cancer for decades to come. Yet, as people can see with Dana Reeves dying (and never a smoker), it can happen to anyone and if it isn't tobacco, it can be something else. There are not many chances for survival. I don't care what the reason is for someone getting cancer it sucks, and lung cancer sufferers deserve as much of a chance of surviving as breast cancer sufferers.
I've also thought about working with childhood cancer sufferers. How scary it must be to have to be in a hospital for days and months at a time, so little, not having any idea what is really going on. And for the parents. . .wanting to do something for their children but knowing they can't. They can't protect them.

I think as a doctor, it must be really hard. On one hand, people are looking to you for help and as a doctor you've been told you're the one with the power to heal. One the other, a doctor is only human and they can only do so much.

Apparently President Bush is proposing to reduce cancer funding in the next year. I don't know any more about it than what I read on LiveStrong
There is a place to e-mail your state representative (or print the letter to send) to let them know you do not support reduced funding.
I can't help but think that I'd rather there be money for cancer research rather than more money for the war in Iraq. But that's a whole other story. Of course maybe we can get rich people to give to cancer research and maybe even give the money they use for a "fundraiser" to help (it cracks me up they have to have a party or an auction or something to make giving thousands of dollars away more fun or worthwhile)

It seems that now I've been thinking about all this, I can't ignore it. And if I can be a doctor or even get a grad degree in cancer biology then maybe I can contribute something. I guess we'll see.