No Such Thing As Normal

I was talking with my neighbor this evening who told an amusing story about the cancer support group he'd recently joined. 

For the first few weeks he was there, he was sort of bummed by the fact that he was the only one dealing with pancreatic cancer. I get his point. It's useful to talk to anyone dealing with cancer, but there's a special comfort in knowing there's someone else facing your same situation. 

In any case, at a recent meeting he thought he'd finally found his counterpart when a new attendee identified herself as a patient of pretty much the exact same cancer he's facing and at pretty much the same stage of progression and treatment. Unfortunately, his hope for a cancer companion was extremely short lived as she concluded her introduction by stating that she was opting for death with dignity and had already scheduled her departure for a few weeks later.

There is no normal in cancer. There are only statistical curves, and you don't always know where on a given curve you're going to fall. And sometimes, even when you're sitting at the exact same spot on the exact same curve as someone else, you'll still find you're facing two very different diseases.

Cancer sucks.