throwaway account because my friend reads my main and I don't want her to have to read this. (Not that I'm saying anything bad about her! It's just depressing to read something like this about yourself.)
One of my best friends was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago. Her doctor caught it early enough to operate and take it out, but he also said that this kind of cancer always comes back. They told her she probably had 2-5 years after her surgery (which was in the summer of 2019), maybe up to ten years if she was very, very lucky.
She's a super private person when it comes to personal stuff, and she didn't talk about it much with me, or really with anyone except her family. I respected her privacy, of course, but it was really hard, because I was so sad about losing my friend and then it seemed like I was losing her while she was still alive, even. But I thought: if that's what she needs, so be it.
After a couple months, though, she started to open up again. She said it had taken some time to feel like herself after the surgery, but she really missed me and was really excited to reconnect. That was January of 2019. We had dinner together a few times, and made plans to get together more. We even talked about going on a road trip together. But then quarantine happened.
I've seen her a couple of times this year, when the weather is warm enough to meet up outside. (We wear masks, obviously.) She's immunocompromised because of her cancer surgery, so she has to be super careful. She's still fine health-wise, and we text each other a couple times a week. It all could be a lot worse, I know that. We'll probably get to hangout again in person pretty soon, once we're both vaccinated. But sometimes, I think about how it won't be long until she gets a phone call from her doctor saying the cancer is back. It could be in five years, or it could be next week. And meanwhile I've lost all this time with her that I didn't have to lose, or at least not because of the cancer or because she needed privacy. Just because some stupid assholes thought their so-called freedom was more important than other people, so instead of six weeks in quarantine it's been the new normal for a whole year. I try not to think about it, because I don't want to waste the time I have being sad, but sometimes it makes me so angry.
One of my best friends was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago. Her doctor caught it early enough to operate and take it out, but he also said that this kind of cancer always comes back. They told her she probably had 2-5 years after her surgery (which was in the summer of 2019), maybe up to ten years if she was very, very lucky.
She's a super private person when it comes to personal stuff, and she didn't talk about it much with me, or really with anyone except her family. I respected her privacy, of course, but it was really hard, because I was so sad about losing my friend and then it seemed like I was losing her while she was still alive, even. But I thought: if that's what she needs, so be it.
After a couple months, though, she started to open up again. She said it had taken some time to feel like herself after the surgery, but she really missed me and was really excited to reconnect. That was January of 2019. We had dinner together a few times, and made plans to get together more. We even talked about going on a road trip together. But then quarantine happened.
I've seen her a couple of times this year, when the weather is warm enough to meet up outside. (We wear masks, obviously.) She's immunocompromised because of her cancer surgery, so she has to be super careful. She's still fine health-wise, and we text each other a couple times a week. It all could be a lot worse, I know that. We'll probably get to hangout again in person pretty soon, once we're both vaccinated. But sometimes, I think about how it won't be long until she gets a phone call from her doctor saying the cancer is back. It could be in five years, or it could be next week. And meanwhile I've lost all this time with her that I didn't have to lose, or at least not because of the cancer or because she needed privacy. Just because some stupid assholes thought their so-called freedom was more important than other people, so instead of six weeks in quarantine it's been the new normal for a whole year. I try not to think about it, because I don't want to waste the time I have being sad, but sometimes it makes me so angry.
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Date: 2 Mar 2021 01:39 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2 Mar 2021 01:50 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 Mar 2021 00:02 (UTC)