If anyone visited either of my blogs the last few days you might have noticed this rather dashing button I have on my sidebar.

 

 

I got it when I joined “Bloggers for Movember” . What is this you might ask? Well, let me tell you about it! The wonderful blog A Clown on Fire  (or better known as Le Clown) has set up Bloggers for Movember to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer and mental illness. A very noble and great cause! If you go to this link Le Clown will tell you all about it much better then I ever could! So please, let your click lead you there!

http://clownonfire.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/movember/

Now the main reason I joined is because cancer has struck my family too many times. Also, my father died of prostate cancer about eight years ago. After fighting it for years and going into remission twice, the third time is what sealed his fate. The cancer spread throughout his body until he just had no strength left to fight. He gave a valiant effort, but it spread faster than the doctors and my dad could fight it. It made his bones so weak that they would snap at the slightest pressure. My mother tried to take care of him at home, but it got to be too much for her. But she took care of him almost till the end. He was in a hospice for 56 days.

For every one of those 56 days my mother would drive 95 miles one way to visit him. She would get there when visiting hours started and would not leave till she was kicked out after visiting hours. She told me in all those days my father only complained once to her. And that was for his room-mate! He whispered to my mother that he had heard the night nurse slap the man in the bed next to him! She slapped a dying man!! My mother (small dragon that she is!) marched over to the nurses station and demanded to talk to the head nurse. My mom told her what Dad had and said and that nurse was fired the same day! Yeah Mom and Dad!

That’s the kind of man my dad was. My mom told me all the nurses loved him, because no matter how much pain he was in he always had a smile or a joke for them. I miss him so very much!

My mother has also had her battle with cancer. Several times. She has had colon cancer twice. The second time was at the same time my Dad was diagnosed with cancer for the third time. They were both fighting it at the same time! My mom is a fighter. Both times she had beaten the big “C”. She kicked its butt! But can you imagine trying to take care of a sick husband and being sick yourself? They are strong people and their love for one another was stronger. They had been married over 50 years when my Dad died. I make sure I call my mom every August the 19th, the day of their anniversary. Mom gets a bit depressed that day, she misses him too.

My grandmother died of breast cancer. I myself beat cancer when I was in my late  20’s. I went to a doctor about a spot under my chin that would not go away, a small sore that just wouldn’t heal. He took a biopsy, sent it off, and I learned two weeks later I had cancer. It was a rare form of lung cancer. The doctor told me that with this kind of lung cancer the spots very rarely show up outside the skin. When they do it is usually so far advanced that the patient doesn’t have long to live. You know what I said?

*uck that! (excuse my language) I was too damn young to die! And I wasn’t going to!! That day I learned I had cancer and the likely outcome, I went home and cried for hours. Then I got mad. I didn’t and wouldn’t let myself think of dying. Because I wasn’t going to! I think what made it doubly hard on me was that my marriage was pretty much over with and I hadn’t talked to any of my family for literally years. I was alone. But I still never considered dying to be an option. And as you can see it wasn’t. Because here I am! Alive, kickin’, and writing. Ahhh no matter how bad things get, LIFE IS GOOD!

So please! I’m asking you nicely, almost begging. Join the Bloggers for Movember! It’s a great thing and join me and many others in celebrating life while we do what we can to kick cancer out the door!