Sad Day Today

What a sad day today.

Mid-morning, we had our rotational brownout in the office.  With nothing to do, I was aimlessly browsing through facebook – until I saw a close friend’s private message.

I was expecting our usual conversation, but I was puzzled when I saw the two pictures she posted with a short phrase that she had bad news for me.  One picture was a medicine I did not recognize but looking at the other one, my knees grew weak and then a familiar, unwanted feeling began to slowly creep through my entire body – it was a picture of an oncology unit in a hospital.  She had a minor surgery a few weeks back and I refused to let bad thoughts dawn to me so I just asked if it was just a routine exam.  Somehow, I knew the answer, but I was hoping I was wrong.  Then she directly told me she had uterine cancer in the relatively early stage. I felt dizzy reading her reply.

Then all the roller coaster of emotions I felt when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer came toppling down on me and I suddenly felt like crying.  I was afraid for her, I was imagining her going through all those challenges my mother had battled during her treatment, I couldn’t believe it would happen to someone close to me who had the same age as me – we were not even forty yet. It’s like the return of an old enemy which I thought I have defeated.

When I was still a child, cancer was an incurable disease.  Growing up, I was confident that with the advancement of science and technology, there would eventually be a cure for the dreaded disease.  Now, I’m almost forty, but the medical world has not managed to eradicate to disease, only the management of the treatment and prolonging the life of the patient who will eventually die of cancer.  I’m starting to panic that every day my generation is aging, our risk of having cancer is increasing and there’s still no sure cure of it.  After my mother was able to finish her treatment successfully with the grace of God, I thought I could forget about cancer and just forget the nightmare that was.

I have only prayers to offer for my friend who works opposite the globe away from her family, relatives and friends.  I fervently pray that she will not be so dispirited and depressed.    She is a tough and strong woman and I hope she maintains her positive disposition in this trying time.  I pray that she will feel God’s love for her and that her faith may develop deeper through this major battle in her life.  I am hopeful that the advance treatment methods in the US will work on her and save her from this horrible, life-threatening reality. Most of all, I pray that God restore her good health so that when she comes home during our high school reunion, this will just be a thing of the past.

Fighting, friend!