Crazy Sexy Cancer Abounds

The DH is out of town, so no one is home to talk to after the girls are tucked in.

I've started reading Kris Carr's book, "Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips". I love that it is written by a woman who, despite a rare and incurable cancer, decided to use all of her talents and resources to tell the world that cancer abounds among young, active women. She wrote a wonderful paragraph about how, when someone says "cancer" you either picture a child or an elderly person, never a twenty, thirty or forty-something man or woman with a job, friends, kids, and a mortgage! Yet, despite the stereotype, there are thousands and thousands of young and middle-age adults living with one form of cancer or another. The point of her book, and of the documentary that will be on TLC, is that cancer is unmistakably redefining, but that there are ways to take your life back and make the most of it after cancer.

Today, while waiting for my youngest at gymnastics, I was reading this book and talking to my oldest about the pictures (which, by the way, are very cool) and about the women in the pictures and how they all have cancer, like mommy does. A few minutes later, the mom sitting next to me apologized for listening in, then asked me if I have cancer. When I replied that I do, she smiled and said she does, too. Hers is colon cancer. She'll be getting her 12th round of chemo next week to get ready for her 4th surgery. No family history, no risk factors, just colon cancer. Her matter of fact manner just made my heart ache. Today, she was watching her son at gymnastics.

We talked for a few minutes about the apparent rampent-ness of cancer among people our age (I have a whole theory I'm working out about the Baby Boomers and Millennials trying to squeeze out Generation X, but that can wait). Then we talked a bit about the book. She's going to check it out. I hope to see her again at gymnastics, to check on her and to see how her cancer posse is coming.

Here is the URL for the documentary and the book. Check it out: http://www.crazysexycancer.com