Our family can always expect either a letter or an email sent from Aunt Maida towards the year end, summarizing everything that happened in her and her family life during the past year. To be frank, I never pay much attention to every details of what she wrote but this year, I read every single word.
2 days ago, I received the annual letter from Aunt Maida, I then realised she has skipped the tradition of writing it in 2006, as according to her own words - "inconceivable to write last year, therefore here's a combined effort for 2006 + 2007". She really had a tragic time coming to terms as her husband left her quite suddenly with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
The biggest and devastating discovery I had in 2007, has to be the fact that I found out Cancer is in general, incurable - as contrary to my belief that many cancers can be completely cured under modern day treatments. Doctors typically offer treatment only in the hope of prolonging cancer patients' life, not for the sake of curing the cancer itself.
No offense, but the medical world can't master the disease as yet, even for the most experienced cancer specialists. When asked about questions on life expectancy or, the most suited drugs to take, their partyline is almost always uncertain and very average than average. They will most probably respond by saying, every patient is a unique individual and will be affected differently by their illnesses...even two people of the same age, with the same type of cancer, which has spread to the same extent, can have very different effect on the same drugs...the most expensive drugs do not necessarily work better....etc.etc. Therefore, if you are ever faced with the same scenario - be prepared to get a vague answer, or at most a reluctant feedback with no substance.
So here's my one-liner for my year 2007:
We can fly people to the moon, but we can't cure Cancer on earth. How very ironic!
No comments:
Post a Comment