Where is all this cancer coming from?

If you ride around Seattle enough, you will eventually see many signs and advertisements about how Seattle has an extremely high amount of people who have heart disease or osteoporosis, or even MS. They ask if it is something in the water. Clever, but a sad reminder of how many people are sick.

Last spring, I knew 4 different people who had breast cancer. Two were from work and two were acquaintances of my good friends and one of them has become a friend of mine now. These women are in their late 40’s and 50’s. An age that people usually start seeing breast cancer. 

Then another work friend got breast cancer. This was much farther along and she is just finishing up chemotherapy. It has been just awful for her. She has even had to go to part time. 

A huge whammy was November. My good college friend was diagnosed with a very low risk breast cancer. Some even call it stage zero, but they still a lumpectomy and radiation. She is younger than me…. 28. It is too weird. 

And now the scary thing is tonight I found out another good friend woke up with a weird lump in her breast last week and now has to have it checked out. It all spells out cancer and maybe a fast moving one. It is really scary. I never thought at this young of age I would know so many people who are experiencing cancer. It is hard to know what to do. Or even what to say sometimes. It is kinda awkward to go up to someone and say, “Boy… Sucks you got cancer, hope you get well soon!” Not the most eloquent. 

So compared to some others, my injuries seem very minor and I feel very lucky. I just hope I am living a good lifestyle and will never have to worry about any of this type of stuff. I just the best I can hope to do is think happy thoughts for them and help out where I am able to.