In a post today Nancy asks “Do you ever wonder why you got cancer?”
I did ask my oncologist that question, in part because not only do I have cancer but I have bilateral cancer which is rather rare. So much so, that much of the literature and support materials on surgeries talk about having a single mastectomy, which makes it more challenging for me to predict how things will go for me.
I actually posted about exactly this question back before I started treatment in “Why me? versus It is what is.”
Now I think that something in me just clicked. From time to time I question, is it my poor diet from my 20s? or drinking out of Nalgene bottles before they were PBA free? or do I eat too much food cooked on the BBQ?, or something I was exposed to while travelling in Syria or Jordan?
But for me, the reality it that I will never know ‘why me’, and even if I did, it is in the past – it is nothing that I can change now. So I come up with my own answers. For me, the answer that I like it that something just click – some rogue something caused a bunch of cells in my body to go crazy. I kind of wish someone would take interest in the bilateral nature of my disease and try to answer “why” especially because of its uniqueness – but alas, it doesn’t actually appear to be that interesting from a research perspective. I don’t have anyone knocking at my door asking me to be part of a trial or experience to help figure out why. I’ve actually been excluded from clinical trials because I have bilateral disease.
So, it is what is it … why won’t change anything. There is no point in regretting the past (I have had a pretty awesome past full of amazing experiences, so nothing to regret really). I’ll just choose to move on with making decision about how I want to live the rest of my life 🙂
