Damn. That one hits too close to home. My wife is over 20 years out now. Not sure if nothing can kill her, but so far, so good.
nomusesays
Oh, that is the best news this long crazy year.
I teared up.
Jazzletsays
Mr J is five years out, just got the latest all-clear. Though in his case they think that as it was caught so early his pronosos is as it would have been had the cancer never happened, which is good.
brucegee1962says
Bit by bit, we are pushing back this horrible disease. Thanks, science!
jenorafeuersays
Yeah, I remember the Seven Years one, which went up to that last grey panel viewing the eclipse, then had another row of comics after that:
“Wow”
“Yeah”
“That was incredible. When’s the next one?”
“In seven years. Wanna go see it?”
(Shot of mental arithmetic going out to 2024 with dotted lines and question marks.)
“Yeah. I’ll do my best.”
“It’s a date!”
PaulBCsays
Chemotherapy is torture, but it saves lives. My daughter went through six months of that particular hell (and cancer’s not the only medical monster she’s faced down). She is in tenth grade and going strong.
One of my favorite books is The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. We’ve made an incredible amount of progress on cancer in the past 70 years. Now we just need treatments that aren’t like something the Spanish Inquisition would have come up with.
So…am I supposed to be crying because my wife only made it 6 months from her cancer diagnosis? (Well, she “beat” cancer twice before, and I married her anyway despite all that. So this was her third time with cancer.) If so…yeah, I may just do that.
a_ray_in_dilbert_spacesays
Leo, if you aren’t crying over that, the rest of us are. Our condolences for your loss. Cancer sucks.
My BFF went through over a year of chemo because it just wouldn’t go away. She’s still pretty wrecked. The healing process from chemo is longer than the chemo itself. I’m just glad she has her brain back again. She doesn’t remember a lot of her treatment, but now that she’s re1covered from the chemo brain she can finally move forward again.
redwoodsays
Seven years out after strike two (second time it appeared), but it was found so early (Stage 0) and in a “safe” place (my bladder), that there never was much to worry about. The BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) treatments really revved up my immune system as well. Now just need to keep the big C away from all the other possible places it could pop up, like my gums. A friend of my wife’s had a tumor above her front teeth. They had to come out along with it, but she’s fine now.
It will be three years this December that I lost my wife to cancer. We thought we had it beat but Dog laughed at our plans.
PaulBCsays
I don’t know if this is too morbid or just stupid but after having a front row seat to chemotherapy, I found myself listening to Beach Boys Caroline No as if it was about a guy watching his girlfriend go through chemo and feeling angry at her for having cancer and at himself for feeling that way. In fact, it predates the common use of chemo, so this interpretation is highly unlikely, but I still think it fits. I used to put it on in the car and listen to it this way when I found myself getting worked up about cancer.
I lost a parent to cancer and half my parents’ siblings, plus many friends and co-workers so far.
If we can get a simple test to indicate the presence of cancer even if the tumor is “hidden” it will be a major step.
.
Also, a lot of new basic research about Alzheimers is cropping up, leading to some cautious optimism about progress.
MadHattersays
I lost my brother, much too young (not even 40), to cancer a few years ago. I have a cousin who has been in treatment for several years for a late stage cancer, also too young. And now I’m an early detection researcher. Some days these sorts of things punch me in the gut though.
a_ray_in_dilbert_space says
Damn. That one hits too close to home. My wife is over 20 years out now. Not sure if nothing can kill her, but so far, so good.
nomuse says
Oh, that is the best news this long crazy year.
I teared up.
Jazzlet says
Mr J is five years out, just got the latest all-clear. Though in his case they think that as it was caught so early his pronosos is as it would have been had the cancer never happened, which is good.
brucegee1962 says
Bit by bit, we are pushing back this horrible disease. Thanks, science!
jenorafeuer says
Yeah, I remember the Seven Years one, which went up to that last grey panel viewing the eclipse, then had another row of comics after that:
PaulBC says
Chemotherapy is torture, but it saves lives. My daughter went through six months of that particular hell (and cancer’s not the only medical monster she’s faced down). She is in tenth grade and going strong.
One of my favorite books is The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. We’ve made an incredible amount of progress on cancer in the past 70 years. Now we just need treatments that aren’t like something the Spanish Inquisition would have come up with.
Leo Buzalsky says
So…am I supposed to be crying because my wife only made it 6 months from her cancer diagnosis? (Well, she “beat” cancer twice before, and I married her anyway despite all that. So this was her third time with cancer.) If so…yeah, I may just do that.
a_ray_in_dilbert_space says
Leo, if you aren’t crying over that, the rest of us are. Our condolences for your loss. Cancer sucks.
gijoel says
Oh thank Science she didn’t die.
Ray Ceeya says
My BFF went through over a year of chemo because it just wouldn’t go away. She’s still pretty wrecked. The healing process from chemo is longer than the chemo itself. I’m just glad she has her brain back again. She doesn’t remember a lot of her treatment, but now that she’s re1covered from the chemo brain she can finally move forward again.
redwood says
Seven years out after strike two (second time it appeared), but it was found so early (Stage 0) and in a “safe” place (my bladder), that there never was much to worry about. The BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) treatments really revved up my immune system as well. Now just need to keep the big C away from all the other possible places it could pop up, like my gums. A friend of my wife’s had a tumor above her front teeth. They had to come out along with it, but she’s fine now.
kentreniche says
It will be three years this December that I lost my wife to cancer. We thought we had it beat but Dog laughed at our plans.
PaulBC says
I don’t know if this is too morbid or just stupid but after having a front row seat to chemotherapy, I found myself listening to Beach Boys Caroline No as if it was about a guy watching his girlfriend go through chemo and feeling angry at her for having cancer and at himself for feeling that way. In fact, it predates the common use of chemo, so this interpretation is highly unlikely, but I still think it fits. I used to put it on in the car and listen to it this way when I found myself getting worked up about cancer.
Ted Powell says
Noter: For every https://xkcd.com/NNNN/
there is a https://explainxkcd.com/NNNN/ shortly after.
In particular, https://explainxkcd.com/2386/ is well worth visiting.
birgerjohansson says
I lost a parent to cancer and half my parents’ siblings, plus many friends and co-workers so far.
If we can get a simple test to indicate the presence of cancer even if the tumor is “hidden” it will be a major step.
.
Also, a lot of new basic research about Alzheimers is cropping up, leading to some cautious optimism about progress.
MadHatter says
I lost my brother, much too young (not even 40), to cancer a few years ago. I have a cousin who has been in treatment for several years for a late stage cancer, also too young. And now I’m an early detection researcher. Some days these sorts of things punch me in the gut though.