GREAT NEWS ! you probably didn't know....

[rehab1]

The other day someone who never had cancer and knows simply nothing about it asked me wife .... " what kind of cancer does your husband have ? " ... my wife told this person " he has colon cancer " ...."oh," this person says, " that's nothing, because I heard this was the easiest cancer to beat as well as its nothing to have to worry about ".....so lets hear it all CC's !! lets get a hip hip hooray to that !! ... yea right ... why do people say such things ....
pete

[mlibertone]

Bc they have no real clue, obviously! Sorry that some people are idiots it's either that or it's their misguided way of thinking they are giving support and hope? I could never imagine saying such a thing to anyone who had cancer or whose loved one had cancer, not even before my dads diagnosis. Crazy.

[MrPleistocene]

It is frustrating, but they were probably trying to make her feel better.

[Jimswife]

Yea people say the stupidest thing however it is reported to be one if the most curable ones when caught the earliest stages (stage 1) but even in here and in real life there people who were stage 1 that are now at stage 4 so of course nothing is ever definate , my husband was same diagnosis as you in oct 11 , when people say is he ok now ? I say yes .... He's all clear and cancer free at the moment , I and he liked to think of himself as not having cancer anymore and until scans prove otherwise we use the past tense .., I know a few people say "have" cancer when there like a couple of years out ? I don't understand that ? Why welcome it ? ned / cancer free / remission until proven otherwise I say , good luck for the future

[Hapa]

People have said the oddest things to me since dh diagnosis. One day home from the hospital, a friend stopped by uninvited. I met him at the door & told him dh wasn't up to visitors. Then he tells me that his mom went in for cc surgery & died 3 months later (she was 89). He didn't understand why that upset me,really?





Dh stage 3 rc

[sbrainbolt]

I don't think that people mean to be insensitive or hurtful when they say completely ignorant things. They just don't think before they speak and have no first hand knowledge of cancer or that ANY type of cancer is NO FUN!

My favorite is seeing people whom I haven't seen since before my dx that know I was diagnosed with cancer. 9 times out of 10 I get "OH MY GOD, you look SO GOOD!" Like they expected me to look half dead or something and are suprised because I don't. This gets on my nerves because when going through chemo I didn't look sick but I felt like total crap!

Oh Well, like I said. They have no clue!

[KarMel]

My favorite is seeing people whom I haven't seen since before my dx that know I was diagnosed with cancer. 9 times out of 10 I get "OH MY GOD, you look SO GOOD!" Like they expected me to look half dead or something and are suprised because I don't. This gets on my nerves because when going through chemo I didn't look sick but I felt like total shock:

I get aggravated about this one, too.

Today, I told folks at the office that mt CT scan has shown progression and there are no more chemo options except experimental. I hear them say appropriate words of sympathy, but then one pipes up..."I just can't believe it cause you look so good.". I don't know why people think that's a comfort. It is not.

[Nellie]

Someone, who knew of my dx said to me, "omg, look how skinny you are, I wish I could lose weight like that". - yeah sweetie, stage 4 cancer will do that to you - I think if I had my choice I'd prefer losing it at weight watchers. Dumb ar*e
Nellie

[dianetavegia]

Actually my colon surgeon said that to me! He said 'If you've GOT to have cancer, this is the best kind to have as long as it's caught early'.

I love the guy dearly, but I think that's a silly remark.

[kiwiinoz]

i am with Dianne in that my colorectal surgeon told me that it was the best cancer to have if you were going to have a cancer.
Unfortunately I don't fall into the dx'd early catagorey so it may be a longer process.

I told my sister about my cancer, and she immediately told me about the 3 people she knows that all died from it (she works at a nursing home for the elderly and they were all elderly patients) but I did not appreciate it. I talked to her husband and he told me that I was young so my immune system could fight it off easy How I wish it was like a common cold.

The point for me is that I don't think people are deliberately insensitive but having cancer has really shown me who I want to be around, and he I just can't be bothered wasting my time and energy with. Sure, I think we have all had people that we expected to react in a supporting manner, and have not but I have had a few acquaintances that since dx have really gone out of their way to show more friendship to my wife & I than some of our best friends. I guess it can bring out the worst and the best in humanity.

I look at some on the board, and I have nowhere near the hassles that they do, nowhere near the problems and granted, I have a lot to go through from here but the only thing I can honestly control in this entire thing is how I choose to react to cancer and the attitude I choose to have whilst facing and living with it.

Just my opinion for what is worth.

[Guinevere]

The other day someone who never had cancer and knows simply nothing about it asked me wife .... " what kind of cancer does your husband have ? " ... my wife told this person " he has colon cancer " ...."oh," this person says, " that's nothing, because I heard this was the easiest cancer to beat as well as its nothing to have to worry about ".....so lets hear it all CC's !! lets get a hip hip hooray to that !! ... yea right ... why do people say such things ....
pete

Whew! That's a load off my mind!! Here I thought I was in a life or death struggle with possible permanent problems from the side effects of chemo. Have your wife tell that person that they've great eased our minds!
What a maroon...

[SkiFletch]

If you ask me, the award for "most treatable cancer" is probably testicular cancer. Surgery is easy/effective, and complete responses to chemo even in later stages are the norm, not the exception. Some types of Lymphoma are also exceptionally treatable. CRC is really only "good" when it's Stage 0-IIa . The whole IF it's caught early merely because so much of the organ is removed that physical excision of all cancerous cells is likely in that early stage.

Any way you slice it though, flippant, uninformed remarks are never a good idea. Some folks just don't think before they open their lips.

[Jimswife]

Lance Armstrongs was testicular and had spread to stomach lungs and brain if I remember rightly from reading his book , he's been cancer free since surgery / chemo 16 yrs ago , why is it some cancers are easily cured even when spread and others aren't ? I think any cancer at any stage is scary stuff .

[ranger]

When I told my tree guy, Ray, Friend of the Trees, he said he would call his mom and his sister to let them know there are surgeries now that help people survive cc with a met to the liver, because his dad died many years ago of the same thing. He said my survival makes him very happy. His joy that I've lived 4 years since dx made me happy.

here's what's not encouraging: (cartoon of 'my friend died of the same thing')
http://cancerissofunny.blogspot.com/201 ... -that.html

[adina91]

Wow, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this from doctors, average laypeople, medical professionals.....Ugh!