She was saying how frustrating it is when people describe cancer patients as "fighters", as someone they know is going to "beat" this disease.
The reality is, a lot of this is out of our control. Someone who dies of cancer, or has a recurrence, is no less of a fighter than someone in remission.
Bad stuff happens to good people.
Our most popular icon of cancer recovery is Lance Armstrong. I am sure his attitude and mental state had a lot to do with his recovery, but plenty of people with the same diagnosis and mental strength do not have similar outcomes.
My father was a "fighter". He, like me, would accept any treatment, if only to, "live one more day". Did he die because he gave up? Did cancer "beat" him? Nope, not at all. He died because cancer is sneaky. He died because cancer, is at times, too formidable of an opponent.
All of this leads me back to the much used term, "Survivor". For a while there I felt that claiming I survived cancer meant that I was giving cancer too much power.
But I must admit, cancer is no joke. And trying to get to the other side of it is pretty tough, as much as I hate to admit, even on me.
So when I came back to my office and saw this posted on my wall I had to agree:
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