Living and dying with Cancer

I was prompted to write this because of something I heard on the TV this afternoon. The local news station was promoting its upcoming news programs with a story about a national and local celebrity named Harmon Killibrew, a man who played baseball for the Minnesota Twins for years and has been associated with the team his whole life, working for the twins or just showing up at Twins events, etc. The news was highlilghting the story they were going to air later in the evening, and the story was what they titled something along the lines of: "Former Twins giant Harmon Killibrew announces he will stop fighting his battle with cancer." This got me thinking about how I dislike the notion of "battling or fighting cancer" and how that "fight/battle" is stamped upon anyone that has cancer, such as people like myself.

If you read the obituaries in the newspaper or online you will often find that if someone has died of cancer the obit will print something such as: "Jane Doe passed on blank date after a long battle (or courageous battle) with cancer". Sometimes they will tell you the amount of months or years they battled with cancer.

Why, if you die of some other disease it us usually left out of the information given? Of course, if you die in a traffic accident or some other kind of accident, it is usually mentioned in typical fashion: "John Doe died tragically in a car accident" or "Jane Doe died suddenly..." And the younger you are the more tragic the accident was (understandably). But you rarely see mention of someone dying after a 7 month battle with a staph infection or pneumonia or heart disease.

Then there is the age factor. When people reach a certain age - I'll put the age at about 78 and older, they stop mentioning causes at all. At that age cancer must just become one of the many many many ways we pass "peacefully". The older we get apparently the less we can battle death.

So, Harmon Killibrew, champion baseball hero for those of us who love Minnesota baseball, has decided to "stop fighting" according to those loopy local news people, and will be going into hospice care, which is becoming the euphemism for stopping treatments and beginning your "journey" toward death. Why must it be labeled a battle or fight? Why is cancer singled out? What are they trying to say about Mr. Killibrew by putting his situation into terms that make it seem like he's giving up or losing a fight? Doesn't everyone die? Of something or other? Why is it news that someone like Mr. Killibrew has determined that going through further treatments of his particular cancer is no longer beneficial?

For all I know, Mr. Killibrew issued the news himself because it was important for him to let the world know that he realistically knows his time on this planet is nearly done. Many never have the opportunity to deliver such news. I don't have any problem with that... the only thing I don't like is how everything related to cancer is put into a special designation of dying described in fighting terms. It's ridiculous. Everyone battles through life and fights trouble and pain and whatever comes our way, not just cancer victims. Just because cancer decided to visit upon my doorstep doesn't put me into any kind of "special" group of dying people. Just because I follow through with treatments that my doctors set up for me doesn't make me a fighter any more than someone with emphysema is. What is it to have a disease that forces you to get treatments to keep living? I don't know... LIFE maybe?

Mr. Killibrew hasn't stopped fighting or given up. He has been given information and made a decision to keep living... until he dies.