“The word ‘chronic’ resides between the
category of cured and the category of terminal. It refers to disease that is
not spreading, malignancy that can be arrested but not eradicated.”
“But for some of us, there is a middle
stage in this journey. Because of advances in cancer research and the efforts
of dedicated oncologists, a large population today deals with disease kept in
abeyance. The cancer has returned and has been controlled, but it will never go
away completely. Like me, these people cope with cancer that is treatable for
some unforeseeable amount of time. Chronic cancer means you will die from it —
unless you are first hit by the proverbial bus — but not now, not necessarily
soon.”“Chronic disease may lack the drama of diagnosis and early treatment; even friends can get bored by mounting details. Its evolution does not conform to the feel-good stories of recovery that most of us want to read. But neither does it adhere to the frightfully degenerative plot of quickly advancing tumors.”
