As I rushed to my doctor's appointment today, I wasn't thinking about exactly which doctor I was going to see: internist, cardiologist, dermatologist...
The sign on the door was a shock as I arrived: UCLA Oncology.
Yes, I regularly visit an oncologist. Ugly and scary word.
But I am a three-year survivor of breast cancer, so that's good.
Melinda Sue Casey survived for 16 years after she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.
Born in 1955, she died on February 20, 2017.
For many years she taught the children of migrant workers in Oxnard, California. She retired for health reasons at age 45 and took up volunteer work.
She was a member of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church in Malibu.
Her survival for 16 years rather than the predicted 4 years was the result of "one-part medicine, but the lion's share was heart and spirit," her obituary reports.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/melinda-casey-obituary?pid=1000000184443335
My heart aches for her, just 61 years old at her passing, because I too received the CA diagnosis.
Mine was stage 2, not stage 3 or 4.
Mine was three years ago this coming April.
We cannot know the length of our days, but we can remember that "Dust we are, and to dust we shall return" (Genesis 3:19).
I also like this verse:
"Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them"... before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:1-8).
