Friends & Breast Cancer

Despite the chaos that is often associated with work and career, and the chaos caused by our bosses, my heart goes out to my boss and her family today. She has had an awful year, and it's only half way over. She's having a lumpectomy today at SCCA, [Seattle Cancer Care Alliance]. He husband and grown daughter are optimistic that she will not need a full mastectomy, but all that is contingent on the actual surgery later this morning. She just got her diagnosis two weeks ago, shortly after the death of her mother. Her mother passed away just a few weeks after her aunt passed away. And right before that, the family dog got cancer and had to be put down. Victor, the Black Lab, was a fixture in the home for 14+ years. All of this since President's Day Weekend of this year.

It makes you realize that work is just work. True, it provides a means to an end so we can live our lives, but family, health, long term wellness and community involvement is much, MUCH more important than your job. She's been so stressed about her job and we keep telling her, let it go and let us handle it for you in your absence. A part of all our identities is our jobs of course, but it should not be the #1 factor in anyone's life. I just called her and lovingly chastised her for sending a myriad of emails from her pre-op appointments at SCCA for things weeks, months down the road. Yes, it's an outlet from the stress of the current unknown and I fully understand that.

Cancer seems to be creeping into peoples lives more and more these days it seems. I've had aunts, uncles, grandparents, even friends in their 30s leaving behind infant children that have died from various forms of cancer. I know she will get through this whatever the short term and long term outcomes are, with family, friends and her religious community rallying behind her. I just wanted to send good thoughts to her family and anyone else out in the world today who is battling this ugly life changing disease.