Friend with Cancer

My wife arrived to work a few minutes late and met E in the parking lot. E is a 61 year old secretary at my wife's work and they have been friends for seven years. A few years ago, E learned that a lump in her side (that she had been ignoring) was cancer. In fact she had breast cancer and because she never went for check-ups, the cancer spread throughout her body. When she found it, she had Stage 4 cancer. Through all the years and all the tests, she would never let them scan her brain. For whatever reason, she never wanted to know if the cancer was in her brain.

For the last several months, E has been grumpy and no one knew why. She finally announced she would be retiring in December. It was around then my wife noticed some odd things about E - as if she had a stroke. She lost use of several fingers on one hand, and when she walked she kind of dragged one foot. But then she would have these muscle spasms where one arm would just curl up and be useless. These weren't muscle spasms, they were seizures. Last week she had a really bad episode, so, my wife drover her home.

Today, in the parking lot, E told my wife that she had brain cancer. E had come to work to tell HR she would not be coming back. And possible for the last time, Linda said good bye to her friend, and gave her a hug.

The rest of the day was a waste for my wife because she was in shock. So, I took her to lunch so she could talk about it. It is sad. But I was impressed that someone could live for so many years after getting Stage 4 cancer. It just seemed like she could go on forever - and she probably could have, or will - just keep going for various treatments to keep the cancer in check and prevent it from growing. But once it is in the brain, what can be done?

I talked to my mother about this and she said this is exactly what was wrong with her mother (my grandmother), who died in her 50's back in the 1960's. She had a brain tumor behind her ear. She got so bad she needed help to walk up the stairs. They tried to remove the cancer from behind her ear, but she had an aneurysm and died on the operating table.