Semantics
Yesterday someone asked me if I was in remission. At the time I said yes. But the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. I don't like that word. It implies that though we've sliced, burned and poisoned my body, the cancer is still there, just not currently rearing its ugly head. No definition of the word I can find in a dictionary or online makes me feel any better about it.
But the word "cure" isn't really accurate, either. Cure implies that there is some sort of formula guaranteed to produce a cancer free result. If there was a cure for this thing, we wouldn't spend so much time sitting in chemo suites, getting drugs that may or may not be effective and killing off the healthy along with the diseased. If there was a cure, we wouldn't lose so many women each year.
My cancer lexicon includes the term "NED" which stands for No Evidence of Disease. I'm not crazy about this phrase, either, but I'll take my NED status all the same.
I don't know what the right word is to describe my post-cancer state. I had cancer. Presumably, hopefully, I do not now nor will I ever again. No matter what word gets you there, that's a good place to be.
But the word "cure" isn't really accurate, either. Cure implies that there is some sort of formula guaranteed to produce a cancer free result. If there was a cure for this thing, we wouldn't spend so much time sitting in chemo suites, getting drugs that may or may not be effective and killing off the healthy along with the diseased. If there was a cure, we wouldn't lose so many women each year.
My cancer lexicon includes the term "NED" which stands for No Evidence of Disease. I'm not crazy about this phrase, either, but I'll take my NED status all the same.
I don't know what the right word is to describe my post-cancer state. I had cancer. Presumably, hopefully, I do not now nor will I ever again. No matter what word gets you there, that's a good place to be.
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