In one of my previous posts, Mr. CBMTTek left this comment:
What I find reprehensible about Ms. Johnson’s comment about not overlooking the black community is not that somehow Jews deserved it or anything like that. It is the one upmanship of it.
Imagine if you found out that you had some kind of terminal illness, inoperable brain cancer or whatever. And, when an acquaintance found out, they insisted on talking to you about how horrible their Uncle’s gout gets after he eats shellfish.
That comment reminded me of this story.
This is absolutely true. I want to make this clear.
When I was 26 years old I was diagnosed with cancer. I went to the hospital for an abdominal x-ray on something entirely unrelated.
My gastroenterologist called me up at 8:00 at night – never a good sign – and said “We found a spot on your right kidney. We don’t know what it is, but it’s not supposed to be there. I got you an appointment with a urologist friend tomorrow.”
Well, fuck…
I see the urologist and he said in so many words “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not supposed to be there. We’ll cut it out ASAP and biopsy it later.”
I was in an OR at 4:00 am, two days later.
What they cut out of me turned out to be a malignant neoplasm, a.k.a. “Fuck you, you die now cancer.”
I know this because a family member of someone I am very close to was diagnosed with the same cancer shortly after I was and he died in six months. The difference was, they found his when he became symptomatic, at which point it was too late.
I lost half of my right kidney, part of two ribs, and have a foot-long scar on my right side. I do sit-ups weird and suspect that part of my back problems and my tilting to port has to do with my oblique abdominal muscles not properly healing.
Nevertheless, I’m alive and have been cancer-free for 10 years.
This event strengthened my belief in God and that the Lord works in mysterious ways because if it were not for my inherited bowel problems, I would be dead from cancer.
So…
I was very fortunate that I did not need chemo. I did have to see the oncologist to get cleared.
I was in the oncologist’s office waiting when a woman in a pink bandana asked: “Who are you here to support?”
“Nobody. I’m a patient.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
We chat for a moment and I tell her what happened to me when she said this:
“Well if you didn’t have chemo you don’t get to call yourself cancer survivor.”
“Excuse me?”
“You didn’t have the real cancer experience.”
Now, this wasn’t said in jest. She was angry at me. She did not like that she had given me sympathy for being a cancer patient just to find out I wasn’t going to lose my hair and puke my guts out.
I learned a few lessons that day:
Never underestimate how much misery loves company.
Victim status is a coveted thing and they do not want to share it.
People will form cliques over anything, just to gate-keep and make sure you are not part of the privileged club.
So the fact that some Progressives want to keep Jews on the outs of the elite victim status club, even though they are getting shot to shit doesn’t surprise me.
I had an elderly woman get mad at me for not suffering through my cancer enough.
Long, long, long ago I stopped counting the number of people who have told me that I’m not a “real gay.”
Collectivists love to lump themselves and everyone else into groups… and the best feeling in the world is to be able to tell someone else “You can’t sit with us!”
While I know it wasn’t the point of your story, you struck close to home. I also had kidney cancer that was discovered serendipitously. Surgery a few days later removed a 9 cm tumor and all of my left kidney. Three weeks later I was nearly good as new. I actually said then that I didn’t feel like a cancer survivor.
Three years later, I now have kidney cancer in my lungs. Caught very early so the first pass is to fight it with immunotherapy. I have to go to a cancer center to get treatment, but based on what I see of those around me, my treatment is like kindergarten class. I can walk in and out under my own power, and I’m done in about an hour and a half.
Long story short (too late, I know); fuck ’em. As with most victim status categories, I don’t want anything to do with them. My family and my faith are what I need to see me through. I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me.
You are hereby ordered to kick that shit hard in the ass and get back to us in good shape. 🙂
Hear hear!
You are not a cancer survivor, you just survived cancer. . . or something.
What a terrible person. Someone needs to slap her upside the head and tell her just how bad she is. Maybe ask her if people who died from cancer before they could get chemo are not really victims of cancer cause they “didn’t get the whole experience” either.
So, prostate cancer, turned into “advanced (metastatic) prostate cancer”*, and two years on Lupron. But never chemo, so I guess I didn’t have “the cancer experience” either.
*I suppose it’s still there, waiting to roar into life, but it’s been quiet (PSA undetectable) for 2 years off Lupron so far. Do not >>ever<< want to go back on "hormone therapy".
C’mon, there had to be upsides. Like very time you wanted to play with boobs, they were right there on your own chest.
I kid. Had a family member on Lupron and breast tissue growth was one of his side effects. He joked about it too.
I’m glad to hear you got by on just Lupron. The side effects of radiation and surgery down there are pretty terrible. Just make sure it doesn’t come back.
Didn’t even mention that. Radiation and surgery were in the mix as well.
Oh, geez. What side effect of Lupron >>didn’t<< I have? Gynomastia, yes. Weight gain. Mental fogginess. Fatigue, hot flashes, chills. And, of course, depression and "suicidal ideation".
Giving this to children with "gender dysporia" (Moms with Munchhausen by proxy) to delay puberty is child abuse.
(accidentally clicked thumbs down on your post, can't change it.)
I only want to salute those of you who have fought that battle, and I pray that you will all recover and return to good health. God bless you all/
Sorry to hear about the battles, everyone. No one should have to go through it. I wish nothing but good health and a long happy life to everyone.
But, very good illustrative story there J.KB. Your suffering is not the right kind of suffering, so it does not count. Not any different, really, than that mental midget that was more concerned about keeping the black victim card fully charged up, than about the people who were actually targeted and killed.
…moral midget…”
My take.
Or, perhaps, “embrace the power of ‘and'”
I’ll accept moral midget.
Look, I realize that your suffering is more important to you than someone else’s, but leave the one-up-manship out of it. Oh, you had cancer, you went through life altering surgery, you cannot stand perfectly straight anymore. But, that’s nothing. Did you do chemo? No? Then your struggle does not count.
It is a clear indicator that those on the left have zero empathy for anyone else. It is borderline sociopath. “We are very sorry some Orthodox Jews were targeted and killed, but you have to understand. Some ancestors of mine, that I cannot name, or even prove a connection to, were once enslaved. We cannot forget about the struggles we have because of something that has not happened in this country for over 100 years. A few people dying is a flash in the pan. We are the ones really oppressed.” I abhor those people.
Casual conversation is one thing. Everyone wants to tell their family’s war story about how so-and-so had some similar disease. But, the line is crossed when it becomes a basis for snobbery.
I don’t think you intended this to be a thread on cancer, but I was informed this past weekend that my sister got her most recent bloodwork back and the doctor told her that she “no longer has any cancer markers in her blood”. Now, to me, that sounds like she is cancer free.
How did she do it? She went to a clinic in Mexico after she got diagnosed. Doctors here wanted to start her on chemo, and said there was a 30 percent chance of it working, but after watching how chemo messed up our little brother, she decided to do the Mexico thing.
Our brother died in April and she is alive and cancer free. So, they can take their chemo and stick it where the sun don’t shine. In fact, if you can’t be called a cancer survivor unless you take chemo, maybe they should call such people chemo survivors, instead.