Cancer — Blog — Healy Chen

Pour one out

I am sorry to hear about the untimely passing of James Van Der Beek. 48 is absolutely too young to be dying of colon cancer. As a matter of fact, no one should be dying of colon cancer. So long as it is detected early, colon cancer - and prostate cancer - is imminently treatable.

Two things have to happen. First is not wait so long to have regular colon and prostate exams. I am getting both done soon as I hit 40 solar orbits. If insurance doesn’t want to play ball, there’s way too many tele-health companies out there that will. A few hundred bucks to potentially catch a cancer early is chump change.

Second is fighting the stigma of these exams. Sure, it’s super funny to joke about taking a finger up the ass, especially for heterosexual dudes. But if that fear is preventing men from getting screened, something’s got to change. The culture must shift to where taking something up the butt isn’t a demerit against someone’s masculinity. It’s not gay, and it’s not going to turn you gay.

Given a long enough lifetime, the cancer reaper will come for us all. As us millennials age into the middle chunk of our allotted time on earth, I think there’s really no excuse not to get screened. But I get it: we feel fine now. Kicking the can down the road is too easy. Much like I don’t visit the dentist as much as I should.

But the downside of not visiting the dentist regularly isn’t potential death. If not for yourself, you owe it to your dependents to stay as healthy for as long as possible.

Sonny

It was a somber workday yesterday. A coworker got the news that her mother is diagnosed with cancer, and not the good kind. Not to say there is a good kind of cancer, but you know what I mean. My own mother has had breast cancer, which while scary, is imminently survivable. She’s in remission to this day (god willing).

Obviously, my coworkers was in a bit of shock. As a coworker, I was at a lost of what to say, other than how sorry I was to hear the sad news. Was there more to be said? I’m not so sure. It’s tempting to encourage him to take the rest of the day off, but people handle bad news differently. Perhaps being at work and actually doing the work is a needed distraction from the difficulties to come.

It’s never fun when human mortality surfaces right front and center. Most of us go through life running away from contemplating our mortality. That in turn governs how we act each day. We think we have all the time in the world, but reality can snatch it away in a quick second. A normal workday will be utterly interrupted by the news your mother has terminal cancer. What a cruel joke! Just a minute before, another day was going swimmingly.

Sometimes you wish there’s a button to turn back the time. Like there is in a role-playing video game.

The constant contemplation of death should influence our actions. To not sweat the small stuff, be quick to forgive, and say the things you want to say now. Because it can all go away in an instant.