For a lot of people cancer is a moment - albeit a long one. They are diagnosed, they go through a treatment process, they reach remission (lord willing), they sweat out the five-year period before they are considered "cancer free," and then they are essentially done/cured.
For me it’s a journey. (From the National Cancer Institute/NCI: If you remain in complete remission for 5 years or more, some doctors may say that you are cured. Still, some cancer cells can remain in your body for many years after treatment. These cells may cause the cancer to come back one day.)
Don't get me wrong at all, I am thrilled for these folks. I know that my cancer brothers and sisters have gone through a horrific and frightening ordeal - one that painfully too many don't conquer. But what separates me from them is that Multiple Myeloma technically has no "cure" as of yet. As I've emphasized many times before: incurable but not necessarily terminal. I understand it, I accept it and I manage it as just part of the nature of my disease - which just so happens to be cancer.
This realization impacts on the way that I view my maintenance regimen - it heightens the need for me to be extra vigilant in my compliance. This reality colors the way that I look at my life and my disease - it reminds me that the fight is never over and the battle is never truly won. This road that I am on starts with many partners, whose presence wanes over time - leaving me keeping calm and carrying on with my monthly treatment and lifelong optimism (hopefully lifeloooong).
This differentiation doesn't scare me, it doesn't upset me, it doesn't make me feel worse off, it doesn't foster self-pity, and it doesn't allow me to claim that my cancer is any harder to deal with than anyone else's. But it is important for me to keep in mind that my journey - my mission of sorts - is not a walk, it's a voyage; is not a song, it's a symphony; is not a short story, it's a novel - one that I am continually "writing" every day. So, I use the good health that I have attained to stay focused, patient, on track and conscious of the need for a steady head.
