An open letter to cancer

I have to say, dear readers, I have been a little out of the loop lately.  

My brother was diagnosed with CNS lymphoma recently (cancer of the nervous system, found in his brain), and so our whole family has been in survival mode.  Please bear with me, I am sorry that this post will not be funny.  I have another one in the works that I will post later, but I really need to get this off my chest.

Dear Cancer,

You suck.

If there was ever a word to describe true, pure, unadulterated, evil, the word would have to be cancer. 

I hate you. 

I think the only word I can even wrap my head around at this point is.....Why?  Why my brother?  My brother is one of the most selfless, loving, caring, people in the world.  His beautiful smile, his melodious laugh, just light up the world around him.  He is a quiet person who keeps to himself, and never harmed anyone.  He would give you the shirt off of his back, and then would look at you and say, "do you want some pants to go with that?  How about dinner too?"  He would give you his last dollar even if it meant he would go without.

But you, cancer, are robbing me of my brother. 

His smile is fleeting at best right now.  His laugh is gone. His beautiful eyes that once danced are dull and vacant right now.  You are taking a shining star, and dulling his brilliance. 

Not only that, cancer, you are taking a toll on  my family.  My sisters, who before, were so very present in my children's lives, who were doting, and joyfull are now absent and anxious.  Family dinners are all but non exhistant.  We do not all gather much anymore.  We are all scattered as we take our turns caring for, and looking after my weakened brother. 

You cause pain and greif, and are relentless.  The constant barrage of painful tests that my brother must endure, and endures almost silently because you have robbed him of most of his power of speech, is excruciating to watch.  The procedure after procedure, after procedure just to find out what it is that is causing this, has caused so much havoc and turmoil.  And now comes the chemo next week that will rob him yet again, this time of an immune system, leaving him even weaker than he already is. 

All of this because of you cancer. 

But there is something you don't know. 

My family are a bunch of fighters. 

We will not go down without a fight.  And though my almost silent brother is quiet and his eyes are vacant, he is fighting.  He will force himself to find his name in his brain somewhere when he is asked by nurses when they check his cognitive skills.  He ate on his own with his own hands, not even 24 hours after his open brain biopsy.  He is fighting.  He is healing.  He has God and our whole family behind him pushing you back to the depths of hell where you came from.  In the words of Lord of the Rings, " YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!!!"  Go back to where you came from cancer.  

We will not let this tear this family apart.  We will not let you have the satisfaction of going quietly into that good night.  My brother will fight, and we will be standing in the corner of the ring with water, and towels and pep talks because he is going to go every round until it is a TKO.  You picked the wrong family to mess with.  Because after this is all over, we, as a family, have a habit of contiuing to fight.  So after the chemo, and the rehab has taken care of you, we will be contiuing to fight against you so that one day, there is a cure to you, and no other family will have to endure the pain and grief, and turmoil that you cause. 

So you look out, because we are coming for you.  You mess with our brother, you mess with us, and we plan on kicking your ass.

Sincerely,
The Family