You're not the Lone Ranger

It is easy to become somewhat inwardly focused when you are diagnosed with a malignancy, and cancer patients could be accused of harboring some narcissism.  A cancer patient must remember they're not the only one with the disease-not the Lone Ranger.  In order of proximity to you, your family and close friends all suffer with your cancer, even though you may feel like the only one affected.  It may be harder for the family/friends who aren't directly affected-they may feel helpless to change the disease's course,  and find they must struggle continually to maintain their support of the 'primary' cancer patient.

The pain my parents must feel, having their offspring afflicted with  malignancy, is simply incomprehensible.  Anyone with children knows how readily they would give anything to help their kids, and how devastating it must be to have them suffer from cancer.  Any parent would gladly prefer to have cancer themselves than have their children stricken.  The difficulty of caring for affected children,  particularly with uncertain outcomes, is unimaginable.  In addition, younger children wouldn't understand the reason for treatment and the associated pain and suffering,  with parents feeling even more devastated.

At the end of the day however, life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we choose to deal with it.