I’m all for a wider discussion about cancer. A loved one in my life has just had a biopsy and I realised I was anxious because most times I’ve learned someone had a biopsy it led to a fatal outcome. Yet many people in my life have had a biopsy or other ‘maybe cancer’ scare. Problem is, people are socially conditioned to keep these to themselves because we ‘don’t want people to worry’. So the only investigations we hear talked about are the ones with grim outcomes. As more and better tests become available, this means more fear and worry in silence than if we just mention it in passing. I mean, its not a shameful secret. I hope cancer screening will become more like a dental screening - you know if might lead to a painful but successful procedure, even an extraction (which nobody enjoys) but mostly you get a clean bill of health. And its socially acceptable to say, “Oh I’m a bit nervous because I’m having a checkup and I dread they might find something.” Most people will give you some compassion without freaking out about it.
This is so true, Michelle. Most of us don't hear about all the variations of health tests and issues others go through, and that skews our understanding. I really like your framing of cancer screening becoming like a dental screening. I think the routine screenings have become more like that — colonoscopies or mammograms, for instance. But a biopsy is still in that scary realm. I've been thinking about language too with the term "chronic illness," which encompasses such a wide range it's almost not helpful. Thanks for this thought-provoking comment!
“Chronic illness” is almost meaningless, especially post 40 or in our covid-19 age when even children carry the biological damage of repeated infection. In my more cynical moments it seems to mostly operate as a stigma signal ‘this person’s experience is to be ignored’. That’s why its a label so vigorously resisted by most people until its unavoidable.
Thanks for these links Kara,
I’m all for a wider discussion about cancer. A loved one in my life has just had a biopsy and I realised I was anxious because most times I’ve learned someone had a biopsy it led to a fatal outcome. Yet many people in my life have had a biopsy or other ‘maybe cancer’ scare. Problem is, people are socially conditioned to keep these to themselves because we ‘don’t want people to worry’. So the only investigations we hear talked about are the ones with grim outcomes. As more and better tests become available, this means more fear and worry in silence than if we just mention it in passing. I mean, its not a shameful secret. I hope cancer screening will become more like a dental screening - you know if might lead to a painful but successful procedure, even an extraction (which nobody enjoys) but mostly you get a clean bill of health. And its socially acceptable to say, “Oh I’m a bit nervous because I’m having a checkup and I dread they might find something.” Most people will give you some compassion without freaking out about it.
This is so true, Michelle. Most of us don't hear about all the variations of health tests and issues others go through, and that skews our understanding. I really like your framing of cancer screening becoming like a dental screening. I think the routine screenings have become more like that — colonoscopies or mammograms, for instance. But a biopsy is still in that scary realm. I've been thinking about language too with the term "chronic illness," which encompasses such a wide range it's almost not helpful. Thanks for this thought-provoking comment!
“Chronic illness” is almost meaningless, especially post 40 or in our covid-19 age when even children carry the biological damage of repeated infection. In my more cynical moments it seems to mostly operate as a stigma signal ‘this person’s experience is to be ignored’. That’s why its a label so vigorously resisted by most people until its unavoidable.