No Losers

A truly annoying phrase that seems to have become ubiquitous in the obituaries of cancer’s many victims is that the deceased “lost their battle” with the disease. It annoys me (and I know I’m not alone here) because it suggests something nobody means: that there was some sort of failure on the part of the deceased and if they’d done something more or different or fought harder they might have survived.

Take our bad ass melanoma warrior friend Jen, for example, who died yesterday afternoon after a long and arduous fight with Stage IV melanoma. This young woman received the very best available treatment and underwent a series of brutal chemotherapy and immunotherapy regimens, plus surgeries and radiation treatments. She endured more pain than I can even imagine. She never gave up, and did it all with grace, courage, and humor. And she’s just one of so many fallen warriors at The Hotel Melanoma who left no stone unturned in their fight to survive. Not a one of them was a “loser”. And if melanoma “won” in any sense of the word, it was only because oncology lacks the treatment weapons that would have allowed them to prevail for one more day.

I’ll end today’s rant with a tune that some may find inappropriate for the occasion, but I think it fits quite well. Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin' Care Of Business”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmwic9kFx2c



You get up every morning
From your alarm clock's warning
Make your 8:15 at cancer city
There’s a clinic full of drugs
And patients wishin’, patients strugglin'
And the ‘cures’, they don’t look too pretty
And if your doc’s on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your patient job and seize the day
If you’re ever paranoid
Look at C it’s on steroids
It loves to work at something all day

And we’ll be...
Taking care of business every day
Taking care of business every way
We’ve been taking care of business, never whine
Taking care of business infusing overtime
Work out

If it were easy as wishin'
You would be a magician
And you could take rounds ‘til C’s mellow
Get a second scan that’s par
Chances are you'll go far
If you get in with the right bunch of fellows
People see you saving bun
No more lying in the sun
Tell them that you like it this way
It's sun’s work that we avoid
And we're all paranoid
C loves to work at young skin all day

And we be...
Taking care of business every day
Taking care of business every way
We’ve been taking care of business, never whine
Taking care of business infusing overtime
Take good care of my business
When I'm away, every day whoo!

You get up every morning
From your alarm clock's warning
Make your 8:15 at cancer city
There’s a clinic full of drugs
And patients wishin’, patients strugglin'
And the ‘cures’, they don’t look too pretty
And if your doc’s on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your patient job and seize the day
If you’re ever paranoid
Look at C it’s on steroids
It loves to work at something all day

And we'll be...
Taking care of business every day
Taking care of business every way
We’ve been taking care of business, never whine
Taking care of business infusing overtime
Takin' care of business
Takin' care of business
Takin' care of business
Takin' care of business
Takin' care of business.....