@MattFX4 sorry for your loss, man. Y'all are right - cancer sucks. It's a mean evil. One who doesn't discriminate or care about anything.
I guess I'll share some information about myself... When I was 22, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It was stage 3, but "fear not!" they say, because Hodgkin's is the cancer to have (if you're going to have cancer). There's a widely used treatment plan, and people usually respond well. It's highly treatable and often curable. Well, not in my case. I did all the chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Things were good for a year or two, but then my cancer came back. They tried another chemotherapy plan, but once again, the cancer came back. In 2013, I had my first stem cell transplant. Ask Dr. Google for more information about stem and bone marrow transplants - otherwise this post will be even longer than it already is! They harvested my own cells, put them in a freezer, and pumped me full of poison (chemotherapy!) to kill everything - my immune system, my blood cells, but most importantly, the cancer. Once that's done, they put your stem cells back in you and the idea is they get to work rebuilding your immune system and the cancer is out of there for good. Well, once again, not in my case. So I had another stem cell transplant in 2014. My brother wasn't a match, so my donor was an unrelated male in his 20s from Germany. I have never met him, nor have I attempted to reach out to him. I do plan on doing this someday, but it's a strange and lengthy process. Lots of paperwork. With a donor, they do the same procedure - pump you full of poison until everything is dead - but this time, they put the donor's cells in. The thought is: since my original immune system sucks and doesn't know how to fight cancer, the donor's cells will rebuild and give me a new immune system that will be able to fight cancer. Good news: so far, so good! No cancer since the (2nd) transplant. It hasn't been a walk in the park, though. You can't just dump someone else's cells in you and expect everything to work with no hiccups. I've had to get all my vaccination shots and all the stuff children have to get all over again. I get sick all the time because I'm no longer immune to anything. I've also had to do some treatments and be on medication to teach the new immune system that my organs and other parts of my body are nice and we don't need to kill them since we need them.
So yeah, that's that. Those are the cards I was dealt, and I deal with it. I still live as normal of a life as I can. I've got my wife, my boat, my cars, my job, my family, my dog - you know, the same stuff you all have. Sometimes things are really crappy, or I get thrown a curveball, or I hit a big ol' speedbump. But I still try to keep a smile on my face and try to spread as much joy and happiness to people as I can. I consider myself extremely lucky. Not everyone who has had cancer or a transplant are as lucky as I am. And I know that.
