Life Imitates Art?

What I'm reading: Winter Prey, by John Sandford
Also, RITA contest entries. Book 1 of 9

I was going to start the week with something light and cheery. Until I got an email from my sister-in-law that gave me a jolt. She's younger than I am, and very health conscious, yet she's already dealt with a form of ovarian cancer. And now she's dealing with something called Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia.

This is what she wrote:

There's no cure, but the good news is that it's not likely to kill me anytime soon. It's an indolent form of lymphoma meaning it's very slow progressing. Basically, it's a chronic cancer that sometimes isn't even treated if there are no symptoms. My oncologist tells me I "could live for years and years" with this. Of course, the operative word there is "could". He didn't specify the other options. I'll question him further on that when I see him in April. In the meantime since my only symptom is cold-induced hives which are being controlled by antihistamines, we're not doing any other treatments. Let me emphasize that I currently feel fine. Hopefully, I will stay that way for a good long time.

I certainly hope so too.

The curious thing is that the manuscript I've just finished deals with the subject of 'orphan diseases' – those that don't have 'enough' people afflicted with them to warrant expensive medical research. While I created a fictional disease in my manuscript, there are thousands of diseases out there that don't get the big bucks for research.

One of our daughters has been active in Team in Training, which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society—by running triathlons. This year, she's coaching as well. I heartily support her efforts. Until this year, she dedicated her racing to an aunt on my side of the family. This year, she'll have another relative to keep in her thoughts.

And, before I go – thanks again to Mark Hussey for sharing peeks into his life as a cop. He'll be back, I promise. I'm considering making him a Friday regular. And tomorrow, my guest will be Eilis Flynn who will be putting those New Years Resolutions into perspective.