Stupid Cancer, Part 9

Everything is going relatively well in the cancer world.  We seem to have reached a little bit of a plateau where things seem to be going smoothly.

My sister is done with her radiation treatments.  She had no side effects, other than those caused the inconvenience of having to drive an hour into the city every day.  She has a CT scan scheduled to follow up and see what the results of the treatment are but not for another 6 weeks.  In the meantime we wait.

My dad opted against radiation treatment.  It turns out it wouldn't offer too many benefits and the risks were too high.  He's still continuing with his chemo and they'll add a few more rounds of that instead of the radiation so he still has another few months to go before he's done.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but my cousin has also been battling cancer (stomach? pancreas?) for the past couple of years.  We're not close but she's still family.  Anyways, she's been going downhill lately - in and out of the hospital and such.  Apparently she's back in and will very likely stay.  I'm not sure if she's in the hospital or hospice but either way, it's not good.  Her son is 4 years younger than me and he is married with two beautiful young daughters.  It makes me very, very sad to imagine what they must be going through. 

Yesterday I went to a cancer support centre here in town.  It came highly recommended so I thought I should check it out.  It's for patients and their caregivers, friends, families, etc. - basically anyone who has been touched by this stupid disease.  They run a bunch of programs, all for free, and it's all voluntary.  They also just have people there you can talk to who have been through it themselves and who understand.  I'm not really sure what I'm looking for or what I'm hoping to get out of going there.  Maybe some new coping skills.  Maybe a place where I can let down my guard a little bit and where I don't have to be so strong.  I'm going to start with a meditation class/group and see how that goes.  They also offer yoga, tai chi, qi gong and art therapy as well as reiki and therapeutic touch sessions.  I signed up for a reiki treatment but couldn't get an appointment for a month as there are only 2 practitioners for a couple of hours each week.  I'm thinking I should volunteer my services, which seem to be needed.  I'll at least talk to them the next time I'm there.  Maybe that would be the thing I'm looking for: being able to do *something* to help...