the c-word

The American Cancer Society estimates that one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer in their lifetime.

I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or if statistics are just playing out, but cancer seems to be rampant in my world right now.

• On Wednesday, my former roommate and college friend was told that she has breast cancer. It's too early to know things like staging yet, but she'll have a mastectomy and reconstruction, chemo, and radiation in the coming months.
• A colleague who's battling cancer got crushing news last week — his cancer isn't responding to the chemotherapy drugs and has now moved into another organ. I've never heard him sound so discouraged.
  
• A colleague's wife is battling breast cancer.

The truth is, I'm having a hard time with the cumulative effect of this news. (And I'm just on the sidelines, very much removed from the day-to-day of what these people are facing.)