Having Cancer Is Like 'Lord of the Rings'

I was thinking of the "battle with cancer" metaphor and now that I'm actually experiencing the "battle" I'm realizing that metaphor doesn't really work with me.  Sure I'm fighting cancer and it is a battle but in such a fight you would imagine your enemy to be more reactive, more of an active adversary counter-attacking as much as defending.  But it's really not like that.

So I started to try to think of other metaphors that might relate better to what cancer patients go through so that non-cancer patients could understand what this cancer-thing is all about.  After all, when I used to hear about people battling cancer I thought cancer was dealing all the heavy blows.  Turns out cancer is not much more than an annoying intruder that just won't go away.  Yes, it can eventually kill you but in the beginning it's just a bunch of cells replicating uncontrollably.  Which is bad but doesn't necessarily cause a lot of symptoms.

The real battle is dealing with all the weapons that you use to try to get rid of this passive-aggressive intruder.  Maybe a better metaphor is how Wil E. Coyote tries to get rid of the Road Runner by using all those over-top-weapons, only to be thwarted in the end.  Obviously that analogy isn't suitable since we can't have the Road Runner winning every time.

Then I thought that there must be some others out there that someone else has come up with.  Why re-invent the wheel?  So I did a search and the first result talked about how some see cancer as a journey rather than a battle.  While reading the article it dawned on me that trying to rid myself of cancer is much like Frodo's journey in 'Lord of the Rings'.  It's an extremely long movie but I'll keep my comparison brief.

You start off with finding you have The Ring (cancer) and that it's incredibly powerful and destructive which, as a result, needs to be destroyed.  You discover that it's not easily destroyed and the only means of doing so is that you, yourself must deliver it to Mount Doom (radiation/chemo) which itself is incredibly powerful and destructive and could kill you.

So you must take this journey of trials and tribulations (these can be anything from medical personnel to insurance, from side-effects to daily survival) to deliver The Ring to it's destruction.  You start the journey with Hobbits (family) and other races from Middle Earth (friends).  Along the way they lend you various levels of support and help you along your journey, but ultimately you must carry the burden, much of the time, alone.

You go though this journey never really knowing if you're on the right path or if you'll ever make it, but you have to keep going because the whole world (your world) depends on it.  Through all this you learn who your true friends and family are and even more so who you are and what you're made of.

One thing that's always there with you, by your side, is Sam (hope).  Hope of another day, of another month of another year.  To spend on your family, with your friends, your lover.  To see another sunrise or sunset and to live another day.

So you keep going, not sure what the next day will bring.  Whether it be one step closer to the end or your end.  Then, if you make it to the end, and (!!spoiler alert!!) complete your quest to Mount Doom and destroy The Ring, you'll have to escape it's aftermath.

Well, that pretty much sums it up for me in a nutshell.  To there and back again.

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‘It is not the strength of the body, but the strength of the spirit.’ – J.R.R. Tolkien