Five Years is not Enough

We all make deals with God all the time. If you help me pass this test, I will say 10 Hail Mary's a week.  If I pass this test, I will never swear again.  I promise to do anything to make this nightmare go away, I will even fold the laundry.  (you have not idea how bad it has gotten)

My daughter should not have cancer, I want her to graduate from St. Joe's and go to Holy Names and graduate from there... that is all I want.  I want those 5 years they talk about.

They always talk about 5 year survival rates.  When the words are tumbling towards you and your brain is in a rapid river and all you want to do is hear good news, 5 years sounds like a gift.   It is something to hang on to as your whole life is being dismantled and you are rushing down the river.  5 years. 

Well let me tell you from deeply felt experience, I want 50 years.  5 is not cutting it.  5 years off treatment flew off the shelf so fast I didn't even notice it was gone.  Whossh, and it was gone.  From what we have been told, it takes 5 years to recover from the treatment.  That should not be counted as the 5 years.  

So the docs need to buck up and they need to look out into the future.  They need to be more optomistic.  They need to re-write the script. 

50 more years...... 50 more years.... or 60.  I am not too picky or demanding.