0931: "Lanes"

[Liokae]

Fuck cancer indeed.

I hope things go well for you... I can only ever know secondhand how hard it is to face that wait.

Just yesterday, my family found out on the same day that not only did my uncle have a metastatic tumor in his left lung (I think that's how it's supposed to be said? It's a secondary cancer from somehwere else in his body), but that they had no idea where the primary cancer was.

And then if that wasn't bad enough, my aunt's regular checkup and screening showed that her leukemia has recurred.

It's been a terrible few days, and this comic hits incredibly close to home.

Fuck cancer.

[bitwiseshiftleft]

BTW is "out of the woods" a Firefly reference?

"Out of the woods" is just a standard phrase.

Also, shouldn't it be a 40% chance that some cancer cells slip by?

[tjunction]

After my 6th round of chemo for Leukemia was looking like it had done the job, the Doc gave me the little speech about how
"You're not really cured, you're in remission."
I asked "But If I die from something else, without having relapsed, I guess you could say I was cured, eh?"
He kind of chuckled and said "Yes, I guess you could put it that way."
I said "Tomorrow, I'm going out and buying a motorcycle."

I'm really glad you posted this.

I'm fortunate enough for nobody close to me to have been affected by cancer. Maybe if it happens that will change my outlook. But, it's always worth remembering that one day something has to kill you. Whether that's cancer or a heart attack or a car crash or falling off a chair while changing a lightbulb.

Sure, it's a good idea to reduce your risk of death where possible (look after your body and don't stand on wobbly chairs) but once you've taken all reasonable measures then quit worrying and enjoy the time you have on this planet - it's limited, for all of us.

[StClair]

Ban all carcinogens. Now.

Would you like to start by putting out the sun?

Here's the really fun thing to think about: change some of the labels on that final panel (along the time axis, mostly), and that's Life. For all of us. Everyone dies, it's just a question of when and how.
Cancer is one of the things that gets you if you survive everything else. Some people have the bad luck to have the replication error(s) pop up sooner rather than later.

[vinegarninja]

When I turned 21, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, an anaplastic ependymoma. I had an awesome Iranian surgeon. She was able to get all of the cells out that she could see, and the subsequent radiation (not chemo, luckily for me) and MRIs and PET scans have all since been negative, and ive been clear for about 4 years now. I have bumper sticker on my car that says "Fuck Cancer". So I know a little bit about what cancer does to a person and how terrifying it is.

If I could make a request, it would be to make this comic into a poster for the store, so that I can buy it and hang that up at work and home, because this comic touched me in a very personal way. Instead of coughs or bone pain scaring me, its headaches, even minor ones that cause me alarm. Its not often that I am reminded that it could come back outside of my own body, but for some odd reason, I am always glad to be reminded of that. For me personally, it seems like a long shot, surgery was as close to perfect as a human can get, radiation was a success, and subsequent MRIs have been clear, but there is always that chance that it could come back.

It might seem odd that I would want to be reminded of it, but I just think that comic 15 fits me nicely too.

[tekNico]

A commenter said: "All you can do is seek treatment and hope." I do not agree. Many others focus on cell scanning and different cures. I like prevention more, so I took steps to improve my lifestyle. The one resource I found most promising, for health in general, is this book (I don't get commissions from Amazon, nor anything else): http://www.amazon.com/Anticancer-New-Way-Life/dp/0670021644/ .

[Dorp]

When my mom was 14 she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was told she probably wouldn't live past 18.

My mom is turning 53 in 5 days.

Survival rates are nothing but statistics, and statistics lie all the time.

[Dobblesworth]

Fuck cancer. Seriously.

My mum got breast cancer when I was about 16, but they caught it early and surgery and chemo got done within a year. I'm coming on 22 now and things have been good since. That's my personal story.

[Nefilim]

To be perfectly accurate, the bottom "lanes scheme" should include many spots of cloud treatments, especially before the right turns (you usually get treated, although unsuccessfully, when you relapse).

Even long term survivors may relapse and yet need additional treatment to remain on their lines.
You can be a twenty-year survivor with a single treatment... or with multiple treatments along the way.

[warrantyvoider]

I woke up at four this morning as of time where I live, decided to check the comics that would be updated, and decided to register for this board.

Yesterday my grandma was rushed into the emergency room with what looks like complications with the side effects of the chemo. This is her third round of treatment, because the tumor regrew completely after the first and was barely affected by the second. My other grandmother died a few years ago from a complication with an unexpected and misdiagnosed heart problem that the doctors think was because of damage from the radiation treatments for her cancer. Mom drove across a state line to follow the transfer to grandma's preferred hospital last night because her medical care is touchy at this point and grandpa is very overwhelmed after thinking she had died yesterday morning when she collapsed and wouldn't respond. Yesterday mom was stretched thin between asking the doctors questions, answering their questions, and running out to calm down the other family members who were milling around the emergency room and periodically working themselves into hysterical fits. She probably hasn't slept all night.

I woke up this technical morning and part of me is still back in that waiting room. Part of me is thirteen again and back in the ICU with grannie, and part of me is scrabbling to grasp at that gray unknown that is what's happening at the Nashville hospital and whatever today will bring.

Checking this comic was like meeting a stranger in that waiting room that knows. Like a hand dropping on my shoulder, an understanding nod. I just-- I can't explain it. But it has changed the course of my morning. So forget the trolls, forget the people who can start legal and philosophical and mathematical arguments over a family member being treated for cancer. This comic gave me a feeling of solidarity, of being anchored back to real life, and of being a lot less alone. I only hope that somehow mom can feel the same way while being responsible for her own mother's medical care. That grandpa can feel that way after seeing the fiercely loyal and stubborn and loving woman that he still finds the most beautiful girl in the world-- who has been by his side fifty years since he fell in love with her-- in misery in a hospital bed.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Munroe. The comic is very poignant, and the fact that you've done it is brave. To quote you, it's "a terrifying and isolating experience". And in your words, the best to you. Thank you. To everyone else facing that unknown, the best to you too. To everyone who has, to everyone who hasn't seen it take somebody-- I'm breaking a personal rule here-- fuck cancer. Fuck statistics. We can be fighters. We can be mean fuckers when we need to. We can cheat and play dirty. And failing all else, we can wait until tomorrow to face tomorrow, and take hold of today right now.

[herbys]

Randall, you omitted a big factor in your graph. Which is the truck that may, at any moment, hit you and kill you (and all your cancerous and non-cancerous cells). As well as the myriad of things that may kill you before Cancer (including old age if you survive long enough).
Cancer sucks big time. Enjoy the life you have and the uncertainty (which is better than certain death in a short period, beleive me, I've seen both). If you are ill, it means you are alive.

[boradis]

I had testicular cancer at 34, then prostate cancer at the ripe old age of 40. Treated the first with surgery and radiation, and the prostate with radioactive seeds (brachytherapy). That led to a horrific short-term side effect immediately after the surgery. I won't go into detail but it was straight out of Dante's 'Inferno,' and if I wasn't an atheist I'd swear I felt the touch of the angel of death. I haven't been the same since.

These days I go in for a PSA test every four months and it's never been particularly stable with me. Now I'm on hormones to bring it down further. There's other complicating factors, but I won't bore you with them.

Three years ago my father (not related by blood) was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Last August he hit the home stretch, was unresponsive by mid October, and died the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I don't want to go out like that. I don't want to go out at all, obviously, but particularly not with something eating my brain.

Other people, many of you in fact, walk around with normal sex lives and kids, and decades and decades and decades to look forward to getting old, watching more stupid summer movies, play video games, see your kids grow up, all that shit.

I'm not going to tell you how you should appreciate it or smell roses or anything. No matter what kind of tragedy humans hear about or see happening to other humans, even close loved ones, we can't allow ourselves to dwell on it because it would immobilize us in either dread or hedonism.

But yeah, fuck cancer straight to Hell. All other diseases too, but I've got a personal beef with this one. If the story of Randall's girlfriend meant anything to anyone who read his strips or blog posts -- and you've got a decent job -- then man-up or woman-up and donate fucking something to the American Cancer Society (or other medical research-oriented charity of your choice). That link goes directly to their donation page and the minimum is $5.00. I just donated in memory of my late father.

But if you didn't click it, then congratulations. You've saved enough money for this.

[Tomo]

Eh, while I appreciate the sentiment, it's not like cancer is the only killer out there.

The last panel would look essentially the same for everyone.

[MaryMeg]

I also wish you and your fiancée the best in beating this, Randall. Horrible disease.
I was also diagnosed with breast cancer the same week as your fiancée so your strips on the topic have really hit home for me, especially the ones dealing with the probabilities and uncertainties around it.

For the question on "ten year survivor" rates, it means just that--you are alive. The cancer may be back, or you may be dying of it, but if you are still alive, you are counted.

And add me to those not happy with being called a survivor. To me it feels like tempting fate. Clinicians talk about "no evidence of disease". That is more meaningful and has more appropriate connotations, IMO.

And in response to another comment, while being positive is great and may help your quality of life, as Randall noted a while ago, the last thing someone with cancer needs is to be instructed to be positive-- with the implication that if they die, it's their own fault for not being cheerful enough in the face of death. Yeah, right.

[kaidenshi]

Having survived cancer myself, this comic really hits home. It also made me realize just how lucky I was. Mine had progressed to the point of spreading throughout several areas in my body, and they were still able to get it all between the surgery and chemotherapy. That was 16 years ago, and while I'm not as healthy as I would like to be now that I'm in my mid 30s, I'm certainly glad to be alive!

You know, I'm glad you're alive too. Fuck cancer.

Thank you!

Something I forgot to add, for the guys here: It was testicular cancer, and I was YOUNG. 17, turning 18. Not to be grossly personal, but guys should check their junk on a regular basis. Any abnormalities in that area, like swelling, pain or numbness, should be checked out by a doctor. Don't be too embarrassed to mention it to your doctor, or if you're a teenager like I was, your parents. If it's caught early enough you might not have to endure the pure hellish torment I went through: Eight months of chemotherapy, multiple surgeries and years of recovering from 70lbs of lost muscle and weakened bones.

[randomchild]

I lost my mother when I was young to breast cancer. Thank you randel for all the laughs during the years, but especially for the poignant stuff. Fuck cancer indeed.

[ClockworkRat]

Fuck cancer. I was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and now I have to go through the rest of my life getting CAT scans and blood work and all sorts of annoying checkups and pokes and prods because of it. They managed to get my tumor surgically, and I manged to avoid needing chemo at the time, but there's no guarantee that I won't need it later. My doctor told me to make sure I had my will ready and to let my relatives know about my funeral preparations because ovarian cancer was one of those bad ones. He told me I had an 80% chance of seeing him again for more treatment within then next ten years. I'm barely in my mid 20's and my doctor essentially told me to give up.

Well fuck that. I've been cancer free for seven months. I'm living my life. I'm playing WoW, and trying to date (there are a lot of creepy guys on dating sites, so now I'm more likely to be serial killed than die of cancer. But oh well, I'll go down fighting then too!), and enjoying time with my friends, and living my life. That's all you can do, really, is live. You can't give up, you can't give in, you can't be afraid of every little pain and illness. You can't wonder every time your arm hurts if your cancer has spread, of if every time you get a headache or get sick to your stomach. All you can do is fight, and hope, and sometimes lean on that person you trust. Let them help take the burden off of you for a while, let you cry on their shoulders. And then you pick yourself up again, smile, wipe the tears from your eyes, and discuss that awesome movie that's coming out next year. Because you're going to be there to see it in theaters, and you're going to love the hell out of it, and fuck cancer.

[boradis]

Something I forgot to add, for the guys here: It was testicular cancer, and I was YOUNG. 17, turning 18. Not to be grossly personal, but guys should check their junk on a regular basis.

T.H.I.S.

There's no room for giggling and there's no such thing as being too personal with stuff.

I was twice as old as you were when I got the same thing, and I put off going to the doctor for a few weeks. I can only blame ignorance.

No, cancer is not the only killer out there and all should be fought with every resource available. It's just the topic of this particular thread.

[clanders]

What the hell kind of an ending is "Man, fuck cancer. Really."?? Man, fuck xkcd. Really.

[Sabina]

Fuck cancer, indeed.
Couldn't have put it better.

My 3 year-old niece is in the end stages of neuroblastoma now. The methadone that hospice provides keeps the pain away but she's not her usual happy self anymore.

Cancer sucks. Cancer killing children is evil.

[Park]

As a cancer researcher I have to say this is the best metaphorical representation of a cancer survival graph I have ever seen. We try our best, fuck cancer.

[almujadilah]

The image of those lanes fading into the distance will be with me for a long time.

I can't imagine what you must be going through. My thoughts and prayers are with you both.

[ModestMouse]

Very powerful comic. I wasn't prepared for this one.

[Kartz]

Yesterday was the third anniversary of finding the lump. I was so lucky that the lump was near the surface because I was able to feel it before it got very big. At 1.5cm it felt like a pea. Breast cancer sucks but finding out that it's triple-negative sucks even more. After a lumpectomy and chemo/radiation there's nothing left for a triple-negative to do but watch and wait. There's no hormone therapy for us. Triple-negative means that the cancer won't respond to estrogen, progesterone or HER3 treatment.

On the not quite so sucky side, triple-negative cancer does respond well chemo. Better than other breast cancers.

Thanks for raising awareness about breast cancer in such an evocative and insightful way.

Nimknit

[thesingingaccountant]

My love and prayers and happy thoughts go out to Randall and his fiancée and their families. Also to everyone who is dealing with cancer now or ever has in the past, whether directly or indirectly. A good friend of mine was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in June 2005. He was fortunate to find a bone marrow donor quickly, he underwent the surgery that October... And died in December. My mother, on the other hand, had a close friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer back in the '90s. She is still with us today. Here's hoping this horror never takes another life.

Now for the (mild) rant...

Please, please, PLEASE do not say unkind things to one another concerning this issue or anything touching it. We all have very strong feelings about something like this, which is perfectly natural, but to attack others is inappropriate and counter-productive. We need positive thoughts, not negative ones, in order to maximize our chances of defeating this monster. A great place to start would be to offer words of sympathy and encouragement and to keep one's venom to oneself (e.g., "fuck so-and-so for having such-and-such opinion" or wanting to hurt people for their lifestyle choices). That said, I have two more things. One, best wishes to EVERYONE on this forum, regardless of opinions or feelings. And two...

FUCK CANCER. SERIOUSLY.

[TomKat]

Once again, Randall hits the nail on the head.

I'm starting my 6th month of chemo and have 3 more to go. At 23, 10 months of my life (8 months of chemo, plus the 2 leading up to chemo filled with lots of tears, uncertainty, and appointments with crazy things like fertility specialists) are gone. The next 5 years, by necessity, I will have to be a hypochondriac. After 5 years without relapse, Hodgkin's Lymphoma is considered cured.

But after October 7th - my last day of treatment - there is no real relief. Just waiting and trying to live your life to the fullest. .

Almost 5 years ago I was in your position but with a 40% prognosis. I had NHL and had to go through all those crazy things that you just take in your stride. Now I actually feel faint when I get a blood test - to think I used to have 2-3 a day is ridiculous. In March I'll be 5 years and considered "cured" but I'll still be looking over my shoulder every day and every time I feel I have a lack of appetite, or am overly tired, or have a dry cough I'll start to worry.

Hang in there. Don't look at them as 10 months wasted. Look at all the things you might not have experienced, realised or done if you didn't have it. I got closer to my dad as I moved back in with him. I met my current fiancé just before I was ill, and she stuck by me through it. I got a new job after all the treatment and I'm still there. It's only once you've finished it all you can step back and say "wow... that was a bit intense!".

Good luck to you and good luck to everyone else who is on that highway. I can see my road on there and I hope it's one of the ones that will continue up and on.

[Jean123]

A commenter said: "All you can do is seek treatment and hope." I do not agree. Many others focus on cell scanning and different cures. I like prevention more, so I took steps to improve my lifestyle. The one resource I found most promising, for health in general, is this book (I don't get commissions from Amazon, nor anything else): http://www.amazon.com/Anticancer-New-Way-Life/dp/0670021644/ .

I don't want to be too much out of the topic, but the author, who advertised his book and his "alternative" methods to battle cancer, using, at least partly, his own example of remission just died of a brain tumor relapse. This is of course far from statistical significance, but I felt it should be said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/27/local/la-me-david-servan-schreiber-20110726

Anyway I am not sure this topic is the right place to promote any cure or prevention method about cancer. This is the best way to trigger some "unkind things" as pointed out by thesingingaccountant before.

Thoughts for Randall and his fiancee.

[jmwallach]

The hardest part about the 60 percent is that well it a statistic - as Gould said:

In July 1982, I learned that I was suffering from abdominal mesothelioma, a rare and serious cancer usually associated with exposure to asbestos. When I revived after surgery, I asked my first question of my doctor and chemotherapist: "What is the best technical literature about mesothelioma?" She replied, with a touch of diplomacy (the only departure she has ever made from direct frankness), that the medical literature contained nothing really worth reading.

http://cancerguide.org/median_not_msg.html

And SirMustapha, really? Fuck cancer is insensitive? What do you propose we do, celebrate it?

[dp2]

Ban all carcinogens. Now.

Okay, we'll start with the coal that's probably fuelling your computer right now - or the nuclear plant, maybe. And, let's see, the crap your computer is made of. And, um, the sun. Get to work on those, and I'll see if I can come up with a few more for you.

Why start there? Go for the big guns -- that fucking star that irradiates us every day.

[dp2]

At risk of sounding cold or missing the point, I've lost plenty of people to things that weren't cancer, and that big cloud might as well say "LIFE" on it.

[radtea]

I've worked in cancer research on and off for 20 years, starting in radiotherapy imaging and winding up in data analysis for genomics, with excursions through photodynamic therapy and various other imaging modalities.

Cancer research has been hampered by both the complexity of the disease and the rush to commercialize novel treatments. A friend and colleague who has breast cancer commented that being involved in cancer research herself made her more aware of how much more we could do, but different pathways are "owned" by different companies, and there has yet to be any serious push to pool resources (as was done with radio patents in the early 20th century, for example).

On top of that, it is unethical to treat with an experimental protocol when a proven protocol exists that is "effective" for some value of "effective". There are ways around this, but it slows down the pace of research (and also saves lives... I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that it's a thing.)

For all of that: this is the best time in the history of humanity to get cancer, and while we are moving much more slowly toward a final cure than most of us would like, the odds of survival are better now than they ever have been. My heart goes out to you and your fiance', Randall.

[brotzy78]

This comic really hit home, my best friends mom died of breast cancer last summer. The thing was she had been going to the doctor's because she was real weak, she went about 4 times. i'm not sure when but they ended up diagnosing her with stage 3 breast cancer. she had carried on for another year and a half before it finally took her. i was crying at that last panel.

[BabblingGorilla]

At risk of sounding cold or missing the point, I've lost plenty of people to things that weren't cancer, and that big cloud might as well say "LIFE" on it.

Yeah, you are missing the point. This is about CANCER. We (the collective we) are not stupid... death is an inevitability. Its at the end of everyone's timeline. But not everyone gets cancer and that is specifically what this comic is referencing. I apologize if I'm being rude but to try to dilute the message by bringing in the mundane is callous. Feel free to make your own comic and expound on every other obvious facet of life but leave this one alone to the people to whom cancer has insinuated itself.

Fuck cancer.

[D66]

I don't think I have seen it explained so well anywhere else... this is why it was a big-enough deal that I got a Tattoo at my 10 year mark.... Seriously, F*ck Cancer

[TheGrammarBolshevik]

Not to find fault or anything, but... if you see someone risking their health, you'll try to run them over? When you're the one driving a vehicle that's putting out more carcinogenic gack in one afternoon than they'll manage all month? And if someone's willing to take a slightly different risk to their health, for what seems a stupid reason to you (and to me, frankly) you'll sock them?

I'm confused...

Of course she'll do that. Why else would she specifically say that she won't do that?

[Western Rover]

I lost a mother to breast cancer a few years ago. She had avoided going to see a doctor to find out why she was in pain, until her boss essentially ordered her to go to the doctor. She never returned to work. The cancer still took several painful years to kill her. This comic has a beautiful representation of the struggle, and I would like to forward a link to my father and siblings (the "survivors"), except that Randall had to ruin it by putting in a juvenile swear-word near the end. I would have hoped that these difficult life experiences he's had to go through would have given him more maturity than that. Neither my mother nor father, nor any of us children, even in our blackest hour, stooped to such school-yard vulgarisms.

[Tomo]

At risk of sounding cold or missing the point, I've lost plenty of people to things that weren't cancer, and that big cloud might as well say "LIFE" on it.

Yeah, you are missing the point. This is about CANCER. We (the collective we) are not stupid... death is an inevitability. Its at the end of everyone's timeline. But not everyone gets cancer and that is specifically what this comic is referencing. I apologize if I'm being rude but to try to dilute the message by bringing in the mundane is callous. Feel free to make your own comic and expound on every other obvious facet of life but leave this one alone to the people to whom cancer has insinuated itself.

Fuck cancer.

Um.. what? Because people who die from cancer suffer so much more than people who die from other diseases? Because not everyone gets cancer, so other causes of death are 'mundane'? You're the one being callous here, and it certainly doesn't make me feel better that the colleague I just had die on me didn't have cancer, or that the fact I lost a friend in a car accident was an 'obvious facet of life'.

Fuck you.

To everyone else who has lost a loved one, cancer or otherwise, my sympathies. But there is a strong current running through some posts in this thread that cancer is the worst thing that can happen to people, and I think some people would do well to remember that it's not the only cause of suffering out there.

[txcoppertop]

Just sending good thoughts your way. I've been down a lot of those lanes. It's daunting to look ahead; sometimes you'll find your balance and sometime you'll lose it. Very, very best wishes to the author, whom I hope to God isn't reading this thread with so many ignorant jerks' comments. Blessings.

[frn]

stupid, unfunny comic.



well, someone had to do it.

[ritvax]

Maybe we're taking the wrong approach here. There are many charities and foundations out there dedicated to cancer research. Do people pay attention until they are affected by it? What if there was a foundation charity called, "FUCK CANCER." Sure, it's not polite language, but maybe people would pay attention and be more likely to donate and support?