During my year of chemotherapy for breast cancer, I identified two conversations surrounding cancer. The two conversations are divided by generation, and since the vast majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer are 60 or older, younger womens’ voices often go unheard. The over 60 generation did not grow up with the internet. They grew up in a generation where women were not empowered to question their doctor. “We did not have the internet,” these women say. “We did what we were told.”
This is in sharp contrast to the handful of women I know who, like me, were diagnosed with breast cancer at 43. Our generation has an edgy, impatience with the status quo, as indicated by Alanis Morissette:
“We want to know why, and how come about everything.
We want to reveal ourselves at will, and speak our minds.
...and be intuitive...And question mightily, and find God...”
Younger cancer patients use
smart phones to take pictures
of radiology reports.
The New Cancer Conversation
by Jennifer Lomax