Cancer cards?

Waiting for my prescriptions to be filled, I browsed the greeting cards. I was looking at the various categories and wondering if there were any cards geared specifically toward cancer patients. Most of the cards I'd received in the mail, since being diagnosed,  were the standard "get well" cards and I remembered how I felt when I received the first one. Of course, the sender was just trying to convey her love and concern, but a "get well" card seemed kind of trite at the onset of my disease. Some of my friends had taken time to make cards with heartfelt sentiments enclosed and those were among my most treasured ones. The more I looked, I realized there were no cards specifically for cancer patients...what a shame!

I thought perhaps someone should make a line of cards primarily for breast cancer patients, but if they did, what would they say? Humor would probably be the best route to take when approaching such a serious subject. But even so, how would one begin? "Hair today, gone tomorrow?" That would be appropriate for a chemo patient or what about "bald is beautiful?" The more I thought about it, the more I realized it would be difficult to come up with a line of cards that was caring, kind, and appropriate. 

If I were to write a line of cards, I would write from a personal perspective. Since I've actually experienced breast cancer, I think I could do a pretty good job. For a newly diagnosed patient, I would make a card that said something like "I know you never expected to hear you have cancer, and no one but you can understand exactly how your life changed the moment you heard those dreaded words; but on days when you feel bad, when the cancer treatments make you sick and tired, when you feel like you can't cope, I want you to close your eyes and imagine I'm there with you, giving you a hug, then I want you to call and tell me what's going on. I'm your friend. I'm listening. I want to help." Now that would be a card that I would have liked to have received myself! One that really came from the heart. Maybe it would be better to keep it a little lighter and to the point..."Don't wait for the storm to pass, just dance in the rain..." or how about really short and to the point..."CANCER SUCKS!"

Card writing is certainly not my forte, but I do believe there is a need for a line of cancer cards. Since I love to write, maybe I'll put on my thinking cap and start coming up with my own line of greeting cards. I'm sure they wouldn't sell in major department stores, but I could always make them one by one and send them out to people as the need arises. Scrapbooking and papercrafting are among many of my favorite hobbies!

The final card in my new series would be one picturing a glamorous couple as they are ballroom dancing. On the back of the man's tux would be block letters N.E.D. The title for the card would be "Dancing with NED." Do you know what N.E.D. stands for...no evidence of disease! That's one dance that all breast cancer patients want to take! Those words, "you're dancing with N.E.D." are prized words that every breast cancer patient wants to hear come from their doctor's mouth. N.E.D. is like a "get out of jail free card" but instead of it being in the game of "Monopoly," it's in the real game of "LIFE." On the inside of the card, I would have to put "CONGRATULATIONS! in big bold letters. I don't know when I'll receive that card myself, but I'm hoping it will be very soon. If someone doesn't send me one in the mail when I am diagnosed as N.E.D. I'll just make a card and send it to myself :) Greeting card sentiments need to be full of positivity and hope and that would would definitely fit the bill.

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