Farrah's Story

I watched Farrah's Story today while I was trying not to throw up. Thank heavens it didn't remind me of my chemo story, which was really nothing but a lot of throwing up. I even developed an ulcer. Did you know that throwing up dried blood looks like coffee grounds? Anyway, I watched this story through the lenses of both my and Fiona's experiences. Watching this story is akin to the memoirs I love to read. I want to see how people lived similar experiences differently. My story and Fiona's story are like night and day. Farrah's similar to both of ours.
I had a few questions while I was watching. First, and this is something I would've given part of another kidney to have had, Fiona got a port, a catheter that was placed in her chest. We could numb it and they would access it with a special needle. They never had to dig around looking for a vein. I got horribly dehydrated on a regular basis and they would stick me for hours looking for a good vein. They did this to Farrah as well. Why didn't she get a port? I wonder if it's more cancer specific. I was grateful for the NICU nurses that were experienced with tiny veins.
Another question, it was toward the end of her treatment that they talked about using drugs that would cause her to lose her hair. I thought that was where they started. Both Fiona and I were fairly quickly bald after starting treatment. Even now, I am not as attached to my hair as I am my life. Of course, I don't have world famous hair, but I think it's pretty fabulous.
Why are some families, and even part of those families are not blood related, more prone to cancer? Farrah's sister, her boyfriend, herself. I think I might have had a great grandma that had colon cancer, but I was pretty much the primary person in my family. TD's grandma died of colon cancer a few months before Fiona was diagnosed. Then I know people that have none of that in their family. I always wondered about where we used to live in Portland. On our street we had a colon cancer, a breast cancer and one other one beside Fiona. I had no idea until our neighbor noticed her little bald head. Were we living near a Love canal? I read up on benzene in Portland which is a known carcinogen. My dad always blamed my cancer on his exposure to chemicals in Vietnam.
My final thought, where is the cure? We have popular diseases that tons of celebrities raise funds for. I don't know that any of them have quite the rate of occurring as cancer does. Then again, when I was diagnosed, 24 years ago, it wasn't something everyone talked about. There was no Make A Wish, or ribbons, in fact people still referred to it in hushed whispers and said things like 'the big C'. I am grateful no one needs to feel ashamed any more. I just want more things done. It's quite the sobering trip every month to encounter all of the little kids up at Texas Childrens with bald heads. I think her film was a good thing for awareness.