Is this what cancer looks like?

Just a few weeks ago, Karen felt great. She had just returned from a much needed spring break vacation with Jack in California. They buzzed around Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu and Beverly Hills with no particular agenda except having fun. The trip left her in high gear -- her only gear -- and good spirits.

But cancer is an insidious disease. It lies in wait; growing slowly and quietly until one day, unexpectedly, it springs forth. Then it's here. It's for real. Wait, your body is telling you that you should feel good, so how could you be sick? Sure, yesterday you were great. Today, you have CANCER. And it's inside you -- doing what cancer does: grow. Karen's cancer, the doctor suggested, may have been growing inside her for three years. Though she has mammograms every year, she was among the 10% of patients whose breast cancer is not detected on a mammogram.

Right up to the day of surgery, she felt great (in fact, except for the baseball under her arm she's doing pretty well). Look at her photo on this posting taken just days before surgery (c'mon, doesn't she look like Julia Roberts?...Look at that smile...it's just like Julia's). She looks wonderful (OK...beautiful)...and healthy, right? Is this what cancer looks like? No. Cancer is ugly. And when Karen loses her hair and she's feeling crummy from too much chemo? No, that's not what cancer looks like either. Cancer isn't what you look like on your best day or your worst day. On the days when Karen is sick, we'll know that's Karen fighting cancer, not cancer fighting her.