C-A-N-C-E-R

The six letter word of death.

Sure people survive it, but just hearing the word makes your stomach churn.

It makes your heart ache, while beating 100 beats per minute.

It's the smell of sterile hospitals and beeping machines.

It's spending hours in a waiting room, checking the progress of your loved one as people come in and out of surgeries.

Cancer is horrible, ruthless.

It takes the lives of friends, family, loved ones.

It requires days, weeks, months, years, of treatment.

It's the hair loss and constant sickness.

The staples and catheters and readjusting pillows.

Hours of tears and tissues because you can't hold it together when the word leaves the doctors mouth.

Cancer is knowing something is bad but never knowing how bad or what's going to happen next.

Cancer is the unknown and the deep feeling of darkness in your chest.

It's the word that makes you hold you loved ones tighter than ever.

It's the word that took my grandfather, the word that picked a fight with my dad...the word I can't stand the sound of.

Cancer.