Quality and Quantity

Yesterday an acquaintance of ours stopped by the house for a visit. She hadn't been by in a couple of years and when she came through the gate, all three dogs mauled her in greeting. As she reached down to scratch Nicholai around his neck, she looked at me in surprise. "What's all that?" she asked.

"Tumors," I replied. "He has cancer."

"Ooh, I'm sorry," she replied in a hushed, apologetic tone.
Chilling at the river with giant lymph nodes

"Yeah," I said, as Nicholai sniffed her pants and she ran a hand down his back. "It's pretty pitiful. He was diagnosed with lymphoma and given three months to live. In January. Of 2009." Her mouth popped open and her eyes widened. "But, that … that's …"

"I know, eighteen months. Nothing but a good diet and natural medicine. Who knew?" Goofy, drooly happy, cancer be damned

On first hearing and coping with Nicholai's diagnosis, we wanted to make the cancer just go away and leave us alone. Investigating treatment options for Nicholai, we quickly realized what we valued most for him – and for us – was having quality time, not quantity. Of course we wished for a cure, wanting Nicholai to live out his whole life. I mourned the gray face and arthritic joints I would never see. Our whole family wanted Nicholai to live as long as possible, but we were able to let that go with relative ease. Our greater goal – even the kids' – involved a happy dog accompanying us on walks and swims, a dog who was eating enthusiastically and not suffering needlessly. If we could only have that for a short time, so be it. Quality time won out over the pursuit of quantity time.

The unexpected thing is, we got both. It would appear that the daily pursuit of happiness, comfort, and joy actually adds to health and may prolong life, even in the absence of treatment we have come to think of as mandatory for cancer. What might transpire if we changed our thinking about cancer treatment radically? Would all cancer patients see more quality and quantity time?
Quality time, with a gently held long view