Women's health

As wives, mothers, homemakers, soccermoms, maids, chefs, bookkeepers, healthcare providers and peacemakers all rolled in to one, we women often tend to overlook our own health because we're so busy caring for everyone else in our lives.
And somewhere along the way in our lives it has become ingrained in our head not to run to the doctor with every little ache, pain, sniffle or feeling of blahness, and we tend to discount it as being worn out or nothing major and whatever it is will pass if given time. Of course if our spouse, child, or the family dog so much as sneezes, we're ready to rush them to the E.R. So why do we neglect ourselves? Do we feel we're indestructible??

When I arrived home from work yesterday, the husband was already home. I pulled up in front of the house and called him to come out and move his car so I could get into the driveway first (thus saving me from having to move my car at 3:30 in the morning for him to go to work). After we'd jockeyed the cars around and parked, we exited our cars at the same time. After 22 years with this man, I've learned to read his body language and facial expressions well enough to know when something is majorly wrong. I could tell right away that something was terribly amiss and before either of us could even get our doors closed I was asking him what was wrong.
Of course my first fear is always his job.
I felt if a family member had passed, he would've called me right away, so I was bracing myself for bad news about work.
He didn't answer me, but the look on his face was getting more serious by the moment. Again I asked, "what's wrong!?" By now the tears were flowing down his face, sending a stabbing jolt of fear through my heart and the pit of my stomach. He started blubbering as he buried his face against my shoulder and tried to tell me, but I couldn't understand a single word.
I thought he'd said something about "BJ" and finding something, but I knew this couldn't be right or else he'd lost his mind, as BJ was our cat we'd had put down a couple of years ago.
So I asked him again and finally he pulled it together enough to repeat himself so I could understand.
His oldest sister "M", who is 59, went to the hospital after having stomach problems and after running tests on her, it was discovered she had cancer and that it had already spread throughout her body. The doctors told her there was nothing they could do for her aside from give her some pain medicine to try and keep her comfortable.
"M" is the sister that lives in south Florida, far removed from the rest of the family. I can't help but wonder how long she's been having these stomach problems and has been ignoring them, because she's been so busy taking care of her husband and his own cancer and seizure problems these past few years and dealing with her son and his drug and criminal problems. I wonder if she hadn't been so busy trying to take care of their problems, would she have taken better care of herself? This woman is a registered nurse. She retired just this past year in order to stay home and take care of her husband & son. I can't help but wonder if she wasn't trying to self-diagnose her problems and purposely down-playing them.
I don't know how much time the doctors have given her.
While I was somewhat stunned by the news, I won't say I was devastated. I mean, I hate to see anybody go through cancer, especially when it's been deemed terminal, but I was never particularly close to this woman. She and I usually go years in between phone calls or visits, and John usually only talks to this sister a couple of times a year. I did tell John though that this kind of news now made me worry about every little sickness I ever feel or every change that takes place in my own body.
I've got a doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks, made before all this happened, but I guess it will be as good a time as any to start asking a lot of questions.
Of course this has me worried for other reasons too.
John's brother had bladder cancer a couple of years ago, his father had prostate cancer a few years ago, and now his sister if full of cancer. I know John and his other sister are probably both beside themselves wondering if they are next.