You're young, you got this!

March 30.
We (Dusty, Dad, and Myself) went to Augusta Oncology Associates and met with a doctor.  He walked into the patient room and took a triple take at Dusty and the chart.  He said, "Wow, this doesn't happen in people your age."  Most people with esophageal cancer are in their 60s and 70s.  He immediately said, "You're young, you got this!  You can beat this.  You're young and I can treat you aggressively because you're strong."  I wanted to jump up and down and dance!  Then, he gave us the statistics.  Stage 0 80-90% survival.  Stage 1 80% survival.  Stage 2 27% survival.  What?  What?  What?  Where's the 60%, 50%, 40%?  It can't just jump from 80 to 27%.  But, then he said, you can't look at statistics with Dusty because the statistics are for 60 and 70 year old men.  Dusty is strong and can be aggressively treated.  Dusty asked about school.  He is in his last semester with two classes and is scheduled to graduate in four weeks.  The doctor kind of smirked and laughed under his breath.  That PISSED me off.  I thought he was thinking, "These kids need to get their priorities in order and not think about school but think about cancer."  We went along with our appointment.  Then, he mentioned his cancer.  That caught Dusty.  Dusty asked about it and he said he self diagnosed himself with cancer when he was in his first year of medical school.  He went through three years of Chemo and radiation while in school and graduated.  This put a fire under Dusty's ass!