5-year cancer milestone worth celebrating  I first wrote about
cancer long before I was diagnosed with it. In fact, I wrote
several columns about it in one way or another: Breast Cancer
Awareness Month, my mom, some friends.  Here's something I said
eight years ago in a column about my friend Jean: "Five years
cancer-free. It's the finish line. It's the big reward that you
can't earn. You either get it or you don't. In fact, it's more
like the lottery than a reward."  Now I have won that lottery.
(And Jean is still fine, by the way.) It's been five years since
my diagnosis, since my surgery, since finishing chemo, and
nearly since completing radiation. That last five-year mark is
just a couple of weeks away. Even further in the future is the
five-year anniversary of the first day I felt like no one was
looking at my head, wondering about my hair.  I swear the hair
was the worst of it for me. Having no hair for most of a year —
and the football buzz cut look that followed and took its sweet
time growing out —