I believe them bones are me

Back in the present I've started taking calcium supplements to improve my bone density. Previous periods where I had to take large doses of steroids has left me with mild osteoporosis and the docs want to try and improve it as much as possible. The measurements show bone density of around 80% of the normal level in both my spine and my hips. It's only a mild case so it's not really that big a worry but it does make me think about some of the ways in which I have been lucky.

You see my cousin Stephen had Leukaemia when we were at school and he wasn't lucky enough to have someone that could be a donor and so instead had to have some very aggressive (even for cancer) treatments. Part of this included large doses of steroids over a prolonged period and the long term effects of this have meant that he now has had both of his hips replaced. Mind you he's still got functioning lungs so it's all swings and roundabouts.

Seriously though, having such a close family member going through such a similar process but diverging on critical points has been interesting for both Stef and I. We're not a pair of cousins that live in each other's pockets but on the times when I've needed someone to talk to about things that really only make sense to someone who's been through it all he is an invaluable person to have around. We each get to joke about aspects of it that those normal folks around us would maybe flinch about making which can be a blessed relief. He takes great joy in mocking me for copying him and stealing his thunder in contracting leukaemia in the first place. Apparently I've never done anything original in my life.

Of course he was much more useful to me than I ever was to him as he was the first of us to walk this particular path but I do think he got a curious satisfaction from knowing that the things he went through did turn out to be the norm for this sort of thing. When we do get together we compare notes about the things we've had in common and all the things that differed.

It is still hard for our old friends from school to understand that the two diseases are completely separate and it really is just a matter of chance that two cousins in the same year at the same school both ended up with Leukaemia but that's the plain facts of it. The two types have their own specific pathology although both are caused by mutations to DNA. Yes, we are both mutants.

For a pair of comic book nerds this is most amusing although I have to say we were both pissed off that our special X-Man type powers was the ability to make so many white blood cells that you die. As powers go that's quite frankly piss poor. Even the radiotherapy we had didn't turn either of us into the Hulk.