Cancer Diary: Carl Died from Cancer, Not Covid, But Covid Carries Blame Nonetheless
Carl died of cancer. That much is true, and terrible, and simple on the surface. But the story is more complex than a single disease. COVID-19 didn’t cause Carl’s cancer—but it surely made his path to diagnosis, care, and support harder. It distorted the shape of the last chapter of his life in ways that were subtle, cumulative, and unforgivable. Carl’s cancer was diagnosed late. How late, we’ll never know. But we do know this: in the early months of the pandemic, Carl’s doctor wasn’t seeing patients in person. Like many, he was doing only virtual visits. So when Carl started losing weight—quickly, inexplicably—it was easy to dismiss it as something positive. Carl himself believed it was a good thing. He looked thinner, healthier even, after years of carrying extra pounds. In a regular year, a doctor might have seen the warning signs: how the weight was distributed, how Carl moved, how he looked close up. Maybe they would have ordered tests earlier. Maybe they would have caught i...
