Scott,
It is my wife Pam, that called cancer "Pickles".
Here is what I wrote on the other thread. May you find some comfort in her experience!
----- my Wife did not like the word cancer. So, she wouldn't say it. She wasn't denying that she had cancer. She just wanted to have some control over it.
She decided to call it something else. She thinks the word "Pickles" is funny. She called cancer "Pickles" and would laugh and she wasn't so scared.
Find little things to laugh about, it helps.
Oh, I got her a little stuffed animal. It was a Pug, she called it Pickles. She took it to the hospital and chemo and radiation. I am surprised the darn thing doesn't glow.
Now, Pickles has an honored spot on the bed stand. He is not a reminder of how difficult the times were but Pickles is a reminder of her will to be strong and turn the cancer into something she could fight.
Lastly, I don't capitalize the C in cancer. It doesn't deserve that kind of recognition. ------
*** I am available if you need to talk. Matt Hamilton 512-567-3329