No one had ever leaked out Kaoru's main secret. Rei even knew of the great importance of not allowing anyone know of it and would be very protective whenever there was a chance someone found out. The only people who knew of the secret certainly were Takehiko, Rei and Kaoru's family. There is a likely chance that Takashi knew as well, but it is not completely certain. Kaoru had been held back a school year due to an ailment that she does not specify to others. She seems the picture of perfect health but she has a deep awareness of her own mortality, which causes one to wonder what it could be. Whatever the illness is, it has strengthened her intense love for living and she strives to live to the fullest. What is the affliction that affects Kaoru's life so strongly? From when she attends the first year of senior high, age sixteen, she has had breast cancer. Breast cancer is an ailment that is a different disease in different age groups and has different cell populations within the tumor itself. As stated in the anime, breast cancer is a much more aggressive disease in younger women. In Kaoru's case, it was unusually bad.  The disease has forced her to lose an academic year. Doctors had to do a mastectomy on one of her breasts in order to remove the tumor, which would be efficient enough for a while. For Kaoru an uncertain future is shown. Metastasis could occur, thus she would have recurrent cancer. That means the disease has come back in spite of the first treatment. The disease sometimes returns, despite it seems to have been completely destroyed, because unnoticed cancer cells were still there after the remedy. If there is not a secondary metastasis growth of a terrible tumor in five years, the chances for survival would remain good, if not, considering the time she was in she would likely die.The reason for the five years time limit is likely because recurrences usually appear within the first couple of years after treatment, but breast cancer can recur many years later. It is only in recent years has there been an explosion of life-saving treatment advances against breast cancer. Kaoru did not have such hope. During the period she lived in there were only one or two options. For a long time, a procedure called a radical mastectomy was the only remedy available for those with cancer of the breast. It was the only option no matter how far along your ailment was. Even catching it early did not make a difference in how drastic the treatment would be. Today there is surgery, then perhaps radiation, anti-estrogen therapy, and/or chemotherapy. Those are the changes of the recent years. In her time, breast removal likely was not as refined or as less drastic as now. |