[Verse 1] Five years running like a calendar clock, Every three to six months we draw blood, check the block, CEA's the number climbing quiet in the chart, A whisper on the paper, the earliest false start. Once a year the CT sweeps the chest and belly low, Scope the colon, hunt the polyps before they dare to grow, This is the vigil kept after the final stitch, Tracing every shadow so the story doesn't twitch. [Chorus] CEA every few months, that's the beat, CT once a year, keep the habit neat, Scope the colon, five years strong, Surveillance is the quiet, steady song, Watch the numbers, watch the scan, That's the follow-up, that's the plan. [Verse 2] But cutting leaves a signature, a mark beneath the scar, Take the nodes from armpit or the groin, and there you are, Lymph fluid pools and settles, a heaviness that stays, Lymphedema lingers long past the healing days. Drop the rectum low enough, the plumbing's rearranged, Low anterior syndrome, the urgency estranged, Platinum drugs go whispering, numbing toes like frost, Neuropathy's the tingling, the feeling's quiet cost. Doxorubicin can murmur to the muscle in the chest, Cardiotoxicity's the echo after rest. [Chorus] CEA every few months, that's the beat, CT once a year, keep the habit neat, Scope the colon, five years strong, Surveillance is the quiet, steady song, Watch the numbers, watch the scan, That's the follow-up, that's the plan. [Verse 3] Survival isn't a finish line, it's a second start, Radiation plants a seed that blooms in a different part, Smokers' lungs and throats and mouths all share a single field, One cancer cleared away, another cell may yield. Lynch and BRCA carry risk that never clocks out, New primaries lurking, that's what the watching's about, The body keeps a ledger of what the treatment used, So we track the ones at risk until the fear's defused. [Bridge] Surgeon writes the chapter, but the story's shared, Oncologist tracks the markers, primary care's aware, Pass the folder, pass the plan, nobody walks alone, Survivorship's a relay run, a baton each hand has known. [Chorus] CEA every few months, that's the beat, CT once a year, keep the habit neat, Scope the colon, five years strong, Surveillance is the quiet, steady song, Watch the numbers, watch the scan, That's the follow-up, that's the plan. [Outro] CEA, CT, scope, the rhythm of the years, Watch the scar, watch the heart, steady the hidden fears, Three to six, then twelve to twelve, five years round the bend, That's surveillance, that's the care that never has to end.
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