My 240 million-year-old friend

A Pappochelys, with friend.

On what is now a riverbed in Germany, a Pappochelys basked in the sun 240 million years ago, its belly full of meat it got from gnawing on the carcass of a fish. The sun rose and set, insects whirled through the air. At the time, air had a higher percentage of oxygen than it does now. Animals moved with greater energy and those flying insects were a size impossible for them to reach today. 
The Pappochelys developed cancer in its femur, cancer which spread unchecked, killing it before its natural lifespan was up, a team of JAMA researchers said in a New York Times article today.
This cancer is similar to my own in every way, though on the opposite limb. Also, unlike the Pappochelys, I have a slight chance of survival thanks to the amputation of my leg last year.
My hope is that a century from now people will look at cases like mine and many others and shake their heads sadly, bemoaning that so many died of something so curable in their time, the way we do when reading about people die of simple infections.