of getting the short straw

I have officially fallen behind with school. My professor chose to assign a last minute project to our final project, which is due on Saturday. I have been ahead the entire time. On Saturday she assigned a 15 minute presentation, which I have absolutely no time to make. I have been working on it overtime, choosing to come home last night from a school function and working on it until about 12 30. I had to be up 4 hours later.
I even took my computer to school today, and worked on it during my off hours.
That is. Until I received an email that shattered the end of the day for me, probably the rest of the week.
My uncle, my dad's best friend, my sister's godfather, my favorite non-blood related family member has been diagnosed with cancer. It's gastric lymphoma. My uncle was just here, visiting with his wife. My uncle. My uncle is so far. My heart skipped a beat. I have spent the greater part of the rest of this day crying whenever I think about it.
I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeves. My kids knew something was wrong when I wasn't karaoke-ing it up during passing period, or picking on them for no apparent reason. They could tell. I didn't say anything but their actions sufficed. They were super good. I thank them. I couldn't have come home, but I also couldn't have dealt with anything beyond good behavior.
It's terribly sad to think how quickly it can all go, how fragile it all is.
I know crying won't help. I talked about it with my sister. What can we do, though? I feel emotional. I feel a little betrayed by the fact that I just saw him, which makes it feel so much -closer? I feel upset about the fact that we are so far away. I feel angry about the fact that this is my fifth family member that has gotten greatly ill in the past year... and of those 5, 3 have passed away and the last one is holding on. Barely. Now my uncle makes it 5.
I can't handle it. I don't like the idea of sickness. I don't know how to deal with losing people I love. I have a pit in my stomach. I don't know how to make it go away.
I want my uncle to be ok. I am confident he will get good treatment, but I don't know what the outcome will be - who knows, really? Cancer is such a tricky little bastard.
I hate you, cancer. I hate you.