My wife told me something I didn't know the other day.
I was sorta shocked almost two years ago to witness her sudden about-face on alternative medicine and herbal remedies and such, when she was diagnosed with cancer. At the time I told her that since I had not seen any valid research on those things, I agreed it would be a gamble, a speculative bet, to rely on those things, whatever the hope or claims might be. I had my concerns, and still have them, about the so-called "mainstream medicine show", as well. So I just shut up and let her decide for herself.
What she didn't tell me then, but told me a few days ago, as we drove by the old health and herbal remedy store, is that she in her capacity as a nurse, cared for the owner of that store, in her end-stage course of cancer. She told how when the lady finally turned herself in to the hospital, she was in extreme pain and beyond any possible help. My wife helped load her up for the ride to the big city hospital, and was sad even the pain killer drugs seemed useless. . . .
Part of the story was how the lady's kids, while they were trying to get their mother into emergency care for stultifying pain, went home to get some stuff for her, including purified water and green drinks and herbal stuff she had been using. Clearly a completely dislocated logic going on with them.
So when it became the known fact with her, a month later, that she had cancer, it was not just a "No, thanks" to those remedies, but a "Hell No."
I cite this as an example of how people making their own choices can be better than any knowitall making them.
Babe I know this is not exactly long the lines you were getting at, but I thought of this immediately after reading this.
I wanted desperately to believe that alternative treatments could cure my cancer. I had some friends into a calcium kick (yet another MLM) at the time, and they foisted calcium packets on me, professing that all I needed was to up my calcium intake, change the PH of my body chemistry, and the cancer couldn't survive in my body any longer and would naturally die off, while my teeth and bones got a lot healthier. They had PH test strips and everything you used to make sure you were getting the right amount of calcium. I thought at first they were just kooky.
Then I had my first chemo treatment. I was 28 years old, was relatively large (6'2"-ish, 290 lbs at the time of my diagnosis), and was in great health despite carrying the extra weight. And my cancer was especially aggressive, and in a very dangerous place, so I got hit hard. I had adriamycin (they call it the red devil, as it is a bright red IV push. Can also be infused but not normally unless the cancer is seriously aggressive, so for my adjuvant rounds I had it infused) and cisplatin (a platinum-based chemo agent), which have both been around for some time. The side-effects for those 2 are among the worst for chemo drugs. And since I was young and big and healthy, as mentioned, I got very aggressive dosages. I would end up with more than my life-time limit of adriamycin, as it causes heart damage that can lead directly to congestive heart failure, so they would do an ECG, then give more of the drug, then another ECG, until they detected heart damage, then got one more dose then they stopped.
But the first treatment was something else. I had cisplatin infused over 3 days, and 2 adriamycin "pushes". I felt like I had been hit by a truck. They permanently "burned" my vein closed where it was administered. Cisplatin can mess with nerves, especially visual and hearing perception. I felt like I was in a tunnel and everything sounded like it was coming out of a tin can, like I was always on the verge of passing out. I have permanent hearing loss of certain frequencies as a result. But during and after that first treatment, I felt worse than I had every imagined it was possible to feel. Everything hurt, even my hair and just touching my skin anywhere was enough to elicit a yelp. The nausea was staggering. Nothing they gave me could touch it and I ended up back in the hospital due to bleeding ulcers. My sense of taste was destroyed. I couldn't sleep. Constant pain and discomfort. Near-constant vomiting. It was ungodly and far beyond anything I had expected. I never in my life before that wanted to die until then, and more than once I prayed for it. I am not trying to be melodramatic, it is simply what the experience was like for me.
After that first treatment I had 3 weeks off until the next. My friends (I mentioned before), invited us over for dinner. They had researched all the newest natural remedies, and had some new ones to recommend, including laetrile, which is a big alternative "natural" remedy (it is, in essence, a poison, as it can be converted into cyanide in the body), as was high-dose beta-carotene, and a handful of others. And at first, before I ever had my first treatment, I had thought they were wacko. But after that first experience, I was willing to listen to anything and everything. Anything that would free me from such an experience again, as I knew I had at least 5 rounds of neoadjuvant chemo, followed by likely the same or more adjuvant treatments. I was so excited to hear about laetrile, and I started immediately taking the calcium supplements. I even discussed seriously with my wife stopping chemo until we could see what these other treatments could do, or not do.
I ended up skipping the alternative stuff, swallowing the bitter pill, so to speak, and then going through 2 surgeries, 11 rounds of chemo total, 1 NDE as a result of the chemo, and proton therapy at Loma Linda University Medical Center (to which I almost exclusively attribute my survival). Now, nearly 15 years post-treatment, I am glad I went the traditional route, as I believe the rest is pure quackery, and I shudder to think what may have been the outcome had I shunned it just because chemo sucked beyond all imagination.
But I completely understand the choice, and the impetus behind that choice. You can be pushed beyond what you think you can endure, and it can, and does, change you. Under those circumstances, I believe, you cannot really make a coherent rational choice, since escaping the pain kicks in survival instincts and overwhelms logic. I'm glad my wife and parents were thinking more clearly than I was and helped me make what I see now was the right choice.
