Cancer

Borepatch announced today his diagnosis of prostate cancer. I was going to comment over there, but my comment became lengthy, and I know he reads my blog, so here are my thoughts on this:

1 You will be inundated with people telling you to try this or try that. Don’t listen to Internet randos who claim to be cancer experts this week, but were experts on police procedures last week, Constitutional law the week before, experts in building construction last year, etc. Everyone has an opinion, and most of them are wrong, and in the case of cancer, fatally wrong for you. When my mother in law was diagnosed with breast cancer a decade ago, her sister sent her a book written by Suzanne Somers of all people. She advocated fighting off cancer with diet changes. I posed about it here, and retards came on here bleating “But COVID.” My MIL was going to take the advice and refuse treatment in favor of diet changes. I talked her out of that plan, and she is still alive and as cheap as ever. Oh, and cancer free for about 8 years now.

1a Look guys, Ivermectin isn’t the cure for everything. Jesus, I see people advocating for Ivermectin as a cure for everything from heart disease to cancer. Just stop it with the snake oil. This is a real issue with real consequences for the person with the disease. Not everything is a conspiracy, and not every disease is treated by Ivermectin or special fad diets.

2 Cancer is a complex disease. It involves problems with a cell’s dna, and with the immune system that is supposed to catch cells that have “gone rogue” and destroy them. There are many different types of cancer with many different causes and treatments. My advice to you is this: do some research and find the facility that is the best at whatever cancer you have. Then seek them out. My brother was diagnosed with B cell lymphoma, and the form of cancer he had is fatal within 5 years in 85% of cases. His doctor (also neighbor and good friend for decades) told him that he could get chemo for it in the office, or could see a specialist. My brother called me for advice, and I told him there was a top 10 cancer facility right here in Orlando. I advised him to go there.

My brother didn’t take my advice. Instead, he told me top 10 wasn’t good enough, he wanted the best. That’s what he did- he found a cancer center 1000 miles away that specialized in his cancer. They put him in a study group, and he traveled to that center every 6 weeks for chemo for a year and a half, followed by follow-up visits every 3 months for another year. He also went to support groups to help him deal with it, and got more and more depressed as members of his support group died off. We went together to my father’s grave outside of New Orleans, and we stood over my father’s grave as he cried on my shoulder in fear of what was coming. It was as psychologically hard on him as it was medically, but we got through it.

He goes in every year to be tested for a return of the cancer. Yet here he is, 9 years later, still cancer free.

Not everyone beats cancer, but medicine is getting better and better at it every single year. Among males, age-adjusted cancer deaths per 100,000 population decreased from 210.9 in 2009 to 172.9 in 2019. It’s not the automatic death sentence people fear, but it does need to be respected. Contact the best cancer specialist you can, discuss your case with them, and make a joint decision between you, your family, and that specialist.

Good luck, my friend. Dealing with cancer is difficult, but it is a battle that can be won.