The ' WAR ' on cancer.

[Kwenda]

The WAR on Cancer..

How can it be a WAR, when we are on WATCH and WAIT.?

Or shall we just blame Richard Nixon for inappropriate terminology.?

For details see:-

bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-249...

Dick

[ygtgo]

I totally dislike the disrespectful reporting of someones death when it's announced that ..... he/she has lost their battle with cancer ....

There is no one size fits all with cancer, no definite ' battle plan ' that will ensure victory, there should be no failure attached at the end of someones life.

If there were examples of how you can beat cancer by doing the following ....... ' whatever ' .... we could all just ditch sites like this and buy the DVD from the shopping channel and be reassured that if you are not cured/satisfied ... you could always return the items, and get a refund .... guaranteed !

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

I sympathise with your feelings on this Ygtgo and like how the writer of the BBC article expresses his feelings on this phraseology "My chief aim was to live well with cancer, and then hopefully to live well without it. And yet I felt a strange expectation that I should declare civil war in my body. These were my cancer cells - part of me that I had unwittingly created. I found it hard to like them, but I didn't feel it would help to turn my body into a war zone. I don't like all the parts of my body equally, but as a rule I try not to hate any of them."

I hadn't appreciated Richard Nixon's role in declaring war on cancer until I read "Emperor of all Maladies", which covers the background that lead to Richard Nixon's initiative to try and defeat cancer.

In Australia, not long after Richard Nixon's initiative, the Cancer Council of Australia had an advertising campaign "Cancer is a word not a sentence" in an attempt to reassure those diagnosed with cancer that there was now hope of a cure.

I found that this writer explained how this made those with cancer feel very well:

davidhortonsblog.com/2012/1...

"But, leaving behind the intended meaning of the slogan, that cancer is no longer, necessarily, a [Death] Sentence, the phrase is completely wrong. Cancer isn’t a word, it is a sentence. Unlike getting an injury, or breaking a bone, or catching an infection, for all of which there is treatment and cure, quickly over, something barely remembered a few years later, cancer is ongoing, unforgettable, a long sentence, a life sentence. And here it is:

Cancer is: having a series of increasingly unpleasant tests, waiting anxiously for the results, then watching as the oncologist’s face goes grim as he reads them; spending a day every couple of weeks hooked up to a bag of nasty chemicals by a sharp needle in your hand or arm; never feeling well for months at a time while treatment proceeds, and constantly feeling anxious that you will suddenly feel worse and have to be rushed off to hospital; spending your life moving from one doctor’s waiting room to the next, one testing facility to the next; suffering from a series of debilitating after-effects, conditions and diseases that your depleted immune system no longer copes with; worrying that every symptom you get, once dismissed as some minor ailment, might be the cancer returning; knowing that there are cancer cells always lurking somewhere in your body waiting to burst out and start a cellular revolution at any time; never really feeling well, and so reluctant to do once-normal activities; dealing with the concerns of family and friends.

Some sentence, eh?"

And if you are on "Watch and Wait", then you're in the situation where there's been an invasion, but you don't dare do anything because you are likely to shoot yourself in the foot.

Neil

[ygtgo in reply to AussieNeil]

...... " likely to shoot yourself in the foot."

That's me in a nutshell ... It started with my ' battle ' with an eye injury, not content .... I started another with tinnitus, not being intimidated I had a go at the chronic pain then neurology,... finally I've picked a fight with CLL .... it must be down to my bad tempered ' red hair ' gene, my mum was always telling me about .... Oh no .. I've turned into Yosemite Sam ....

I must be getting old ..... I used to win half my fights ...

Signing off to the tune of ' three wheels on my wagon ' (and one of them's a wee bit shoogly )

ygtgo

[Kwenda]

As a follow on from the original post I offer the following comment and link to additional information courtesy of Dr Brian Koffman.

Cancer Does Not Define or Limit Us.

By making a headline that we shall have a ‘ war ‘ on cancer, are we perhaps letting our cancer define who and what we are.?

Yes I have Cancer as in CLL, but that is only a part of my life, and certainly not the largest part of my life.

See Brian’s post at :-

bkoffman.blogspot.co.uk/201...

Dick

[Hidden]

Well ygtgo my vision of you in the diving suit, has changed to pistol packing yosemite Sam together with dodgy wagon of course. At least certain tasks are easier now that you've got rid of the heavy gear.

I agree with you, our illnesses and how we deal with them are not who we are.

Bub

[Kwenda]

It's Not a War. It's Not a Football Game. It's Cancer, and It's Scary, Okay?

Snip….. ‘ I’m 691 days, 8 hours and 15 seconds in remission from Hodgkins Lymphoma–not that I’m counting!–and I’m assuming you’d like me to answer the same old question that is hurled at every cancer warrior and cancer survivor on a daily basis: “How are you feeling?”

How am I feeling? Oh, how I love to hate this question.

No matter how vast and deep one’s support network may be, everyone with cancer goes through it alone.

No one can ever really understand what that experience is like because it’s unique for each person.’

More thoughts at this link.

everydayhealth.com/columns/...

Dick

[Hidden]

Hi Dick

Snip from the same link : everydayhealth.com/colu..

It is comforting to know that when you feel really alone, like devastatingly alone, you can connect with someone out there who was having a similar experience. The incredible friends I have made during this plunge into the big sloppy sea of cancer is what helped keep me alive. To me, that is a blessing, and I am forever grateful.

Me too

Bub

[Kwenda]

More on this subject.

Cancer is NOT a war to be fought....

A well written article and lots of patient comments can be found at the following link.

sunriserounds.com/cancer-war/

Dick