A humorous look at CAR-T cell therapy

[thb4747]

A New Zealand comedian, and friend of my son, who was one of the first people in NZ to have CAR-T cell therapy (he travelled to Boston for treatment) has written an account of his experiences. Worth a read to cheer yourself up. Inexpensive on Kindle and other places.

mildtouch.nz/blog/2019/8/10...

[SeymourB]

thb4747 -

At your suggestion, I bought this gem on Kindle. Yeah, took me a month to finish it. I read mostly in waiting rooms, and on the ceramic throne. I do disinfect my cell phone after the latter.

What a great book! I can recommend it to anyone on any type of cancer, but especially anyone dealing with family, chemo, blood cancers in general, and CAR-T.

David Downs is truly a very funny guy, and gave me a look at many of the practical aspects of DLBCL chemo therapy. I had a great time looking up some of the New Zealand slang and references, but I think one can read past them, and still get the nutrition that reading this book provides. It does give a nice comparison and contrast between New Zealand and American medical systems (and costs!).

It's hard to imagine how a person can remain so up-beat throughout 4 or more rounds of chemo and biopsies. I think when he writes, he enters a different zone that gives him that funny perspective as the only way of coping. It reminds me of the gallows humor my great-great-grandfather expressed during the Cival War here in the states. He was Irish, too.

He does admit to bouts of weeping and exhaustion, so the upbeat nature of the work is tempered. There are also sections written by other comedians and his wife.

One thing he came back to time and again was that on waking, he would ask himself what he could look forward to in a day, no matter how trivial. On nodding off for the night, he would review the positive events of the day. I pretty much do the opposite, and I'm an anxious wreck! I will try to develop that ninja-jedi skill Dave has.

I'll be looking into his other books as time permits.

=seymour=

[thb4747 in reply to SeymourB]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Emerfly]

Thank you for book recommendation. I have ordered it online . I watched a doc on BBC 2 called War in the Blood...there was little humour involved. I look forward to reading the humorous approach . Emer

[thb4747 in reply to Emerfly]

Enjoy!

[Emerfly in reply to thb4747]

Received the book by post the day before yesterday . I have so far read 100 pages and I love the dark humour. A lot of chuckling and laughing out loud. My 94yr old mother asked me was I reading comedy and I told her ‘yes a tragic comedy about cancer ‘ . Not everybody’s cup of tea perhaps but I am Irish !