How Star Trek influenced my belief in a way to improve survival for a high-grade tumour

[Tansi75]

After my operation in May 2010, whilst I was alone on the ward, between my wife’s visits, I did a lot of reflecting but also more importantly started to follow my instincts more than I had ever done before. I am and always will be a huge Star Trek fan and during one of those moments, a particular scene in one of the Next Generation episodes came to me. When I first saw it, it’s meaning struck a chord with me which had remained buried until then.

The Enterprise had been involved in an encounter with the Borg and having been badly damaged, had taken shelter in a nearby Nebula to hide from the Borg cube, and make repairs to the ship. In one scene Captain Picard enters 10 Forward, the crew Recreation area, which is noticed by the bar manager Guinan. She goes straight to Picard (this is not verbatim, but how I remember it) and says ‘Captain what are you doing here? You’ve never been here before, is there something wrong?

Picard replies ‘I’m just following an old naval tradition of a Captain touring his ship to check on repairs, check the on the morale of the crew and provide encouragement.’ Guinan replied ‘If I remember correctly, that was a tradition carried out by a Captain, who didn’t expect his ship and crew to survive the coming battle. If a person goes into battle expecting to die, one way or another, they will find a way to die that day.’

I thought then in May 2010 and still do today, that such words apply to people diagnosed with a high grade cancer. If you tell someone they have 12 – 18 months left to live, one way or another, they will find a way to die within that period. People give up because they have been deprived of any hope of possible survival and subsequently die because it is what they and health care professionals expect to happen.

By changing the mindset of Oncologist's and health care specialists to encouraging people to have hope, faith, and belief that they may be able to live beyond a high grade prognosis. Would I believe, be a real ‘game changer’ in enabling more people to live longer and better lives. Part of this process is to look at their diet and way of life, could what they have been eating or drinking had an effect, or how they have been living etc.?

Whilst I don’t have any proven scientific or medical qualifications/research to prove what I think is right, I do have 13 years empirical knowledge and experience of living with the consequences of 2 grade 4 glioblastoma’s, which I think should count for something.

I also think we should remember a fundamental principle of life, ‘all life is terminal’.

I really do think such a change could have a massive impact on survival rates.

[Buffalolove]

Very well said and happy you’re sharing your story

[MustangRM]

Thank you Tansi75! What a fabulous way to look at this. I definitely remember that episode and will now share it with my husband, who was recently (April 2023) diagnosed with a Grade 4 GBM. He is now on his 6 month chemo cycle.

I am truly encouraged by your outlook and see a lot of it in my husband, which is refreshing. None of us know what lies ahead but I truly believe that our mindset plays a large role in it.

Live long and prosper!

[LucyHardy]

I agree. I worry that I may waste the time I do have worrying about what might happen (and hopefully won’t for many years). Hardest part is the mind control. Having a husband I adore and a 15 year old daughter keep me on the straight and narrow mostly…..

[Tansi75 in reply to LucyHardy]

Hi Lucy,

Keeping a positive mind set and believing it is possible to live a longer and better life, is essential. Please do stop wasting time on 'what if' scenario's and instead concentrate on living in the 'here and now'.

The day after I became ill and was admitted to hospital, I knew my wife would be worried and spent some time reflecting about our situation, especially as I became ill four months after my elder brother had died from his grade 4 GBM. I made my mind up on how we were to deal with what had occurred and how we were going to deal with it.

As soon as she came on the ward to see me, my first words were 'We need to have a chat', then went on to say 'We are not going to deal with any 'what if scenario's', waste any time on negative thinking. We are going to take every day one step at a time, deal with any bridges we need to cross when we reach them.'

This enabled us to concentrate on 'living in the here and now' and begin planning out our future together. We also kept using Buzz Lightyears catch phrase 'To infinity and beyond!'

'To infinity and beyond!' were the last words we said to my oncologist at the end of our meeting where we were told my brain tumour was a grade 4. Throughout this meeting we remained positive and talked about having a long life ahead of us for however long that may be. As it is, that has turned out to be far longer than we could have imagined, because we have always taken each and every day one at a time. If we could do this, so can you, your family and anyone else in a similar situation.

I have also relied upon the words of one of my heroes Lawrence of Arabia 'nothing is written!' This was something he kept saying when the Arab Sheikh's and troops he was leading said something 'was the will of Allah! to a set back.

Stay positive, believe and always keep one eye open and focused on a positive future.

I wish you and your family the very best for a longer and better life together🙂