Sep 07, 08 12:03 pm — Friday my school sent me to shadow with one of NYC's top oncologists. My mother is a breast cancer survivor, so I am somewhat familiar with the routines of cancer intervention, but this was my first opportunity to see it from a clinician's perspective. It was quite an experience and I look forward to going back for the second time this Friday.
In addition to oncology, the doctor is a hematologist, so I got to see several treatments including good old-fashioned bloodletting, used for cases of persistently high hematocrit (too many blood cells causing vascular traffic jams) and dangerously high iron levels. We also did a clotting timing test where we gave a woman a small cut on her arm and waited to see how long the bleeding would take to stop. It never did, after about 20 minutes she suddenly remembered taking aspirin the night before. Oops.
The thing that made the biggest impression was an 87 year old woman who had just been diagnosed with a very serious form of lung cancer. The doctor told her that, should she choose to fight, she had a 20% chance of making it to 2 years, but without a fight she was 100% likely to die within the same period. She took it like a trooper, hardly batted an eye, she and her friend asked a number of questions about treatment options, then left in high spirits saying that she would make the decision over the weekend. I shook her hand and wished her well, either way. I think if I were her I would rather spend what time I had left on more pleasant pursuits than being hooked to a IV stand.
I've got a few survivors and a few not survivors of cancers in my family and friends in the same boat.
My uncle survived colon cancer after about a 7 month battle, but one my good friends dads couldn't beat stomach cancer. Had 2/3's of his stomach removed and they gave him 3 months. He lasted 2 years and died 3 days before Christmas last year.
I do hope one day the FDA allows there to be cures instead of just 'treatments'.
The FDA would happily allow a cure, however big pharma is more interested in continuing profits rather than a "take and get better" pill.
Not for this one, there are still too many fundamental things that we don't understand about the cancer's biochemistry. This and melanoma are very tough to treat and may not be treatable with great success for 20 or 30 years. We need some basic improvements in our genetics.
If given those odds at that age I also would rather spend my time left not being hooked to a IV - or going through other more painful procedures.
I'm speaking as a cancer survivior. But I was only 31 when I was diagnosed.
I used to work with a medical oncologist and he used to tell some of his patients that they should consider what he called "Maui Therapy". That was what he called taking the money you expect to spend on chemo and blowing it off by taking a trip of a lifetime to Hawaii instead.
He actually said it just that way to his patients and I really respected that.
A friend worked with a guy who's wife had cancer. They bought a motor home and toured North America until she died.
That's the way to go, laughing, not hooked up to a money drain.
A guy I used to work with has that condition you describe. The funny part is that our job was selling all the most advanced markers for leukemia and lymphoma (as well as markers for breast, lung, colon cancer etc)
The even funnier part is that it took a couple of years of testing him to come up with the diagnosis he finally got which is pretty harmless as long as you keep up with the blood counts, all in all it is a very manageable condition. Every 3 months they would test him for leukemia, pull a bone marrow specimen (very painful) and so on.
Right after he got his diagnosis, the company we worked for came out with a test called JAK-2 which makes this diagnosis in one go-round. It is a peripheral blood test which means one regular blood draw now does ti
Good luck to the woman diagnosed and the people you met at the hospital.
Given this woman's choice I'd never spend another nickle on doctors or medicine other than aprin for the hangovers. Party like you're 99! You're gonna die anyway.
Big_T
Chemo can be really rough stuff on a person .... I've had friends and family go through it... some successfully and others not .. whatever the case, it is rough going.
Good luck with your endeavor and studies.