Fear and other Medical Tools

Iron · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 11:52 am Post subject: Fear and other Medical Tools

For those of you that have read my other posts you will know what I am dealing with, for those that don't please go back and read about my circumstances.

I finally met with my Onclogist about a couple months after my Colon Resection surgery. The news was not great. A rare, secondary cancer was found post-surgery. Neuro Endocrine cancer is extremely rare and very agressive. The Gold Standard treatment recommend was to have Chemo and Radiation ASAP.

I have elected to NOT do either. My research indicates that Neuro Endocrine cancer does not respond well to Chemo. I found this out by having a small sample of my tumour analyzed by an independent lab. It was expensive (about $2500 US). I also found four natural anti-cancer agents that worked really well.Attempts to sterilize my pelvic area with Radiation would seriously weaken my immune system and potentially damage my internal organs!! It is the naturopathic course that I have elected to take for healing. I will attempt to beat this thing naturally or die trying.

The alternative folks is 6 months to a year of Chemo and Radiation related sickness and side effects. My rationale is that I am not willing to give up a year and then die. There is no guarantee for a cure with the Chemo and Radiation. So why would I poison myself, suppress my immune system just to die in pretty bad shape. I will rather return to my workouts, start Yoga and ski. If and when the cancer looks like its going to take me I will choose my own exit as opposed to wilting away in a hospital bed in front of my family and friends. No thank you! I watched my dad go thought that and I will not do the same.

Some dissapointing aspects of my medical experiences. The surgeons I worked with were not straight up with me right from the time that I overheard them outside the examination room during my first rectal exam. They knew I had cancer right then and decided to whisper it away. You can appreciate my anger at being treated like that. Further, the surgeon made a decision to give me an Ileostomy during my surgery, while I was out. The decision was based on an assumptiom that I would agree to Radiation and Chemo given the surgeons' assesment of how far the cancer had spread. If I would have been asked prior to surgery if I would accept Chemo and Radiation I would have said no. So I wound up with "the bag" which created all kinds of complications with my digestive system. If I had not had the Ileostomy, today I would be well into a great workout regime.

The final dissapointment came from the Onclogist, once he found out I would not accept Chemo or Radiation he resorted to fear mongering. He told me if I did not accept the treatment now I would "die a horrible death" and be back "to see me in a wheel chair because you will be in so much pain you will not be able to walk". Nice! What a contrast to his casual explanation of the Chemo and Radiation side effects, such as, loss of feeling to finger tips and toes, extreme sensitivity to cold to the point where I would need gloves to get cold things from the fridge, shoes to walk across cold floors and so on. Of course the standard side effects of extreme nausia and hair loss were also casually explained as was the fact that I had about 30% chance of being cured using this method. Yet when I express my desire to support my body and fortify my immune system I am warned by way of fear of death, that my approach is wrong.

My experience shows me that doctors are immature and narrow minded in their scope of treatments. It takes them so long in shool and internship that they lose perspective and blind themselved to alternatives. Everything is based on statistics. They have nothing else to go by. Yet, there are no statistics for the people that have opted to go the holistic way because they drop out of the system and they are not valuable in terms of varifying the efficacy of very expensive drugs.

In conclusion I urge everyone to learn. Research as much as you can. Learn about every aspect of your cancer. Knowledge is your best asset for making decisions that effect you, not the doctors, just you. The alternative is to let the doctors decide your fate. They are only people and they have their faults just like you and I. They do not like to be 'second guessed' or questioned but in my experience they have to be. The tendancy is for them to get complacent because of the repetative nature of colon cancer. What I found lacking is a professional consultaive process that allows you the patient to be part of the decision making process. They assume that you are ill informed and that you should just 'shut up' and let them do their work.

Good luck to all of you that are facing the Colo-Rectal battle!

Regards,
Iron Simek

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