I was asked a question by a friend, looking to help a friend of hers with one of the treatments for cancer that was worrying her. I realized that it is now 15 years for me .. since I went through cancer treatment. I wanted to impart thoughts that I thought might help. I decided to share my letter here in case someone else might be going through a similar situation.

Cancer IS the emperor of all maladies… this is the title of a book about the history of cancer, but the title itself is quite meaningful for my purposes here.  I guess I referred to “the cancer”or “my cancer” as the dragon, a mighty foe that I took on and in the end, left along the shore of an ocean somewhere (to follow the metaphor).

It is mighty disease that, if discovered, beyond its initial core, must be fought with all the armour that you have available, and that “armour” is pretty darned substantial nowadays. I guess it is a very different disease in many ways, there are many diseases that can kill you, but this one, you have this window of opportunity for a complete cure, but the treatments are the price to be paid.

The thing about cancer treatment nowadays, for the most part, otherwise healthy people survive the treatment. The people you hear of dying from the treatment, are usually the very old, or people who are otherwise quite unwell before the treatment.  That being said, not everyone survives the treatment unscarred, at least  in some way. Most have very minor scars that are more like souvenirs, that you picked up at a battle.  You never really know what is going to affect you.  I guess everyone is most afraid of chemo therapy, as I was, but, for me, it was the radiation that was the hardest to endure, and where I got my “souvenirs”. 

The way I have always looked at it, is that cancer treatment is a matter of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you, and then waiting, (and waiting) to see if the cancer is actually gone, and not to return.  So it is important to be sure that you have done everything you can when it was most important to do it all.  The horse is out of the barn, but to catch it before it is out of the field.

(I should point out that the other group of people who die during treatments are the ones who’s cancer was quite advanced at the time of discovery and the treatments are just to buy the person a little extra time. These people usually die of the cancer itself)

Most aggressive cancer treatments are going for a cure, as is yours.

For each form of treatment there are percentages given as to the risks of each side effect. I believe it is important to look at those risks and compare them to the risks without treatment, and they will always be better. The benefits MUST always outweigh the risks. This is true of all treatments in medicine, its just with cancer, the risks are so bad (if left untreated), that they are willing to accept some risks with the treatments. 

The biggest chance is that you will go through your treatments with little to show in the way of scars, (or souvenirs), and that 15 years from now, you will be telling someone else, like I am telling you now, about cancer treatment. Perhaps by then it will all be an M RNA vaccine that is just injected and then your bodies defences kill the cancer, like they would fight the flu.

(The way SOME cancers are being treated now)

I thought I would end this with the song I wrote the day I reached 5 years out from my cancer…..

Janet