This is the first step to heal from cancer and what your doctor doesn’t tell you

So Gene,

If we were to follow the “logic” that your article touts, that would mean that all the folks who have died from cancer and other diseases just didn’t have the “will to live” – failed to ‘consciously [make] a “decision to live. ‘ Well, I call BS!! NOPE!!!!!!!!!! Never. Not buy’n it!!!

As I wrote here in 2017: https://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2017/06/asco-2017-friends-in-need-are-friends.html

I do NOT believe in blaming the patient (their diet, stress, attitude, etc., etc.) for the development of their disease process…much less death!!!! I do believe in hope. I believe in finding joy in every thing we can and living every minute of life to the fullest. Play hard. Work hard. Love and laugh even harder. Those were my abiding principles before melanoma and they continue to be so now. However, as I’ve noted before, my belief that you can emote yourself out of cancer falls more along these lines:

I wrote this in 2012 ~ As much as we would like to truly believe that positivity can overcome anything and some studies demonstrate a beneficial effect from the “laughter is the best medicine” sort of thing. Many books and studies out there prove otherwise. David Rakoff, the incredibly funny, journalist and writer (1964-2012) talks about many of them in his book “Half Empty”. He experienced 18 months of chemo and radiation at the age of 22 when diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, only to have a tumor that eventually took his life recur in his shoulder and metastasize. Perhaps, he said it best in an interview with John Stewart. “There was a study that showed that the long term mortality of people with lousy attitudes is no different from people with great attitudes. So, you can be the worst bastard on the ward and you will not die at any greater rate than the other people. People will simply be gladder when you do!”
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I think most folks here view me as a positive and optimistic being. My husband calls me “Bubbles” for heaven’s sake!!! I believe in exercise. I believe in good nutrition. I believe in making peace with the past. I believe in looking forward. I believe in science. I KNOW I wouldn’t be here without having had the incredible luck of gaining access to an anti-PD-1 Phase 1 trial at a time when melanoma patients were dying due to a lack of effective treatments. Did they all die because they did not believe hard enough in life? Absolutely not.

Lot’s of newly diagnosed and desperate peeps come to this forum for help daily. Let’s make sure we help them, rather than BLAME them for all the failures they have made in handling stress, poor life choices they have followed, and the inadequate diets and healthcare regimens they have participated in. In one of my classes as a professor of nursing, I started the lecture with a list of questions that went something like…

Have you ever ridden in a car without a seat belt?
Ever smoked a cigarette?
Had unprotected sex?
Lived a day (a week? a month?) eating a diet made up primarily of ding dongs, cheetos, and ramen?
Drank alcohol?
Are overweight?
Underweight?

It went on. Students were admonished to remain silent on any and all answers. They were told, instead, to remember their answers when caring for their patients. Whatever the patient may, or may not have done, in their life is not something we are here to pass judgement on. We are here to help them come to the most healthy place they can be.

Are there things we can do to improve our health? Absolutely!!! Will I blame the patient for the illness and death? Absolutely not.
Just my take. celeste

Gene
I am sorry for the loss of your daughter but really you are sourcing Suzanne Somers. That is like sourcing Jenny McCarthy regarding vaccines and autism.

Gene

I assume you are aware of the first amendment regarding freedom of speech. Just because they have a soap box doesn’t make them an expert. Seriously these are individuals that you are pro-porting as experts. Please provide empirical evidence. Just because you speak doesn’t meant what you say is relevant.

Gene

Your profile indicates that you have been treated by medical professionals for melanoma. Not the sites you have recently posted. What am I missing

Well Gene,
My cancer cat’s already out of the bag. My chemo has already been endured and no doubt poisoned me!! I don’t think pseudo science and rudeness will cure me either. I didn’t know age provided cover for reckless presumptions regarding the lives of others and the freedom to levy accusations of “thoughts and regrets” that make me deserving of cancer and bad Karma. (Cancer times 2 even! I am truly grateful to you and cancer for shining such a bright light on my horrid, ill considered, and regret filled life!!!) Still, despite your grand illumination, I don’t live in the past, so I really don’t get why rehashing it will cure me. I could pass on the two choice words my husband advised I share with you ~ but instead, I’ll just recommend you take a long hard look in the mirror. I’m so glad you don’t have to worry about your perfect past, but you might spend a moment thinking about what you say to others today. c

Ugh!!! Gene I beg of you to just leave your opinions to yourself. Remove yourself from this board. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ll take empirical research over pseudo science any day. Suzanne Somers? Seriously? Is she the one who played the dumb blond in Threes Company? I’m beyond irritated. I’m asking nicely, go away.

That’s the exact point, Gene. “Suzanne is a actress.” Not a medical professional. Not a person with knowledge regarding research and statistics. Not a person with a degree in biology or immunology. Not anyone with training and expertise in cancer and its treatments.

Gene, Everyone who reads her book should read the following review. Verry revealing about her misstatements.
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/suzanne-somers-knockout-spreading-dangerous-misinformation-about-cancer-part-1/

Gene, Kinda Scant information on Doug Pearle other than a kinda creepy Imoji on his profile. At this point I think I trust the qualified and Identified Doctors and Scientists on sciencebasedmedicine.org more.
https://www.quora.com/profile/Doug-Pearl

Gene

The reviews are an echo chamber.

If you want to read something factual I can provide the obit of my sister in law. At 50 she died less than 6 months after discovering stage 4 Bowel cancer. She was a homeopathic practitioner that lived in the gym and only ate organic. She treated herself along with support from her colleagues. She juiced, cleansed, took her remedies.
She did not take chemo, immunotherapy, radiation , surgery or any other defined treatment.
We both got diagnosed within 6 months of each other with stage 3 melanoma.
She is dead and I am the one rebuffing your posts. Maybe it is a coincidence but I certainly don’t think so

Sorry for your loss, Hitchens. But, your sister in law very sadly provides an example of the far too common outcome for those who choose to approach melanoma in a “natural” way and eschew appropriate therapy. (A choice Gene did NOT make, as you have noted!!!!!) Sadly, there have been many such folks on this forum over the years. It was a bit understandable in the Dark Age of Melanoma, when NO valid treatments were available. (That time ended only in 2011, y’all!!!) Even then, I hated seeing the desperation with which they put themselves and their families through what were often incredibly expensive and miserable “therapies” that ended with their demise. Since then, most folks have seen the writing on the wall and opted for proven immunotherapy or targeted treatments that, while far from perfect in regard to side effects and efficacy, have saved thousands of lives. I have had the incredibly sad experience of counseling folks who contact me through this site and via my blog on legitimate treatment options rather than postponing valid treatment, or opting for a more “natural” path, only to have them reach back in desperation, when SHOCKINGLY ~ “nature” worked in melanoma’s favor. Devastatingly, much like antibiotics that work incredibly well when dealing with an infection in the early phase, but fail in the face of overwhelming sepsis, these folks who initially let nature take its course with melanoma, are often beyond the reach of effective therapies at that point.

Here’s a bit of reading – since Gene is fond of recommending sites to educate us – that may interest you, though you may already be familiar with it: https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cancer.html

You can read it, too, Gene. Though I suspect you will continue in your closed minded nonsense, made even more ludicrous since you are still with us thanks to an early ipi trial. Something I only bother to combat because of the new and desperate folks who join this forum daily.

Thanks for your help, Hitch. This road can get lonely not to mention tiresome. Most folks on this site see what’s what rather quickly. But the risk of letting inaccuracy stand is too great to the newly diagnosed and frighten peeps who come here looking for a miracle cure. Wishing you a great day, celeste

Hey Gene

I echo my echo chamber comment, which you ignored. Why don’t you post links from actual reputable sources?
Right there are none!
So are you only not going to respond to Celeste’s posts, or you choosing to abstain from posting altogether?

Gene

Regardless of what you read I suggest you read more carefully as it may assist in understanding. It was my sister in Law and not my sister that passed. But your real mistake from my post was she died 6 months following her diagnosis and that she refused all conventional medicine. She treated herself along with her colleagues from her homeopathic clinic.
She went to emergency with sever abdominal pain. St that visit she was diagnosed stage 4 bowel with spread to liver. The oncologist she met at that visit said with treatment 3 years.
She refused all treatment (other than juicing, cleanse, remedies, detox, etc) and died a hard miserable death in six months.
She died at home with her husband and 4 children. Up to a week before she died her children believed their mom there was getting better because she and her colleagues told the family she was getting better.
The story unfortunately doesn’t end there. With her death the family was shattered. The kids lost the opportunity to have more time with their mother. She could have seen them all graduate high school.
Now all members of the family are in counseling. The 2 middle kids did not graduate and had to go back to upgrade.
Gene my point is you post misinformation that not only affects the person that has this horrific disease but their family that is left to pick up the pieces.
Based on your signature you indicate you are a person of faith. If that is true you should consider how how will be judged for knowingly and willingly spreading false information that negatively affects more people than you will ever know.
I am not looking for a rebuttal or argument. I only ask that you consider the harm you are posting.