US News today: “Cancer & Me: How I refused to give in” by Bernadine Healy, MD
I am annoyed at the implication yet again that those who “beat cancer” did so because they were able to bring to bear traits such as courage, strength of character, determination or some other admirable personal quality.
I’m not against those things. Perhaps they do help in very select circumstances–for instance where a timid person refuses any treatment at all. However the pretense that they were the deciding factors in winning the battle diminishes those who die from cancer and artifically ennobles those lucky enough to survive.
Surviving cancer is pretty much a crapshoot. The ones who die did not die simply because they “gave in.”
Thank you. I have been annoyed by this for a long time, too. Does anybody else remember the school of thought of “If you just have a positive enough attitude, you won’t die from AIDS”, too?
What has always bothered me about this cliche is that it seems to suggest that if you die from cancer you were either a coward, weak or just not determined enough. Cancer is a bitch and that’s that. Brave people die, cowards can live. Strong people die, weak people can live. Because those terms are meaningless. Meaningless. And I think they diminish the struggle of every person who becomes enmeshed with any version of this terrible disease.
And this is my first post in BBQ, I think. Whoa. Am I a straight dope pro now?
Problem is that it is possible to strengthen one’s immune system through positive experience and attitude. So I guess the difficulty is how to get that across, get people to do their best to help themselves in that manner, without sounding as though you’re criticizing those who succumb despite their best efforts.
Anybody got good ideas on how that could be accomplished?
Amen. As I’ve said elsewhere on the boards, my (step)brother was diagnosed with Cancer last fall and he’s heard tons of this and not in the positive way that Quiddity talks about. Everytime he’s down or complains about the futility of his chemo/the pain he endures, he gets these lectures on how he’s giving up and that he should think more of his children than himself. Dumbasses. The perpetual perky routine, strictly for the sake of others, also has its price. He needs mental rest too and no one better than him (and those who’ve been in his shoes) understands how his will is probably intimately interlinked with the battle. He tries, he continues on, but he’s just human. I won’t these people to stop making someone else’s illness about themselves.
When sick people don’t stay positive, it reminds their loved ones that they’re dealing with something really hard. Some people hate being reminded that everything might not turn out great.
I think the courage and determination cliche is a perfectly good observation that’s gotten turned on its head through overuse. Self-promoting douchebags may have also played a role. Dealing with cancer or any similar illness does require a lot of courage and determination. It’s scary and it can be an enormous grind. If you show up to the hospital one day one for your treatment, you’ve shown a lot of courage, and you show more every day as it goes on, because in my experience, it only gets worse as it does along. That doesn’t mean courage alone is what allows you to live and that only the bravest people live. That’s stupid, and it’s too bad that people make it sound that way. Hence my suspicions about self-promotion.
Come to think of it, what’s cowardice in the face of cancer anyway? Crying and whining? That’s not cowardly, it’s a perfectly fucking normal reaction. And even if people don’t cry, they still feel those things. People who are sure they’re going to be fine from the first instant are probably delusional.
Can you provide a cite for that? I have a vague memory from med school about patients who had access to support groups experiencing less pain and less depression than a control group, but differences in survival being insignificant. I’d be happy to update that idea if there are numbers to support the reverse.
Certainly, a positive mental outlook has been shown to enhance quality of life, even when being ravaged with disease. But so far the evidence I am aware of indicates that any actual prolongation of life (rather than quality improvement) doesn’t appear to be statistically significant.
Bernadine was never one of my favorite people. I had her for an attending more than once back in med school. I always got the impression that she considered folks that didn’t see it her way to be either ignorant (thus needing her to educate them) or obstinate (if her education of them didn’t make them come around to her point of view).
(Hm, come to think of it, I’ve held that outlook myself more than once. :smack: )
But she is dedicated to what she believes in, and she does believe in trying to help folks.
Even if positivity helps the immune system, I wouldn’t have thought that would help too much with cancers specifically (says the guy with no medical knowledge at all).
Someone needs to point out this article, and the tale Dr. Perry Klaassen has to tell to Bernadine, methinks. It isn’t “courage” that tips the scale in a battle with cancer, it’s largely what form of health insurance you have.
Ah, yes, the Wile E. Coyote school of disease theory: If you don’t look down and notice you are running in midair, you won’t fall 500 feet to the canyon floor= If you don’t acknowledge that whatever ailment you have could kill you, you won’t die!
Just to be fair, I’m not sure Dr Healy made the statement that’s on the cover, and I’m not trying to say courage etc is unimportant.
I am trying to say that those who lost their battle to cancer were not lacking in some sort of personal quality that enabled more noble individuals to succeed.
[smugbitch] But a really special person could control their replicating mutant cells with their miiiiind!!! [/smug]
(Yeah, I’m just being snotty at this point.)
Gotta say, I’m liking Elizabeth Edwards’ attitude towards her illness: “It’ll probably be the end of me, but in the meantime I’m going to get treatment and do whatever the hell I feel like in the meantime.” Good on ya, lady.
I don’t think that people who die from cancer can be judged to be less courageous or less positive either. And there are some who choose to stop fighting it. I make no judgments about them.
But there does appear to be a lot of work showing how stress and depression affect our immune systems. If someone can rid themselves of depression, perhaps they will have a better chance of survival. I also found several links. One of them made reference to psychoneuroimmunology and psychoneuroimmunoendocrine interventions. The fact that such areas of study exist gives me hope of a better understanding of the connections between the mind and the body.
The great-granddaughter of a friend of mine turned twenty-one in January. She had a heart transplant seven years ago. She also developed a disease of the spine and muscular dystrophy. She has been very sick for a long time and slowly winding down. On the first day of spring she asked to be taken off life supporting systems and medications and left only on pain medications. As the family drew near, she consoled them with reassurance and words of love and blew them kisses. A few days ago she died. That was courage and strength too.
