Tag Archives: Cancer

Integrative Medicine, Positive Care and Negative Ramifications

May 14, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellness, ReasonBlogs, body, business, Cancer, Chemotherapy, commercialism, communication, consumerism, Education, Health, Lies, misinformation, poison, positive approach, Positivity, Reason, Science, Sense, toxins, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

If we, as a society, could allocate just an additional $120 million each year toward research and development of new cancer treatments, that would seem like a great idea. Because there is a lot of money out there already directed at existing therapies, running clinical trials of proven concepts and supporting the refinement of effective treatments already in existence, it also seems like a great idea to take this $120 million and direct it toward new concepts and approaches that are not yet mainstreamed into Western Medicine. This is the reason, I suspect, that over the past twenty years or so, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has morphed into Integrative Medicine and has been granted enormous research subsidies and acceptance within many mainstream health institutions. Allocating even a mere $120 million is a huge responsibility, so it also seems like it would be a great idea to carefully vet the areas on which the funding will be spent.

Here is some amazing news: the actual amount of government funding for research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2015 and 2016 has reached $369 and $378 million annually, according to the National Institute of Health. This should be a Golden Age of Medical Advancement! Sizable annual funding being made available outside of the mainstream of modern medicine must be the answer to why there has been no definitive Cancer Cure.

Only it isn’t. And the reason is Continue reading Integrative Medicine, Positive Care and Negative Ramifications →

Embrace the Bad Stuff, It’s Good for You

May 11, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellness, Reasonbody, Cancer, communication, Health, positive approach, Positivity, Sense, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

Nobody likes slogging through the shit. That’s pretty safe to say. But sometimes it must be done, whether we like it or not. If there are going to be hardships, we are told to look for a “Silver Lining,” as though our upside-down umbrella will magically fill with pennies. In the shit, those pennies might be damn near impossible to see.

Many people retreat as a first resort. Hide from the problems rather than face them. I would go so far as to suggest that such behavior is basic human nature: fight or flight syndrome, where running from danger is our first instinct — until we are cornered. The problem with health issues such as Cancer is that, whether one wants to admit it or not, the patient is ostensibly cornered before there is even a proper diagnosis. So any flight that may be attempted is not only in vain, it is illusionary. Being the ostrich may offer a temporary sense of calm to some people, but it also does nothing to help move through the difficulty and onward toward a better existence.

Self-help gurus and the proponents of countless “programs,” and also probably my mother at some point, have said that we grow through our challenges. In truth, it is the struggles in life both big and small that build what we call “character.” That nebulous term applies Continue reading Embrace the Bad Stuff, It’s Good for You →

Not Dead Yet, No Matter What You May Have Read

May 4, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellness, Reasonadenocarcinoma, body, Cancer, Changing the Narrative, Chemotherapy, communication, Critical Thinking, Education, Fear, Health, journalism, Labels, Lung Cancer, paranoia, positive approach, Positivity, Reason, Science, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

A person I know quite well — and with whom I recently have had several lengthy conversations about my current state of affairs — offered an interesting appraisal of her understanding of my health and well-being to my wife. She said, rather unceremoniously, that she had expected me to be dying. In fact, she seemed quite surprised (and possibly a bit put off) by how healthy I appeared. Turns out, I have news for her:

I’m not dead yet.

In fact, here I am, looking quite well (and dare I say “dashing”) in my new progressive lenses picked up today to aid my aging eyes. True, after over 15 years of having a stable prescription, the chemotherapy seems to have begun affecting my vision ever so slightly, at least in the first couple of feet. So this minor side effect has required me to jump straight into trifocal territory. Aside from the minor “swimmy” effect of turning my head side to side while looking through the “mid-range” section, these are actually quite amazing. But that isn’t really what this entry is about, so I’m going to move along.

The thing that most startled me, and which I actually took some offense at, was the notion that a person who is not stupid managed to ignore virtually everything that she had been told about my condition, the state of cancer research and, perhaps most importantly, why statistics do not tell a whole story, or often even a remotely correct one. And what did this person rely upon to make up her mind about what I was going through and my prognosis for continuing life?

Continue reading Not Dead Yet, No Matter What You May Have Read →

Narratives Matter, Beginning to End

April 18, 2015Cancer, Fear, Health and Wellness, Reasonbody, Cancer, communication, Education, Fear, Health, language, positive approach, Positivity, Reason, Sense, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

On the heels of a recent discussion on changing the Narrative of Cancer as a means to enable better communication and understanding with regard to the hundreds of cancer variants, I came across a very interesting article on a closely related topic: changing the Narrative of Dying. Far from being a depressing or downbeat approach, the article discusses the need for reevaluating our collective understanding of the “end of life” process in order to facilitate a healthier and happier means for saying our goodbyes without forgetting that, until the last moment, we are all still living and participating in this world. It touches on some important ideas, pivoting about the notion that our system, our society, marginalizes and fears death and, more specifically, the process of dying. Yet, death is as much a part of our existence as birth.
Continue reading Narratives Matter, Beginning to End →

Things That Won’t Cure You Might Still Help

April 15, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellnessbody, Cancer, Reason, SenseJeffrey Poehlmann

I have had several conversations lately that had me thinking about the relationship between actual medicine and the types of supportive care or complimentary therapies people I know have tried, which they are convinced play an important role in prevention or recovery. After watching the first installment of the PBS / Ken Burns produced documentary Cancer: The Emperor of all Maladies, I was in a fairly serious mindset on the subject, too. The history of cancer treatment is decidedly complex, with no shortage of conflicted emotions on how science has progressed — especially over the past 60 or so years — to the point where we are today. Coming out of essentially the Dark Ages, where little was known at all about the mechanisms of cancer cells and the prevailing belief was that all cancers were ostensibly the same, we entered a realm of promise and difficult choices that resonates to this day. And it is this difficulty that dominates so much of public perception that also opens the door toward less effective, but easier paths.

The problem is, on their own, those paths do not lead to the promised land. Easier to travel, they may be. But without the difficult choices, often there is nothing to lift the patient toward the promise.

Yet, there is a third component to this equation, hinted at centuries ago when physicians still believed the body’s ills were determined by the four humors and too much black bile was the likely cause of cancer.

Continue reading Things That Won’t Cure You Might Still Help →

Enemies Are Bad

March 30, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellnessbody, Cancer, communication, Health, language, misinformation, Reason, Sense, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

In my quest to reframe the narrative on Cancer, I sometimes feel that there are few voices in the media that support my views. How refreshing, then, when a friend points me in the direction of a piece like this brief podcast. It takes the edge off the words blazing across the publications set out at the oncology waiting rooms across the nation.

The Magazine "Cure" for cancer patients, survivors and caregivers, and a flier for Breast Cancer Survivors — Actual magazines and fliers from a waiting room

I am not saying that patients are not allowed to view themselves as survivors if that is somehow empowering to them and their particular struggle, but the term is another example of the “war metaphor” that dominates the dialogue and casts the cancer “battle” in a negative, pre-defeated light.

Like too many things in our media culture, the narrative on cancer has been driven in a lazy and convenient fashion for many years. Certainly when the War on Cancer was declared by President Nixon over 40 years ago, it was an apt analogy. Cancer research was still in its relative infancy, even after half a century of good scientific inquiry and thousands of years of anecdotal analysis, folk medicine and traditional therapies being attempted. Since 1971, the story has been changing, evolving on an almost constant basis.

Continue reading Enemies Are Bad →

The Chemo Diaries Round Six: Cycles End, Cycles Begin

March 23, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellnessadenocarcinoma, body, Cancer, Chemotherapy, communication, Education, Fear, Health, Positivity, Reason, Science, Sense, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

Going into the final round of what I term Phase One of my treatment, I am reflecting a bit on two coincidences that have given me plenty to ruminate on. One of these is the fact that of one of my high school friends who I have not seen in far too many years informed me recently that her spouse is also going through chemotherapy and, interestingly, was just about a week ahead of me in the treatment schedule. The other coincidence of merit this week is that my neighbor will be starting her own chemo treatments at the same time I go in to complete my initial run of this badass toxic cocktail before moving toward a kinder and gentler maintenance schedule.

Neither of these coincidentally timed treatments are for the same cancer, which would have been too weird for believability anyway, and we probably won’t share identical side effects across the board or react too similarly to the drugs, but there is still a commonality of experience that cannot be denied. My friend from high school is one of those rare and thoughtful people who is cursed with the right balance of kindness and patience to really place herself in the center of care giving. It feels weird saying this, but I would not wish that upon anyone, as great a gift as it is. This goes back to my issue with patient guilt, perhaps; I feel lacking when I cannot help those suffering worse than me or I feel guilty about not suffering as much as them, and this extrapolates to me not wanting others to suffer as a result of my condition or being forced to take care of me. Continue reading The Chemo Diaries Round Six: Cycles End, Cycles Begin →

Cancer Statistics Show Hope, But Statistics Are Still Bad For You

March 16, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellnessadenocarcinoma, body, Cancer, Education, Health, misinformation, Reason, Science, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

So… the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have now begun releasing survival rate statistics for patients with invasive cancer. And it appears to be pretty good news, especially for prostate, breast and colorectal cancer patients. Across the board, however, patient longevity has been on the rise and the one thing that the statistics do make clear is that what they term “survival rates” are increasing.

I am not a fan of “survival” as a description of continuing to live while dealing with cancer. Along with statistics in general, this sort of terminology paints a narrow and misleading picture Continue reading Cancer Statistics Show Hope, But Statistics Are Still Bad For You →

Alternative and Complementary Cancer Treatments: Good, Bad and Ugly

March 15, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellnessadenocarcinoma, body, Cancer, Chemotherapy, Education, Health, journalism, misinformation, Reason, Sense, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

An article by Victoria Stern, MA published on the Medscape website in September, 2014 details information on many complementary and alternative cancer treatments. Because not all my readers are likely to have subscriptions to Medscape, and because the article is rather long, I am going to summarize a lot of it here. The comments and opinions below are my own unless cited, and I am not a doctor; the information on studies and data comes primarily from the Medscape article and it, along with Medscape in general, is worth reading if you sign up.

The takeaway on complementary vs alternative treatments remains consistent with what I would refer to as, Continue reading Alternative and Complementary Cancer Treatments: Good, Bad and Ugly →

The Chemo Diaries Round Five: Egg Counting

March 7, 2015Cancer, Health and Wellnessadenocarcinoma, body, Cancer, Chemotherapy, Health, positive approach, Positivity, wellnessJeffrey Poehlmann

It’s that old adage of counting them before they are hatched. That’s probably what I should have been considering yesterday, one might suggest, because I did go out running around as though everything were back to normal. Not entirely, of course, but enough; so today, which is the fifth day of my fifth round, I woke extra wiped out. Although to say that I “woke” that way is being kind of generous. Really, I simply had not slept. Continue reading The Chemo Diaries Round Five: Egg Counting →

Just Bad for You

Saving you from yourself