theprodigalrebel
Lifer
My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer (Stage Three) in Oct 2009. She had surgery to remove the tumor, a subtotal hysterectomy (removed the uterus and ovaries) and chemotherapy. Since that time, she has been getting checkups every two-three months to check for recurrence. Things were good until today.
During an lower abdomen scan, the doctor found three cysts (50mm, 30mm, 20mm), the large one appeared to be bleeding. Considering her past history, she was advised to consult with her oncologist as soon as possible. This happened around nine hours ago, an appointment was made to meet her oncologist tomorrow (roughly 12 hours from now).
Meanwhile, my Mom decided to get another scan at another hospital because she wanted to rule out the possibility of a mistake, so I took her. She didn't reveal anything about her medical history until the second doctor brought it up after spotting the cysts. She was advised again to consult with her oncologist asap.
Now, I understand that going through treatment for cancer is not pleasant. That the very idea of once again recovering from a post-op state, only to go through agonizing chemotherapy can instantly demoralize a person. My father was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in September 2005, died in June 2009. He went through 2 surgeries, 6 rounds of chemo, 45 rounds of radiation - his quality of life during the last few months of his life was tragic. I also know what my mother went through barely 4 months after his death, with her own cancer diagnosis.
So she wanted to consult with a homeopathic practitioner (who also happens to be one of our tenants; he runs his practice out of an apartment he leases from us) and I went along with her. I don't believe in it myself - I haven't done any research on it apart from the Wikipedia page which calls it quackery, pseudoscience and attributes whatever little success it has to the placebo effect. And yeah, I recollect the James Randi TED talk on the subject.
So I'm sitting there and he tells me mother not to go to her appointment tomorrow (where 'they will just cut out more parts of your body, run some toxic chemo through your veins and buy you a few more months or years') but instead go for his 'treatment'. He promised her she will be cancer-free, with ZERO probability of recurrence and made some bogus claims. At one point, he asked my mom how she wanted to proceed. My mom looked at me and I politely said, "Let's keep our appointment for tomorrow."
The homeopathic 'doctor' became a bit defensive at that point. I had remained perfectly silent until that point and then, he started off on this tirade about how 'people read nonsense on the Internet and dismiss alternative medicine, everyone believes they are an expert, everyone is an enlightened skeptic, nobody is willing to give legitimate science a chance' and all other kinds of nonsense. I remained silent again, and then my sister (also present there, also a believer in homeopathy) had some concerns if experimenting with his trial could possibly end up complicating my mother's condition. Once again, he started off on a rant about 'corrupt modern medicine lobbyists' and how 'he and his fraternity have found the cure for cancer but are being squashed by politics and lobbyists' and random bullshit and I finally lost my cool.
Called him a quack preying on the weak and the broken, told him he should have been a fucking billionaire if he really could cure cancer instead of running a shitty practice out of a three-bedroom apartment (that he lives in with his wife and kid) and walked out of there.
My Mom and sis decided to speak to him for another half an hour while I waited in the car outside. She has now convinced herself that she will give Mr. I-have-cured-cancer a month or two to 'see how it goes'.
All I can do is hope that delaying treatment doesn't drastically reduce her lifespan. My mother is an educated woman (Vice-Principal of a school with around 600 students). She is well-read. When my Dad was sick, she went through reams of medical books and is no stranger to science. But she's now choosing not to get treatment.
Fucking snakeoil salesmen. I'm afraid asking this here but...am I being completely unreasonable? My sister thinks I am 'closed-minded'. I realize that there is always some groundbreaking discovery that no one thought of before. I was just watching this TED Talk the other day and I realize that there may still be hope for cancer treatment in places we haven't looked yet - but I sure as hell know that ridiculous, pompous quack hasn't stumbled upon it.
This day sucks.
During an lower abdomen scan, the doctor found three cysts (50mm, 30mm, 20mm), the large one appeared to be bleeding. Considering her past history, she was advised to consult with her oncologist as soon as possible. This happened around nine hours ago, an appointment was made to meet her oncologist tomorrow (roughly 12 hours from now).
Meanwhile, my Mom decided to get another scan at another hospital because she wanted to rule out the possibility of a mistake, so I took her. She didn't reveal anything about her medical history until the second doctor brought it up after spotting the cysts. She was advised again to consult with her oncologist asap.
Now, I understand that going through treatment for cancer is not pleasant. That the very idea of once again recovering from a post-op state, only to go through agonizing chemotherapy can instantly demoralize a person. My father was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in September 2005, died in June 2009. He went through 2 surgeries, 6 rounds of chemo, 45 rounds of radiation - his quality of life during the last few months of his life was tragic. I also know what my mother went through barely 4 months after his death, with her own cancer diagnosis.
So she wanted to consult with a homeopathic practitioner (who also happens to be one of our tenants; he runs his practice out of an apartment he leases from us) and I went along with her. I don't believe in it myself - I haven't done any research on it apart from the Wikipedia page which calls it quackery, pseudoscience and attributes whatever little success it has to the placebo effect. And yeah, I recollect the James Randi TED talk on the subject.
So I'm sitting there and he tells me mother not to go to her appointment tomorrow (where 'they will just cut out more parts of your body, run some toxic chemo through your veins and buy you a few more months or years') but instead go for his 'treatment'. He promised her she will be cancer-free, with ZERO probability of recurrence and made some bogus claims. At one point, he asked my mom how she wanted to proceed. My mom looked at me and I politely said, "Let's keep our appointment for tomorrow."
The homeopathic 'doctor' became a bit defensive at that point. I had remained perfectly silent until that point and then, he started off on this tirade about how 'people read nonsense on the Internet and dismiss alternative medicine, everyone believes they are an expert, everyone is an enlightened skeptic, nobody is willing to give legitimate science a chance' and all other kinds of nonsense. I remained silent again, and then my sister (also present there, also a believer in homeopathy) had some concerns if experimenting with his trial could possibly end up complicating my mother's condition. Once again, he started off on a rant about 'corrupt modern medicine lobbyists' and how 'he and his fraternity have found the cure for cancer but are being squashed by politics and lobbyists' and random bullshit and I finally lost my cool.
Called him a quack preying on the weak and the broken, told him he should have been a fucking billionaire if he really could cure cancer instead of running a shitty practice out of a three-bedroom apartment (that he lives in with his wife and kid) and walked out of there.
My Mom and sis decided to speak to him for another half an hour while I waited in the car outside. She has now convinced herself that she will give Mr. I-have-cured-cancer a month or two to 'see how it goes'.
All I can do is hope that delaying treatment doesn't drastically reduce her lifespan. My mother is an educated woman (Vice-Principal of a school with around 600 students). She is well-read. When my Dad was sick, she went through reams of medical books and is no stranger to science. But she's now choosing not to get treatment.
Fucking snakeoil salesmen. I'm afraid asking this here but...am I being completely unreasonable? My sister thinks I am 'closed-minded'. I realize that there is always some groundbreaking discovery that no one thought of before. I was just watching this TED Talk the other day and I realize that there may still be hope for cancer treatment in places we haven't looked yet - but I sure as hell know that ridiculous, pompous quack hasn't stumbled upon it.
This day sucks.
