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Please Don't Die
by Michelle Weisblat-Dane
Shortly after my husband turned fifty, it appeared we had friends and family suddenly developing cancer. It almost seemed as if there was some sort of epidemic. Some of these people lived through the cancer and were in long-term "remission", while others died. Then the unthinkable happened - my husband discovered he, too, had cancer. If this wasn't enough, another close friend was diagnosed with cancer at the same time. My husband prognosis was survival, but his friend was almost certainly going to die. Why?
We found out that there were as many types of cancer as there are flavors of jellybeans. There are also just as many new, innovative, treatments to help. My husband had a far more deadly and aggressive strain of cancer than did his friend. What is even more confusing is why my husband, an out of shape computer geek, will likely survive while his friend, an in shape business man, will probably die. I found out that it was because the key to surviving cancer is not to ignore the early warning signs when your body is trying to tell you something is wrong. My husband went to his doctor as soon as he found a lump on the side of his neck. This, and the fact that he was having trouble swallowing, motivated his doctor to immediately get him in to see a specialist. This saved his life. If he had waited even a couple of months, he most certainly would have died. His friend urinated blood for several months before finally seeing a doctor. The renal cancer, which is normally treated by removing the infected kidney, had spread throughout his body and had now become inoperable.
We have met many people with cancer along the way to my husband's remission. Some will survive and some will not. Nevertheless, a common theme appeared in those who will not - they ignored very obvious symptoms of something wrong for long periods of time. It seemed that they had many apparently valid excuses for this behavior.
"I hate doctors," was commonly said.
"Ok," I thought, "I understand that statement."
Many people have had bad experiences with doctors. It is not easy to find a doctor that one can feel comfortable seeing and discussing personal problems. Most doctors are very nice, and really do care about helping people; that is why they got into the business of being a doctor. However, if you have lump on the side of your groin or breast, hating your doctor will not make the lump go away. If your car kept spilling gas all over the road, you would take your car to a mechanic. It would not matter how much you hated your mechanic, or how much he cost. In the worst case, you would at least try to find a new mechanic.
"If I ignore it long enough maybe it will just go away," was one of the excuses heard often. Uh, no. It won't just go away. Even if it isn't as serious as cancer, why suffer? If you have blood coming out of places you shouldn't, if you have an unusual or intense pain for long periods of time, if you have lumps that shouldn't be there, GO SEE A DOCTOR. These signs are your body trying to tell you something. Don't ignore it. Your body is trying to tell you, early enough to do something about it, that there is something very wrong. If it turns out to be something simple or minor, your doctor can treat it and keep an eye on it so it doesn't become something that you will die from. I can promise that your doctor will not be angry with you or think these indications are frivolous.
"If I don't go to a doctor, then he can't tell me anything is wrong with me, so there isn't anything wrong with me." This logic simply does not work. Just because a doctor has not diagnosed you does not mean you do not have something. It does not mean that it will not get worse. It does not mean it will just go away. It does not mean you will not die from it. It does mean that you need to go to your doctor to find out what is wrong.
Many types of cancer, including those that would have been an automatic death sentence two years ago, can now be completely cured if caught early enough. Breast and colon cancers, if diagnosed early, (get your proper yearly screenings) are now at least 90% curable. Lymphomas now have special chemotherapies that target the exact offending cells. Radiation techniques, including the new "gamma knife", have been refined to directly target cancer cell sites. There are so many new treatments that having cancer does not even imply an immediate death sentence.
Please, don't die needlessly.