There are common themes in these forums - you can stumble into little bubbles of insight around having or dealing with cancer.  One of the sad themes is where you'll sometimes read about how isolated and alone some people feel.  They have little/no/estranged family, and can't think to face cancer by themselves.   Me ?  Ohh what bliss that would be.   For me, the gravest (and ongoing) concern about cancer is surviving long enough that I do not subject my young children to the trauma of losing a father.  In ten years, my youngest son will be turning 17.  That's still a bit early, but OK - I can wear that on the chin.  Ten years it is.  Minimum survival required.  My eldest will be 20ish, my middle guy who is autistic will be 18ish.   Abandoning any of these children is a kick in the guts that completely unmans me.   Even contemplating it ten years from now leaves me awake at night, staring into the dark, fretting.  "Will my autistic guy be OK ?  Will he stay strong and happy ?  Will my death de-rail him ?"   So .. when you have significant people in your life, I personally think it's harder.  Working out how and what to tell them is part of that.     So.  My answers:   Partner.   Well, she deserved to know.  So I went from the hospital, home, sat her down and told her.  Thing is there's TRUTH and there's truth and there's "truth".  I carried the weight of some of the hard truths - there were just too many unknowns, and if I said stuff like "the doctor said that I have maybe 6 months if treatment doesn't work out"  .. or "hey, I was reading online, and it looks like my type and staging of cancer has a raw survival rate of about 40%"  .. well, she would zero in on some of that stuff and potentially break down.   I'm not saying that I deceived her, or withheld crucial information or didn't have faith in her ability to cope - it's a little more subtle than that.  I did a strategic and carefully considered diagnosis of what information was fit for release, and triaged accordingly.  It's worth noting that this wasn't entirely heroic too - I needed her strong and sound of mind, it would only cripple me to find her awake crying in the night.  It was basically a careful assessment of what was best, hard facts or massaged truth.   So .. yeah, she had transparency - she was included in the clinic where we asked doctors more questions and learned more about the disease - but, basically I chose to give an immediate disclosure, but I always took a more optimisitic outlook than the raw facts might have justified.  In retrospect, I still strongly believe that was the right choice.  I think it's what she wanted and needed.  Keep it as light and breezy as you can … until you can't.   Immediate family:  I chose to withhold that it was a life-threatening illness from my children.  I eased them into that daddy was 'quite sick' and that he had to visit hospital overnight a few times - they just didnt know it was for chemo.  My intention was to ease them into the information as I myself had more discovery - and once I got the all clear after the treatment phase, I gave them a heavily curated version of it.  If my prognosis had only deteriorated, at some point I would have sat them down individually and done my best to explain it - as well as recorded messages for them later in life, as they aged, so that they could have a little piece of me left over after I was gone.   Extended family:    Kind of estranged, and over this experience they only showed me more of why that estrangement happened - so I cut them off completely.  A disclosure was made, that's all.   Friends:  I don't keep many friendships, only the extremely long-term and close kind.  I explained my situation, and that I was tackling it head on and didn't want any distractions.  They were there if I needed someone to talk to - but, I didn't.  My personal preference was to 'circle the wagons' and focus my capacity and energy on fighting the disease, and on being with my immediate family.   Rest of the World:  situational, if it's in some way meaningful to talk about it, I do.  It's just another fact, unadorned by any kind of discomfort or awkwardness.  If it's relevant to a situation, I talk about it, if it's not, I keep it private.   ONGOING: It's probably worth exploring that cancer isn't a battle, it's a campaign.  It might feel like, after seeing the white flag and winning the battle you think "aaah, it's over". But it's not.   For the rest of your life (and especially for the next 5 years) recurrence fear will follow you around like an unwelcome shadow, potentially tainting or distorting a lot of the light you might otherwise have in your life.   You'll carry that anxiety.  Especially in the first few years after treatment.  Depending on the class of cancer, the side effects can be horrible.  And every little cough, every choked up piece of phlegm, it reminds you of that chronic cough that brought you to the doctor and began the whole original diagnosis.   So you worry.  And you have to decide who to share that with, and how much to share.   So you run through that list again - partner, family, friends, rest of world.   My two cents ?   Conventional wisdom, and anything from an entity (like cancer council) will be 'rest of the world' --- Support Groups !  Professional Help !  Naaah.  Maybe that's for you, not for me.    Partner, Familiy ?  Poor buggers, they've already been through the trenches, and may be feeling that they've come out of a tunnel.  No need to drag them back in every time you start to worry about what that little lump is and is it going to kill you.   Friends ?  Yeah, potential there - but it's probably worth being a bit tactical in how you use it - I mean, do you really want your time with your friend to be dominated by this disease which already dominates you ?   For me, the only answer winds back to that Manly Stereotype.  Find your inner strength.  Adapt and carry the weight of it yourself.  Until you can't.   Is that ignorant ?  Maybe.  I think you become strong by solving your problems, and the first and best recourse is available to you right now.  It's inside you.  Try that.  Focus on it.  Develop it.  Until it doesn't work.  Then .. well, for this recurrence fear stuff .. maybe a counsellor or something.     But yeah, that's just me.  Actually modelling your own patterns after mine would probably be inadvisable. ... 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Mate, if I can be completely frank with you - I'm not an expert, I'm just a guy.  I've been facing a life threatening cancer and right now am dealing with a possible recurrence issue.  I understand life threatening illness and empathise with fellow sufferers.   It sounds to me like you're diagnosing yourself with untreatable cancers that you don't even have ? I think you need care, mate - sounds like you've tried talking to your doctor and gotten a pretty poor response, but I think you should persevere.  Any problem needs to be broken down into individual pieces that can be tackled and ideally overcome.  "I better not get my throat fixed, it's probably cancer, and if it doesn't kill me the cancer in my rectum will,  or I'll die in surgery … and …. etc" … you deserve better than that, mate.  I think you should try and talk again to your doctor, and also specifically raise getting access to a counsellor - I don't know exactly what your situation is, but for me, they have counsellors working in cancer care at the hospital I attend, and I can call them at any time and seek help. I think you need to find a way to navigate forward, and it sounds to me like you need proper help to do that.  I'm sorry that you feel almost as if you don't belong in your body .. I feel that too myself sometimes (mainly from lack of sleep I think!) .. but I wouldn't be defeatist about it … I think everybody deserves hope and some kind of forward direction. If you're not getting that now, I just reckon you shouldn't give up, but try and find new avenues to get the support you need. I'm sorry mate, I'm not trying to impose on your way of thinking and living - it just sounds like you've given up on any hope of any kind of viable future, and I think you should do a little stock-take, and see if you can find some way to galvanise yourself into continuing to fight (for life, health, happiness and wellbeing) ... View more

On the topic of character assassination, let me demonstrate something (and yes, I understand this will apply to me also) - I guarantee you that this guy can't leave it at that.   Despite the "that's it from me", he will absolutely need to have the final word.   Sure, he'll battle with himself, because this very challenge will trigger a "prove him wrong" response, but self awareness isn't exactly a strong-suit here.   Anyway, if you're seriously reading about gumbi-gumbi, and starting to be convinced that every single human being who educated themselves as a doctor, nurse, research scientist, etc, is part of some industrial-medico complex perpetrating a strategy to maintain the status quo and suppress the 100% success rate enjoyed by natural remedies …. well …. no offense, but consider that you might be stupid.   Ask your doctor, they will say (just as I have):  go ahead, try the natural remedies, but for Christ's sake inform yourself on everything else as well.   If you don't want to get it from your doctor, and you find the idea of scholarly articles informative, then at least also look at this stuff:   Scholarly article on toxicity, adverse reactions, morbidity (due to natural remedies): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3887317/   Scholarly article (journal of national cancer institute, USA): https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/110/1/121/4064136 (article shows a tendency to try a natural therapy IN LIEU of orthodox treatment, and increase your risk of death by a FACTOR OF FIVE, the pattern is basically "no, Vegan-Christ will save me" / refuse treatment / get sicker / get desperate / try orthodox treatment / too late / die)   Please decide for yourself what is credible, and PUT NO STOCK in stuff you read online in blogs or forums, just use that as context and follow it as signposts to more credible information.  Here's another article, more readable than the scholarly stuff and explains how relying ONLY on natural remedies increases your risk of death: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2017/alternative-medicine-cancer-survival   Also worth a quick google search of general news outlets (albeit misinformed, lying and paid for by big pharma!), on criminal prosecutions for neglect - where people have chosen natural remedies for a loved one (or tragically) a child, and the person died.  Bearing in mind the litigative process and that therefore there is enough science to demonstrate clear culpability.  You understand ?  Even a junior lawyer who got his degree from the back of a cereal box could fight an unjust prosecution not firmly grounded in science, so without having the skills to validate the science, you can rely on our clunky, clumsy judicial system (um, but yeah, paid for by big pharma .. but can you really buy into someone who WRITES "read my lips" on a forum, am I right ?)   I've been a university student, and the idea that journalists and scholars are bound by some kind of big pharma financial incentive is, frankly, paranoid and absurd.  In fact, I'd argue there's probably an opposite effect, a young underpaid intern research scientist or unemployed student journalist, might actively seek out the notoriety and challenge of bringing a conspiracy to light.  Likewise the idea that a defense lawyer would bow to them .. lawyers are sharks, they want to WIN, even a losing fight, they want to WIN, if there's credible science available, it gets used.  If 5 people were miraculously cured of cancer and it can be DEMONSTRATED as fact, they parade them around the court-room dressed as dancing girls.   The hundreds of thousands CURED for just CENTS don't exist, until they are somehow shown to exist in a credible way.  Seek them out, and you'll just a bunch of vegan-evangelists or worse, predators.  This is MY opinion.  But DON"T LISTEN TO ME.  Use blogs and forums for context.  Educate yourself.   In closing:  I doubt anybody from any walk of life, doctor, private citizen with firsthand experience (like me) .. I doubt anybody will say DONT try alternative medicines to bolster your health, help you fight disease, etc.   Once you have cancer KILLING YOU, it's a bit late, buddy.  You're closing the barn door after the horse has already bolted.  Chemo is poison.  Radiation is harmful.  But educate yourself on the success rates for your class and staging of cancer.     (The 2% shit relates to all classes of cancer, all staging, etc, it's distorted information, get more information before you make your choices)   Anyway, there's data out there, for chrissakes find it yourself before listening to goofy idiots (including me!) that put forward stupid opinions online.  You'll find a study, with data collated over 66 months, where 800+ participates were treated for various malignancies, 200ish refused treatment and went the natural remedy ONLY route.  They pretty much all died, as opposed to the limping, cringing suffering SURVIVAL of the orthodox treatment path.  Not many studies available, but there's at least this one.    Buy the remedies if you must.  But please .. consider carefully before you RELY on them.   Fight cancer.  Win.  Try not to die.   ... 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How about I unveil it and be completely Frank ?  (You can be Betty).    There's something wrong with you, buddy.     Quote that one pubmed article all you like, it's an aggregate at the highest level, and the people reading your bullshit (who may not be equipped to read and interpret a scholarly article themselves) needs to understand that in some cases chemo can increase their chances of survival by a much more substantial margin.  They need to talk to their doctors, ask for the numbers, form their own insights.   I'm not interested in further dialogue with you.  I'm just adding an alternative viewpoint for anyone who happens to be seeking information here.   I think anybody reading through this will get a pretty clear example of the kind of diverse information and competing viewpoints that they'll find.  Anyone reading this (and any other information online) will just have to run a "bullshit-o-meter" over it, and if it starts buzzing and emitting smoke and a weird smell .. well, they'll know they've met someone like you.   I'll stand by that, until and unless you can produce ANY kind of information about the hundreds of thousands of people who have been cured of cancer by this berry/root/whatever.  I wouldn't be shocked if you had some kind of personal connection to vending the product, if we're going to throw people's motivations under the bus.   In my own personal experience fighting cancer, I've met a wide variety of doctors.  Most of them smart, many of them kind, all of them spoke with a level of understanding about the hard math underlying the evidence based treatments.  (Including stuff that's harder to find and differentiate, like post-treatment recurrence rates by stage and time).   Asserting that they are all unilaterally part of some kind of industrial-medico complex geared toward supressing medical innovations in order to maintain the financial status quo, is, again, let me be completely frank - stupid, paranoid and/or cruel.   My step-father was referred by his medical oncologist (chemo doctor) into a clinical immunology trial, which prolonged his life by about 6 years.  She was using established, evidence based treatment to provide palliative (end of life comfort) care, and being aware and mindful of the stats and his candidacy for the trial, referred him into this emerging and exciting branch of medicine.  (Immunology), which is, interestingly, the sole approach to cancer treatment before chemo/rads .. they used to just supercharge the immune system and hope for the best (reaching back to when it was progressively replaced by chemo around the 50s)   So yeah, anyone reading this - by all means, buy Kieth's amazing berries or whatever.  Not sure how they taste.  And I imagine they *will* have a positive impact on your overall health .. maybe.   But unless he produces some kind of supporting information about the 100,000+ people cured of cancer by the berries … don't buy into the bullshit.   Believe what you want, but make smart decisions.  It's your life. ... View more

"easily manipulated statistics rather than listening bto real life testimonies of hundreds of thousands of people cured - yes cured - for a few cents? "   If that doesn't make you giggle when you read it, you need to take some 'self awareness' pills.   Easily manipulated statistics …. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE *****CURED***** OF CANCER FOR A FEW CENTS.   Yep, thems some statistics alrighty, pard'ner.   Yep.  giggling.  But cancer isn't a giggling matter.   Careful people. ... View more

Incidentally, a lot of natural remedies have been looked at where measurable and credible data was available), you can find a few interesting articles on pubmed.   For example, there's a volcanic compound could .. I think from memory .. Zeolyte.  Liquid Zeolyte under lab conditions was anecdotally shown to shrink some certain types of cancer.   There's a study on gumbi gumbi which hesitantly talks about it's cancer fighting properties, but .. pawpaw shares some of the same attributes, friends and neighbours.  No doubt natural elements that you put into your body will help your health and wellbeing.  Whether they will cure your cancer is an open question.   There was a study about a quack cure for cancer (I can't remember the exact details, sorry) back in the 80s, something about whales or dolphins or shark sperm or something - I really don't remember the details, but it was public enough, and the medicine wagon shyster was transparent enough, that they collected data over a period of several years and found that the survival rate of users DID increase, by something around but less than 5%   Interestingly, the PLACEBO EFFECT is a thing.  A real, studied thing.  It's been scientifically and credibly demonstrated that believing in something can make it work.  Without looking at the various studies, it really wouldn't surprise me to learn that the placebo effect showed a demonstrated increase in serious disease cures of like .. 5% … in controlled studies.    (Kinda thing where people are given sugar pills and told it's a secret miracle cure, and it actually works)   Science, medicine, philosophy, commerce, it's all inexact, the only person who knows YOU is you.     Anyway, yeah, independent credible analysis based on mortality data shows a direct survival impact in the 40% range on a few classes of cancer treated only by chemotherapy, based on a quick search - so .. just … read, own your situation, make good decisions.  It's not that the 2% number is false, it's that it's an aggregate collection of mortality data at the highest level, across massive spectrums - so it will be 0.8% here, 50% there, etc etc, covering  an wide spectrum of disease profiles, staging and modalities   You *can* beat cancer, whether it's faith, magic, chemical poison, radiation, immunology, luck or stubborn-ness, it can be done.  I've done it (so far) (touch wood).   Just kick the tyres on any and all information you receive and as with everything in life, decide for yourself who and what to trust and believe in. ... View more

Hey Mate - as you're giving information that is *LIFE OR DEATH* for people, I'd be careful to give a caveat, because there is always a possibility of being dangerously misinformed.   For example, that 2% efficacy of chemo is specific to certain classes of cancer where the chemo is delivered in conjunction with radiation.    The data indicates only a couple of percent increase in survival rates if you take the adjuvant chemotherapy.  Still, I'll take the chemo please and thank you, as every percent matters to me - but every patient should make an INFORMED choice.   So yeah, sharing info is good, but offering it as bald fact, the only fact, etc - in my opinion, is dangerously irresponsible.   Chemo, for instance, is a primary and evidence based mode of treatment for certain classes of cancer, and adjuvant with surgery or radiation for others.  In the future, society will probably look back on it as barbaric, but for now it's a meaningful option amongst the other options available to a cancer sufferer (including refusing treatment, gobbling herbs, or whatever).   Anyway, I also think it's dangerous to imply that clinicians are motivated only by dollars when choosing the mode of treatment.  It verges on stupid/paranoid/cruel.  At the end of the day though, there's (in my OPINION) a nugget of truth to it .. the medical establishment is an industry, and like all human endeavour, currency underpins the choices that get made.   Is that evil ?  Not really.  Because it applies to you, whatever you do, fast food, magic shows, TV, farmers, whatever.  But they tie the underlying commerce in with evidence based treatments (ie stuff that is proven to work).   Immunology is no doubt the future of cancer treatment (in my OPINION), but if you wrote some blah blah on the internet and it influenced some person NOT to have chemo, and they died, and they were not master of the facts … well, shame on you. Anyone reading this and trying to decide what to do - first and foremost lean on the advice of your doctor.  If you feel uncertain about their advice, get further opinion(s).  Do NOT rely on the internet, unless you have no other option available.  Use it to add context, but for fuck's sake don't make any important decision based on my or anybody elses rambling.  Own your cancer, own your treatment, form your own insights - but at the risk of your life, take any goofy shit said online with a grain of salt ! ... View more

I think I better bask in the glory of solving it - for closure's sake if nothing else:   DRAINOFLY           Just kidding ... DRAGONFLY     ... View more

I think I know what it is, and it's alarmingly close to 'Unicorn'.      I'll take an "R" ... View more

I play hangman most nights with my three young sons at the dinner-table (a gift in itself, given that I'm past my cancer expiry date).   The thing I notice that's missing in this game is a scaffold.  With the incorrect E, there should be some kind of a scaffold … the bottom wooden bit that the noose, hanged man etc goes on top of.   I guess mine might look something like this:          ------------------        I                            \       I       O                               \   I    /  I  \                                 I      / \                                   I                                              I ___________________I   There, I did your job for you (all rights reserved, copyright Captain Australia 2019), and give you limited permission to use my design confined to the purposes of this game, and provided a royalty consideration is paid to me with each use, let's say 10c per piece of the scaffold, so given that E means the base is already there, I'm up 10c.   Oh, that means I have a financial incentive to lose the game.   My guess is X.  Is there an X ? ... View more