Following up on Angelia's post, I hate it when "celebrities" can make money off of pushing bogus "alternatives" to chemo. While I have posted a link to web sites refuting some of these in other posts, I could not have said it better than this quote:
[quote]If there�s one thing I�ve become utterly disgusted with in the time since I first became interested in science-based medicine as a concept, its promotion, and the refutation of quackery and medical pseudoscience, it�s empty-brained celebrities with an agenda. Be it from imbibing the atmosphere within the bubble of woo-friendly southern California or taking a crash course at the University of Google and, through the arrogance of ignorance, concluding that they know more than scientists who have devoted their lives to studying a problem, celebrities believing in and credulously promoting pseudoscience present a special problem because of the oversized soapboxes they command. Examples abound. There�s Bill Maher promoting anti-vaccine pseudoscience, germ theory denialism, and cancer quackery on his show Real Time with Bill Maher ....Then there are, of course, the current public faces of the anti-vaccine movement, Jenny McCarthy and her boyfriend Jim Carrey... her efforts are contributing to the return of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases...Unfortunately, last week the latest celebrity know-nothing to promote health misinformation released a brand new book and has been all over the airwaves, including The Today Show, Larry King Live, and elsewhere promoting it. Yes, I�m talking about Suzanne Somers, formerly known for her testimonial of having �rejected chemotherapy and tamoxifen� for her breast cancer, as well as her promotion of �bioidentical hormones,� various exercise devices such as the Thighmaster and all manner of supplements. Her book is entitled Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer�And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place."[/quote]
Of course none of these doctors are doing anything except getting rich off of the misfortunate of cancer patients and they are a true rogue's catalog of quacks.

When I told my sister that my radiation that was due to start November 16th probably wouldn't get going until the next week, she very casually told me that her husband, whose first wife died of cancer, said that was the exact reason that she died - her treatments kept getting delayed. Thanks a lot for the vote of confidence.

Other people seem obligated to tell me about people they know who found out they had cancer and died two weeks later. Thanks for telling me - lol.

I had the same problem yesterday. My director of special ed told me that we can not be too aggressive with this stuff. Her father in law had it and two years later he died. I am like, I really do not need to hear that

We all have to develop a very thick skin when dealing with people during our experience with cancer. We need to firmly believe that we have chosen the right combination of doctor(s) and treatment and then let tunnel vision guide us the rest of the way. We all know that there is no way anyone could possibly understand what we are going through both mentally and physically unless they themselves were touched by cancer so "forgive them for they know not what they do".

As I was going through treatment and sick - a co worker said to me........."Boy, I have learned one thing from you, If I am ever diagnosed with cancer, I am not going to treat it. It looks like the treatment just makes you really sick and then you die anyway".

Wow is that ever cold. Unbelievable what can come out of people's mouths!

OMG Carmen.....I can't believe your co-worker would say something like that. People never cease to amaze me sometimes.

Shelley

People can be so cold. My boss asked me if I could run up to the school next week in between treatments to do a meeting. UHHH, don;t think so.

Angelia,

WE all can react differently...blah, blah, blah but the vast majority of us don't feel anything for the first couple of weeks of concurrent chemo/rad so I wouldn't necessarily put my life on hold until your body tells you to.

Carmen

We all die at some point, but cancer of the tongue is an especially gruesome and painful way to die if left untreated. If your co-worker persists in such remarks, you can always ask nicely;
Oh, really? You would prefer to have a tumor block your throat and your airways slowly while it spreads until it bursts through your cheeks just to avoid temporary suffering?
Optional reply depending upon how corpulent your co-worker is:
"Oh really? It wouldn't do you any harm to lose some weight !"
But then I am cantankerous and have actually used such comebacks after I returned to work and heard the same thing.
It did put an end to their comments though.