by DharmaKitty » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:40 am
Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was some new treatment for cancer, one that doesn't actually hurt and harm us while healing us.
You are right in that cancer has the uncanny ability to mutate and form immunity to certain drugs. In addition and what I find hardest to deal with is that the medication that is available to cancer patients almost kills you while killing the cancer cells. In many cases it is the medication that makes one so ill. The cancer itself, while causing pain and other symtoms is not necessarily the thing that makes you feel so ill, which is why many people have cancer long before it is diagnosed as it doesn't necessarily make them feel so desperately ill. However, once you start the treatment you feel sicker and more desperate than you have ever felt before.
The chemo (be in IV or oral or radiation) makes you develop mouth sores, suffer from nausea, destroys lining in your stomach, destroys healthy cells, and many other side effects ( hair loss, depression to name a few) which then means one has to take more medication to help those symptoms - they cycle seems never ending.
Yes, prevention is always better than cure, but sadly that is too late for some.
I pray for an improved medication in the future and, for now, I pray that those who suffer all the indignities that go with this type of illness, strength to fight it, the courage to face another day, another treatment, and the peace to go through it all without losing themselves and their sense of humour.
The essence of a real practice is to bring our intellectual understanding to the level of our heart - so as to feel it - to live it!