Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz
The Medical Profession, The Government, and Big Pharma, all need to be pushed to change the way we treat Cancer, and develop said treatments.
There's a fundamental problem with the whole Oncology Industry, and it really is quite unique.
Even if you are a garbo, you collect the garbage and take it to the tip. You do your job, you succeed.
But Oncology is built on failure. Your patients mostly die, and often suffer horribly along the way. So being an ******** who doesn't care about his patients, is not just an advantage, it's almost mandatory. It also builds an institutional attitude of "meh, lets just follow protocol, when we can, because it doesn't really matter, you're going to die anyway."
I lost both my parents to Cancer. Because my dad was a Vet they received better than average care, and it was still terrible. Literally treated like cattle on the way to the abattoir.
My Dad had one of those "Cast-Iron" constitutions, very rarely got sick, and had great heart and lungs until the Chemo got him.
When he was first diagnosed, they sent him for surgery and chopped out part of his guts and liver. When he asked if they had gotten all the tumour, the doc said "no, but they knew they wouldn't before they started." So he asked what was the point, and was told "now they could have a really good look at it." (Better than the biopsies??)
He was placed on Chemo, and went through the full course. He was much weakened by the chemo, but it did nothing to the cancer. "Oh yes said the doctor, that stuff only works about half the time" (even on dad specific type of cancer)
So they started him on a second type of treatment. After about two treatments he collapsed with a heart-attack and was rushed to hospital. "Oh yes said the doc, that one causes irreparable heart-damage in most patients, we'll try something else"
So he started on his 3rd lot of Chemo. This mostly worked, and shrunk the tumours substantially, back to almost nothing.
After a year or two the tumours were growing back, so they gave him another course of the same stuff. It did nothing.
"Oh yes says the doc, that usually happens, anything that grows back is resistant"
That's when they finally revealed that because of the specific type of "cancer" Dad had, there is actually a "wonder drug" available that kicks the **** of only those type of cells and leaves the rest of the body alone. It cost $20k a pop, but the govt was paying. The problem was that by this point Dad was knackered. His heart was stuffed, his lungs had turned to soup, he could nolonger eat solid food, and his bones had dissolved leaving him crippled and in agony. Because this new treatment also damaged his immune system, they had to be extremely careful.
Even so, the doctor now told Dad that he could keep him alive indefinitely. Which he would have done, except he was knackered and his heart gave out.
Mum had cancer lodge and grow in a lymph node. They removed it, examined it, and proclaimed that she had breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy. However xrays, mammograms, nd an MRI failed to find any cancer in her breasts.
Later, after some discomfort, hey discovered she had bowel cancer. So surgeons removed basically her entire lower GI tract. She spent her last few weeks on earth in agony, unable to consume food, and with diarrhoea constantly pouring out beyond her control.
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