Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'Chemotherapy killed Patrick Swayze'
The Times of India ^ | 19 Sep 09 | Staff

Posted on 09/20/2009 8:37:58 AM PDT by PilotDave

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 161-167 next last
To: my small voice

Hmmm, maybe that is the plan of the euthanasia government rationed healthcare system? Kill them while claiming your helping them, eh?


61 posted on 09/20/2009 9:12:39 AM PDT by Freddd (Government run health care=paying more and being denied what we already have.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave
I fully expect the kooks and loons to defend quack medicine, but chemotherapy is used by oncologists for one reason.... it improves long term survival rates of many cancer patients.

Long term survival rates keep going up in those who aggressively pursue modern medical treatment. Those who think diet or pH or “purifying your body from ‘toxins’” can stop an aggressive Pancreatic cancer are loons.

62 posted on 09/20/2009 9:12:46 AM PDT by allmendream (Wealth is EARNED not distributed, so how could it be RE-distributed?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scythian

And your degree in medicine is from what school?


63 posted on 09/20/2009 9:12:58 AM PDT by donmeaker (Invicto)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: airborne

“BTW, my blood type changed from O+ to O-! “

O- was the blood type of the donor cells you were given.


64 posted on 09/20/2009 9:13:46 AM PDT by cpdiii (roughneck, oilfield trash and proud of it, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, iconoclast.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Hildy

My mother in law had cancer. She had chemo and radiation. Now 30 years later she is still alive and causing trouble. She was the first person to survive her form of cancer for 5 years.


65 posted on 09/20/2009 9:14:24 AM PDT by donmeaker (Invicto)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Hildy

I’m watching my brother-in-law go through the same thing now. Every round of chemo makes him exponentially worse. I can’t even recognize him anymore. What it’s done to him is beyond horrible.


66 posted on 09/20/2009 9:16:59 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard (Some men just want to watch the world burn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Chi-townChief
I’m one of those who believe that sometimes the cure is worse than the illness.

Oh, definitely. A lot of times radiation is used for brain cancer, and sometimes it's just better to die quickly from the cancer. My uncle had metastasized brain cancer (starting in the lungs) which appeared quite some years after he quit his heavy smoking. The doctor was going to give radiation, but when a family member pressed the doctor about the effectiveness, the doctor admitted he virtually had no chance of survival. He died a few weeks later, and it wasn't that bad.

67 posted on 09/20/2009 9:17:09 AM PDT by ElectronVolt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave

If I’m ever diagnosed with cancer of any kind, I won’t have chemo.


68 posted on 09/20/2009 9:18:40 AM PDT by novemberslady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
“I disagree. Pancreatic cancer is in the top 3 of cancers, probably after lung and liver cancer. Lots of women have survived breast cancer.”

It may very well be that Pancreatic cancer is in the top three cancers HOWEVER it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to FIGHT IT with SUCCESS. It is an especially MEAN cancer.

Pancreatic cancer does NOT compare to breast cancer. THere is much success with breast cancer BUT NOT with PANCREATIC CANCER. WE KNOW. We LIVED through Non Hogkins Lympohoma and Pancreatic cancer. If a choice could be made, hands down, we would have chosen BREAT CANCER becuse the SUCCESS RATE is HIGH.

69 posted on 09/20/2009 9:21:09 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave

Most people are ill informed about chemo. There is not just 1 chemo. There are different types of chemotherapy drugs that are used and taylored to the type of cancer. There are also different types of cancer not just the location of the cancer.

All chemo and radiation therapies are now taylored to the type of cancer and the location of the cancer.

I know this because I was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer in November of 2008. I just finished my chemo rounds and then 6 wks of radiation. After 6 mnths I am finally beginning to feel normal again.

After I was diagnosed I started doing tons of research since I wanted to know all the facts. I was amazed that I, and even generally the people currently under treatment are so uninformed.

With surgery, chemo, and radiation I have so far beaten my cancer and am clean. I would do it all over again.


70 posted on 09/20/2009 9:22:04 AM PDT by sheana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave
What do Freepers think of Chemo? My father went downhill fast after his second round of chemo. Made me wonder?

It's the modern-day equivalent of bleeding a patient with leaches.

71 posted on 09/20/2009 9:23:06 AM PDT by Tallguy ("The sh- t's chess, it ain't checkers!" -- Alonzo (Denzel Washington) in "Training Day")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: airborne

“BTW, my blood type changed from O+ to O-!”

Do you know why?


72 posted on 09/20/2009 9:27:52 AM PDT by mtnwmn (Liberalism leads to Socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave
What do Freepers think of Chemo? My father went downhill fast after his second round of chemo. Made me wonder?

Chemo and radiation cured my mother-in-law's lung cancer. She went from a life prognosis of 6 months when the cancer was discovered to over 5 years now (a year later). Chemo is very effective against fast growing cancers like small cell lung cancer, but less effective against slower growing cancers like pancreatic. The chemicals are dependent upon cell division to penetrate and eliminate the cancer cell.

73 posted on 09/20/2009 9:28:06 AM PDT by The_Victor (If all I want is a warm feeling, I should just wet my pants.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave

It’s not useful to speak of “cancer” and “chemo.” There are hundreds of different types of cancers, and each has different causes, different ways of progressing, different outcomes, so they really constitute different diseases. And there are many, many different treatment protocols we lump together as “chemotherapy.” New drugs are emerging all the time. You can’t make a blanket statement about whether chemotherapy is good or bad; it varies with the disease, the patient, and the protocol.

This is something we are still learning about. Everyone who has cancer is in essence a guinea pig. That will never change because we will always be learning more about cancer and within the foreseeable future we won’t have one fixed “cure.”

We are all responsible for being our own primary-care physician. By that I mean that we have to learn about any disease we have and get into a position where we can make valid, thoughtful decisions about the alternatives that doctors offer us.


74 posted on 09/20/2009 9:28:28 AM PDT by ottbmare (I could agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservativesister

[[Tell me about Magnesium and NAC etc? Inquiring minds want to know where to get the info - Thanks]]

OK- You’ll spend a hell of a lot of money, and most likely die just as early as you would without it- plus too much Mag wil lcause diareah, causing you to lose fluids, causing a faster breakdown in cell life because of hte added stress of the runs- You most liekly get al lthe nutrients your body neeeds, and in natural forms that your body can actually use, fro mthe foods you eat, and you’re not paying any extra either. Our diets are mostly complete, and let’s face it- people are livign much much longer than they did years ago-

People must be careful of articifically muckign with hteir bodies- you increase one section, and you don’t really know what’s goign on elsewhere due to hte change- people with overactive immune systems especially have to be careful of muckign with hteir systems as boosting hte immune system is not a good thing i nthese folks.

Get your nutrients from foods- a form your body can actual use- just eat a little better- get more greens, fruits etc, and if you’re so inclined, cut back on soem junk foods- get a little excersize, but don’t overdo it- get soem blood work done, and you will see that you’re very likely to be at optimum levels of vitimins and minerals just fro mthe foods you already eat- there may be slight innadequacies, but again- don’t forget- peopel are livign much much longer these days, even with slight imbalances- the only time you really need to boost soemthign with artificial pills is hwen htere’s a severe difficiency (like some peopel get really down on Vit D and need suppliments- especially in the winter)-

Oh- and be VERY carewful of muckign with PH balance- doing so will make you susceptible to kidney stones which are VERY painful.

Save your money- and just eat right and excersize a bit. If you’re really low on Magnesium, you’ll be gettign a lot of leg cramps, and probably be constipated as well- you’re body wil ltell you if you’re low and need supllimentation


75 posted on 09/20/2009 9:29:15 AM PDT by CottShop (Scientific belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave

I’m open to ideas.
All she has to do is tell me what “toxins” are.
I mean exactly. What are they? Name them.
Otherwise, she doesn’t need to speak out. She needs to read more books.


76 posted on 09/20/2009 9:30:50 AM PDT by IrishCatholic (No local Communist or Socialist Party Chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave

Chemo is, on the one hand, overused and relied upon far too heavily by the medical establishment in the United States, the veritable cannon when a peashooter would do.

On the other hand, it’s unjustly reviled by people who think it’s somehow purely “toxic” and therefore unnatural. There is a time when a gentler, more holistic approach is in order, and there is a time when it’s appropriate to pull out all the stops.

As an example, I cared for and treated my beloved Labrador Retriever with cancer, for over a year. We were quite the team, he was such a good sport, and he lived and loved life right up to the end, relatively pain-free, I saw to that. He lived to the grand old age of 14 1/2, and the cancer didn’t get him. I’ll be grateful for that, for the rest of my life.

There were many surprising things that I learned, in the course of trying to help him. Anti-inflammatories of many varieties, both pharmaceutical and herbal, were very helpful. Cancer co-opts the body’s inflammation response in order to spread, and inhibiting inflammation therefore can inhibit metastasis.

Inhibiting angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels and capillaries, is another beneficial approach. Starve a neoplasm of it’s blood supply, and the growth or metastasis of that neoplasm can be inhibited. There are many anti-angiogenic approaches that can be used, both pharmaceutical and herbal.

Chemotherapy avails itself of these physiological effects of certain substances, and more. I’m not even going to go into apoptosis, because peoples’ eyes glaze over, due to information overload. But, chemo, despite the “scary” name, can in fact be quite natural. Toward the end, when many of the approaches we (my veterinary oncologist and I) were using had begun to be ineffective, we resorted to Etoposide, which is chemotherapy. Can you guess what Etoposide is manufactured from? Mayapple. Not so scary. Quite natural.

So, be wary of extreme claims from either side of the fence. Cancer is a genuine bitch (pardon the language, but it’s true), and it will eventually mutate around anything you could possibly throw at it. There is no “cure,” there is only holding it at bay, perhaps for a few months or for even an entire, normal lifespan. But, it’ll be back. That’s why cancer is invariably referred to as being in remission, rather than cured.

Hope this was helpful. The anger at the loss, the love and the grief and the pain, is very understandable. But, directing it at a responsible medical doctor who is trying to help, is not productive, and can be very counterproductive.


77 posted on 09/20/2009 9:33:03 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ottbmare

Well said. No easy answers. Not looking forward to the day I get to make those decisions. It does seem to me that chemo’s downsides in destroying the immune system are downplayed somewhat. As my Dad used to say, “if we live long enough, it’ll be our turn”.


78 posted on 09/20/2009 9:34:31 AM PDT by PilotDave (America; nice while it lasted... I miss it already.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave

If you can survive the chemo, you’ll survive. You’ve got to be otherwise VERY, VERY healthy to survive it. It’s definitely a killer. My dad died sooner due to chemo, but then he was in so much pain we didn’t complain.


79 posted on 09/20/2009 9:34:58 AM PDT by DRey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PilotDave

It is supposed to kill off the cancer a little faster than it kills the patient; sometimes it fails.


80 posted on 09/20/2009 9:35:40 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., hot enough down there today?" TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 161-167 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson