Cancer is a disease where the patient can contribute a great deal of help himself if he or she can retain their morale and their hopes.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The thing with cancer is that it's usually the chemo rather than the disease itself that makes the patient feel so ill, particularly at the start.
Cancer is something that touches everyone's lives.
I am not a doctor or a scientist, but merely a passionate layperson, a filter, a messenger. I spoke with so many patients who are living normal, happy, fulfilled lives, and their enthusiasm and great quality of life convinced me that you can indeed live with cancer.
So many of us have friends or family who have battled cancer, and we know how important it is to find a cure.
When you go through a long illness, certainly one of cancer, there's a certain release from it and relief that it has come to an end, because the suffering can be unbearable, as opposed to an abrupt stop to life when they go out the door and there's a loved one who never comes home because of some accident.
When a person has cancer, the whole family really suffers with her.
Although the elusive 'cure' may be a distant dream, understanding the true nature of cancer will enable it to be better controlled and less menacing.
In a spiritual sense, a positive attitude may help you get through chemotherapy and surgery and radiation and what have you. But a positive mental attitude does not cure cancer - any more than a negative mental attitude causes cancer.
Having cancer is a lonely experience. It is the one time in your life that you cannot ask those closest to you, 'What should I do?' It's too heavy a burden to place on another person. This is your life, your decision, and cancer kills.
Cancer is a collection of many diseases with common principles, and each disease will have to be understood and more effectively controlled on its own terms.