Not sure how to put this in the context of the video, but...

My gf was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months back and has just finished chemo... now prepping for surgery, radio, and hormone therapy. I know that's a world apart from chronic leukemia - like flu and aids are both viruses - but her attitude was/is:
"Ok, I'm sick, I've got to go through some crap and I'll be better than I am now, even if I'm not fully cured. There's no point raging out about the big fight, or raging inwardly about how unfair it is. I've just got to do some stuff.

"Sick or not, going to work is annoying but necessary. When I need to take care of my child or bf it can be annoying, but necessary. There's no promise that life is easy, but you just do what you can."

I think it's great that people have the strength of character to rage against the disease and not give in to depression, but I will forever be astounded and impressed by my gf's incredibly practical "meh" attitude.

She's Russian. They're a strange people with the weirdest and most practical dark sense of humour, but it's amazing how practical that whole side is.

That chemo analogy is brilliant, I like it.

But I'm cautiously optimistic about what a dose of Trump-chemo could do for the US. For him to accomplish anything truly apocalyptic, he'd need a lot of help. I don't think he'd get it -- military might balk at his orders, legislature can utterly ignore him, etc. etc.

...Or, it could all go horribly wrong. But like I said, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Yeah, I understand your point, gotta get worse to get better, go around the horn and remake the system. But four years is a mighty long time - and maybe things change irreparably.

I suppose you could think of Trump as chemotherapy. It's toxic but might be just what's needed to turn things around. But chemotherapy sometimes weakens the body so much that it can't fight anymore - and the body dies.

That's my concern. I think that 4 years of Trump chemo might kill us all.

It's all ok, she was starting chemo in the morning and figured if she's gonna lose it anyway...

It's insane that this was one of the original suspects in Colony Collapse Disorder, and only now, 10+ years into the decimation of bees (and many other insects) can the EPA admit it's a problem....yet they won't likely make ANY changes until the end of the year, ensuring another year of CCD for the bee industry as well as all other native insects that are effected.

Always a week late and $99 short seems to be the motto of our species these days. More and more I tend to think we aren't worth saving and that the collapse of the eco system is a strong, scorched earth type of chemo therapy the biosphere needs to remove the cancer that is man. It's delicious irony that we'll do it to ourselves, but unforgiveable that we'll also probably take 99% of life with us.
Where's a plague when we need one?

I can't speak to Canada's system, but I can weigh in on Medicare quality of care. My Grandmother, the woman who raised me, was diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 70's. Since I was helping to take care of her at the time, I got to see what I have to look forward to in my later life.

Consistently we had to wait for treatments to be approved and she was often delayed for patients that were not on Medicare. Additionally, every single therapy or quality of life aid was scrutinized beyond belief.

As an example, the doctor gave her a prescription for an oxygen tank and delivery system after they removed part of her lung that was not responding to chemo. Medicare refused to cover it without an 'oxygen saturation level test'. This 'test' was horrible. She had to try to breathe without the machine for multiple minutes, struggling and gasping for air. It was fucking brutal to watch, but the people that Medicare sent to verify didn't give a shit. They basically told me that if her saturation wasn't low enough after 15 minutes, she couldn't be covered for the machine. I couldn't take it, so I told them to fuck off out of her house and paid out of my own pocket for the rental.

These are just some examples, there were others before she died that made it quite clear that Medicare is not quality care. It's basically the bare minimum they have to give you to keep you alive. So this video comparing Canada's care to Medicare doesn't reassure me in the slightest and it's almost certainly an unfair comparison to their system. I can tell you I am dreading making the swap to Medicare in 20-25 years, let alone being forced into something similar sooner. As far as ACA, I don't really care. It's probably good for people who don't have good jobs or who are unemployed, but I will be more than happy to hang onto my extremely good insurance provided through my employment.

What school has a policy against bald heads in the first place? I take it this is the first time one of their kids underwent chemo? or did they have a really bad skinhead problem in the past.

No, actually it is humans who are stupid, unhygienic (your spelling has been amended), annoying and dangerous. If there is climate change, humans are the cause. Imagine wasting chemo on the likes of you! Finally; humans are violent criminals who take resources away from fellow humans to make a buck. Vets alleviate the suffering imposed on animals by some of those humans.

PS; your tag "gorillaman" does that mean you respect at least one of our genetic cousins, or do you wish to kill off every animal you deem as useless? I am being rhetorical, feel free to keep your simplistic, childlike "opinions" to yourself. Unless, of course, you are a troll. In which case you have succeeded in getting at least one response.

This is stupid and you people are stupid. Also dogs are stupid.

Dogs are unhygenic, annoying and dangerous. Dogs cause climate change. Imagine wasting chemo on a dog. Pet owners and vets are violent criminals who take resources away from humans and replace them with suffering.

YT:
After diagnosis with hemangiosarcoma, Wallace was given 2 weeks to 3 months without chemo. Here Wallace is celebrating his 11th birthday 7 months post diagnosis chemo free! These were all toys mailed to Wallace by people around the country who loved him. To help us help other dogs in need, Wallace's book can be purchased here - www.WallaceThePitBull.com This true story, written by Jim Gorant, takes you on Wallace's journey from unwanted shelter dog to Champion Frisbee Dog! Wallace passed away a year after diagnosis on 8/23/2013. Long Live Wallace the Pit Bull!

@Sniper007, you don't realise how right you are.

It's exactly like the DeBeers video. The "alternative medicine" people have cunningly marketed a bunch of unscientific nonsense as "common sense", and yes, they'll die from it.

Unfortunately, this won't be evolutionarily selected out. First, most (not all) people develop cancer later in life, when they've already had children. Second, choice of medicine is not a genetic trait.

@enoch, I do not believe that sniper is trying to sell snake oil, merely that he's been taken in by it.

As for the disparity between research on causes vs treatment, well, it's somewhat understandable, especially in a market driven environment. Cynical as it sounds, you can pretty much charge whatever you like to dying people and they'll pay it. Convincing people to change their lifestyle is a much harder sell.

And absolutely, people eat way too much processed crap today. No-one is disputing that, neither am I disputing that a bad diet can be the cause of cancer.

We may one day look back at chemo as the 20th century equivalent of bloodletting. I truly hope so. But right now, it's still the best we have.

@ChaosEngine
there will always be snake oil salespeople out there but i do not think that is snipers motivation.

as i stated this is not a black and white paradigm and a healthy diet and early detection are paramount.i am not suggesting that stage 3 lung cancer can be treated by eating pot brownies and bean sprouts.

chemotherapy is a last resort.
it is a hail mary pass.
controlled poisoning is as barbaric as it is tragic.

i think what bothers me most about this subject is not the disagreement between people such as ourselves but rather the pathetic research into what causes cancer.

im not kidding.
go check the numbers on how much is spent on researching the causes on cancer versus the treatment of cancer.
the difference is abysmal and shameful.

the little research into the causes of cancer do tend to point to our diet.surprise surprise...the food we are eating is slowly poisoning us (as some research is suggesting).

check this talk out.super informative,if heavy on the vegan:
http://videosift.com/video/Uprooting-the-Leading-Causes-of-Death

*edit:i know this does not make me an expert but my family is in the medical field and my older sisters partner is an oncologist and HE avoids chemo whenever possible.so much of my opinion on this matter has been formed by my conversations with him.

...Guess that's why so many people are still using Chemo, and not willing their cancer away.

Because it's snake oil, and people die from it. The reason I asked @Sniper007 what he would suggest as an alternative is because there are some interesting alternatives currently being researched, but diet has already been shown to be ineffective. It pretty much killed Steve Jobs, for a start.

Yes, absolutely, you should eat healthily as a general life rule (although raw vegan is nonsense). There's some good evidence to show that diet can lessen your chance of developing cancer, but as a treatment? Nope.

Cannabis, on the other hand, may potentially have some benefit but as of today, there's no evidence to support that (and Cancer Research UK have labelled internet claims of such "highly misleading"). It's further complicated by the fact that smoking cannabis is often combined with tobacco smoking.

Finally, yeah, chemo is awful, but right now it's still the best treatment.

As of right now, if you use Cannabis to treat cancer, statistically speaking, you're just gonna die with the munchies.

It has an insanely low research rate in a cancer-fighting capacity, and is mostly used during cancer-treatment (specifically chemo) to induce hunger, and reduce pain.

Not to mention that if you're saying that fighting cancer with "happy thoughts and no stress" you're now just gonna die happy..about everything other than the fact that you decided not to actually cure your cancer.

Your logic is insane, and Chemo, although "Barbaric" is still, at the very least proven, and actually factually life-saving.