And I love being a nurse. I love nurses. That being said, we can be gullible—this despite constant and continuing education. For instance there exist nurses who actually voted for Trump.

Crackpot woo woo pseudo-science bullshit does kill people, or damages them. For instance, in my field of transplant, occasionally we get a patient who trashed their liver with “supplements”—Supplements that are not regulated whatsoever and led to liver failure. In fact when the cause of liver failure cannot be determined (hep C, hep B autoimmune, etc) careful questioning about OTC supplements is always done.

I have zero patience for people pushing modern day snake oil. My husband has Multiple Sclerosis, and I chase those fuckers off, and there is always s new fucker promising a “cure”. Assholes.

The best gift that a mate, relative, or good friend can give a person with a terminal disease is to be the victim's trusted personal assistant. (The personal assistant also needs a personal assistant -- caring for a dying person is a draining activity.) As the bad news spreads, the phone calls begin with offers of magical potions, introductions to healers, embracing the correct religion. Then the DVDs, books, magazines are arriving. Sales people trying to break through with cold visits. Before this point, the victim needs the personal assistant to control communications, one with the guts to tell old friends to piss off and to toss inappropriate cards into the trash. IMHO, there are no appropriate letters, books, DVDs, etc. -- there is not time to read that crap. It all goes into the trash, never to be read by anyone. If someone important to the victim complains, just say there is not time to evaluate that stuff -- we have the medical team to determine the course of action, and we are not second guessing them.

There are the communications that are very important to manage timely. Physicians, insurance bills and reimbursements, household services and bills, and visits by close family and close friends.

Got all of that under control? Good, because now the personal assistant has to guide the preparation of the taxes, legal papers, including the will and instructions for the management of the estate. Before and after the victim dies, assets must be sold.

It is easy to see how a victim, even with the help of personal assistants, can be overwhelmed and be victimized a second time by a scammer.

“Did you hear about xyz?” I usually have and then we go find evidence based data to back whatever it is up. No evidence, we let it go. People tell him stuff all the time, most of it is just nonsense. One of my grandsons is autistic,and people go really woo on that. Fortunately my daughter is a badass and incredibly smart, so she shuts them down as well.

and give-aways of pieces of his estate. a) get assigned his health care power of attorney and his general power of attorney, b) get assigned trustee of his living will, c) get done his last will and testament. Have an attorney do these to ensure they can survive challenges. When your husband says "what about xyz?", you can say: Your medical team is dedicated to doing the best that can be done for you, so let's put xyz on the list to be discussed with them. If the purveyor of xyz makes contact with you, say that you have the various powers of attorney, you will never allow them to treat him, and you control the money and will never pay them. Also, if they persist, you will get a restraining order.

As his finally days approach, you will also be disappointed in the people who come to you claiming he owes them debts and promises. Evaluate the written agreements and tell the others without documented bills to piss off. If you are not tough now, you will become tough. I know a personal assistant who looked forward to delivering this line. "He worked two jobs, and he told me that he finds no joy is giving his money or possessions to those who worked less. He believes that the only worthwhile gifts are to help with necessary medical services or for young people to help with tuition in a State college."

If your husband learns that you disappointed a parasite, and he complains to you "it's my life and my money and I will do with it what I want to", calmly tell him that you have his power of attorney, and you are following his objectives as stated in the various documents that he signed. And, when he signed those, he gave up the right to do what he wants to do. You now have that right, and you are not honoring that request by the parasite. If he tries to push more on this, say: "You can take me to court to get my powers of attorney revoked, but you will have to show that you are competent to manage all of your affairs. Can you take care of yourself without my help?"

The rest of that bullshit I will let stand as a testament to your intelligence.

Many, many people on my breast cancer board have died after refusing traditional treatment, when they were early stage, and should have had every expectancy of living many decades.

It is likely that Jobs had the best treatment available to anyone - major surgery including liver transplant. He had a rare form of pancreatic cancer. That treatment is very mainstream medical treatment.
Maybe after his recurrence, when the docs told him there was very little they could do, he tried some untested stuff. But he got good treatment when it could be effective.

According to Steve Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, the Apple mastermind eventually came to regret the decision he had made years earlier to reject potentially life-saving surgery in favor of alternative treatments like acupuncture, dietary supplements and juices. Though he ultimately embraced the surgery and sought out cutting-edge experimental methods, they were not enough to save him.

...

But Jobs refused surgery after diagnosis and for nine months after, favoring instead dietary treatments and other alternative methods. Isaacson says that when he asked Jobs why he had resisted it, Jobs said “I didn't want my body to be opened...I didn't want to be violated in that way.” His early resistance to surgery was apparently incomprehensible to his wife and close friends, who continually urged him to do it.

Only about 7% of people w/it live more than 5 years. Steve Jobs lived 8 years..his type was slow growing & easier to treat. Who can say how long he would have lived if this or if that?

thanks for sharing!

He tried to treat it himself with diet and other alternate treatments, which failed miserably. You should read his biography by Isaacson.

My partner had the same diagnosis - Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor (PNET) - not too long after Steve Jobs died.

They are slow growing tumors. Some describe them as “cancer in slow motion”

PNETs are great when you cut them out. But wait too long like Jobs and you have trouble. They don’t respond much to chemo and radiation.

But sadly ovarian cancer has a very poor prognosis even with the best medical care. The 5 year survival is pretty low. Medical science is working feverishly but ovarian has been a tough nut to crack.

Breast cancer is a totally different deal: many kinds are now very treatable with new molecularly-targeted drugs.

My friend who wasn't diagnosed until stage 4 even went as far as to undergo an experimental treatment at a famous cancer center that intentionally fused her internal organs and took up the space where the fluids would build up, in an attempt to buy some more time. It was successful in that it did buy her enough time to see her grandsons graduate high school.

I know MD Anderson handled all of her surgeries, but not sure if it was that or Sloan-Kettering. She went all over looking for something that would work. When she gave up, her family started looking for her.

Same: cancer, treatment, cancer center. She lived to see her daughter's wedding. Sorry about your friend, but glad to see she saw the graduations. Carpe diem.

near a gyn oncologist or are not referred to one to receive the recommended standard of care. This among many other things is a reason for poor survivorship stats.

...because the real medicine they make has to be used to heal the damage you and your filth cause.

Having worked a bit in the healthcare "industries", there is money to be made on the intake and discharge side. If procedures aren't successful such as the CAM/Alt/scam then eventually the patient will probably end up in the hospital with very unpleasant terminal conditions. And very expensive ones.

I was around when the HHS/NIH/NCI decided to make Complementary-Alternative-Medicines (CAM) part of their normal coverage - at least in monitoring it. AFAIK, nobody considered one of these quacks to be able to help a patient other than through placebo effect and lightening their bank balances.

While I don't think self-policing groups such as the AMA are a good idea, I absolutely KNOW that the equivalent WOO groups are evil.

Many people skim articles/OPs, so entirely possible you missed it. No worries. Yes, directed at Jensen.

Same reason otherwise intelligent people believe in such nonsense as ghosts, astrology, acupuncture, chiropracty, gods, etc. Inability for critical thinking.

She sought her doctor's help when she experienced abdominal symptoms, but he was focused on her family issue of kidney problems. By the time she was diagnosed, she was stage four. She was offered treatment, which would have been debilitating and extreme. She decide to forego treatment. She told me that when she decided to not undergo treatment, she felt a great weight lifted from her. She was a widow, and had no children.

I helped her take care of her last wishes and cared for her until she decided to enter a hospice facility, where she died, surrounded by family members. Ovarian cancer is sneaky and terrible, and sometimes the end is swift and inevitable, no matter what choices are made.

was diagnosed with cancer (and if he told me what kind I've long since forgotten) she did conventional treatments and when they didn't do much she turned to "alternative" treatments. He was sympathetic, understood her desperation. I gather she went through hell and died painfully.

What to do, what treatment to seek or accept, can be complicated. Each type of cancer is different. Some treatments have devastating side effects with no real gain in time of life, and a real loss in quality of life. Other treatments, while difficult, have in wonderful results.

I don't know what I'd do if I had a diagnosis of cancer. I hope I'd do lots of research and decide what's best for me.

But I have read in the past about black salve and know that it is truly awful, and it's genuinely sad that a nurse wasn't sufficiently educated and aware to know that it would not do her any good.

I believe it is mainly used for "proud flesh" but I had a little mare that had a smallish tumor on her belly. My vet put some on and it did work but that is a whole other thing than using like this poor woman did. That must have been miserable. As for the horse, I never saw a single wince when the vet put it on. He gave me the small jar and told me to wear gloves and that was it. Apparently it does have it's uses but not for this.

I had serious thoughts about discontinuing my treatment after four surgeries and three rounds of immunotherapy: after all, I'm over 65, and if I stopped everything I'd have 15 more years and I would be 80's - what more can I expect.

I talked to my wife about it and she was not happy, but it was going to be a topic to bring up with my doctor.

Sitting in the waiting room a guy walked in who could have been me in looks, life story and diagnosis. The difference was where I went for help at the first symptom, he waited for the symptom to go away. And he was carrying three bags and tubes and he he didn't seem totally optimistic in his chances.

My dad died from colon cancer because the tough old Marine in him didn't allow him to admit to physical 'weakness' and all that comes with colon cancer treatment once he did find out.

So I understand why that nurse took a flyer on the quack treatments. I won't judge her, its a pretty radical moment when you find out you have cancer and it is pretty demoralizing when your hopes go out the window after you do everything the way you and your cancer team plan and the cancer only gets worse. When the right things don't work, straws become options. I'm not or have been to that point but I know people who have. And most of them are gone or failing. But I will not judge them, just the hucksters and the unqualified boosters of unproven treatments who in the end only offer hope with no chances.