I was diagnosed with stage IV bladder cancer a little over a year ago. Here are some things I've learned since then:
• DRINK WATER!!!
Adults should drink 64 ounces (~2L) of water every day, cancer or not. If you drink alcohol--and especially if you drink the hard stuff--you should have a glass of water with every drink. Alcohol dehydrates the body. Without sufficient water, the contents of the bladder concentrate. Research says that carcinogens, free radicals, and other harmful substances collect there and adversely affect the cells lining the bladder wall.
Drink up!
• KNOW THE SYMPTOMS OF BLADDER CANCER
The most common symptoms of bladder cancer include:
Blood in your urine or semen
A need to urinate suddenly
Painful urination
Urinating more often than usual
• INFORM YOURSELF
One of my previous health care providers took a blood test, informed me that my testosterone level was low, and prescribed a topical replacement therapy. I know--now--that this was like pouring gasoline onto a roaring fire. Transitional cell carcinoma just loves testosterone! A simple urinalysis would have revealed my condition. Thanks, Doc!
Bad information, bad advice, wild claims, and outright nonsense are effective sales tools when fear is motivating the customer... just like in the computer industry. We tend to do what healthcare professionals tell us to do because they're the professionals. But this is your life and your body. Value it by getting as much information as you can because...
• EVERY CANCER IS DIFFERENT
No one can predict the course a particular cancer will take or what effect a given treatment or medication might have. Researchers are developing cures based on the patient's own DNA to fashion "hunter-seeker" compounds that kill cancer and nothing else. The approach today is to kill any cell that grows at a faster pace than normal--malignant or benign--so things like the lining of the digestive tract, the white cells in blood that fight infection, and hair are killed off, too. Targeted treatments would alleviate what can be the most difficult aspect of fighting cancer...
• CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIATION ARE DIFFICULT
Chemotherapy and radiation change you. They can rob you of mental acuity, physical vitality, and emotional reserves. The chemotherapy that's helping me now is extracted from the Pacific yew tree-- a substance called taxol. I'm treated once a month, so I have severe fatigue and nausea for a week every three weeks. The aging process seems to accelerate (I open cabinets when I mean to open the microwave these days). My most difficult loss? My sense of humor. I started this diary to indulge my love for writing political humor and satire but my cancer and the fallout from the still-developing catastrophe that is the presidency of George Walker Bush have obscured the natural sun of my disposition--the point-of-view that can look at dire, infuriating situations and find the laugh. I had a couple of panic attacks. No fun. The struggle against nausea, fatigue, malnourishment, and uncertainty convince patients every day that death would be preferable. I am not there yet. That's because...
• SUPPORT IS ESSENTIAL
I met my wife Mary in December of 2010 and we were married a year later. She has been my rock all the way. I was taking a cocktail of multi-vitamins she prepared for me almost daily for two years before I got my cancer diagnosis. She introduced me to James Hollis's The Middle Passage and helped me muddle through making sense of a life that had fallen apart. Mary taught me by example to strive for integrity--more unity--in my thoughts and actions. She helped me change my relationship with alcohol. My dear wife prepared me for this fight even before we joined it; I don't like to think what life would be like without her. Shared struggle. Shared experience. Shared emotion. Shared responsibilities. Shared frustrations. I wish I could say that I've shared fairly in all the sacrifices she has had to make for us, but that is the stuff of love. "Soul mates" are made; not found like a quarter in the street.
My family, my friends, my band and the music we make, and writing have all sustained me, but Mary has insisted on an additional tool in our arsenal against The Emperor Of Diseases...
• CANNABIS IS MEDICINE
On the day last January that we received my diagnosis, we immediately went to a local doctor and got the dispensary cards required of medical marijuana users in California. We struck up a relationship with the most famous, best-regarded dispensary in the Bay Area, educated ourselves, and started treatment. Marijuana has been invaluable in the course of my disease. Emphysema keeps me from smoking large amounts, so cannabis oil has been the preferred mode of delivery.
Marijuana's effectiveness at combating nausea and loss-of-appetite are undisputed and if it only did that, it would be more than enough. A concentrated oil derived from distilling marijuana in ethyl alcohol--called "cannabis oil" or "Rick Simpson oil"--is showing promise in treating severe neurological disorders, especially in children.
I had had an off-and-on relationship with marijuana--mostly "off." Finding a reliable source... buying it... not smelling like it... Legaiity... Lack of interest... I repaired computers in my own shop in Hawaii for nine years; you don't do that kind of work with a buzz on, so I shared the occasional toke but I wasn't a regular user. That changed when I found I have cancer.
I now take a preparation rich in cannabidiol in a pill every night before bed. It helps me sleep, it staves off with anxiety (I save money because I don't need benzodiazepines any more), it reduces the aches and pains to which an old man is heir, it doesn't make me high, and I'm clear-headed in the morning. Again, if it did only that, it would be worth it. But there's one more thing (knock wood)...
• THINGS LOOK GREAT!
Cancers have receded from my brain, my lymphatic system, and my urinary tract. There is a couple of troublesome spots, but we're rooting them out, Mary believes strongly that cannabidiol is crucial in altering the course of my cancer. Please sign her petition to re-classify marijuana as a Schedule IV or Schedule V Controlled substance.
Thank you.