Re: Re: Question re: Chemo- Listen to the doctor?

[Guest guest]

Does the advice to 'do what the doctor tells you to do' relate only to whether

or not one should use antioxidants when doing chemotherapy or does it relate to

everything a doctor tells you? It makes sense if one is going to follow those

instructions about chemotherapy than it follows that one should 'blindly' do

everything they say.

When the doctor wanted to do chemo on me, and I asked what he would use, and I

told him I researched it and it wasn't effective, and he admitted I was right,

exactly why would I have followed his advice? He was wrong and what I had

learned was correct. Well, it is not that he was wrong......he knew it but

doctors too often do things for the profit motive or because they realize

patients 'expect' them to do something. Now he only 'suggests' things to me

and often ends with, " I know you will research this and probably not do it " but

he has covered his 'butt'......made his notation in the file and that's that.

When he wanted to do a 'mapping (biopsy) of my entire bladder, taking samples

from different areas, and I resisted because of the clear danger of 'seeding'

cancer cells, he suggested that he takes " extra precautions by using a lot of

water to wash the cells away. " .............should I have blindly followed advice

I 'knew' to be risky?

I'm sorry but if we did everything the people in White Coats said to do, the

grave yards might be filled with some of us that should have already been

planted according to them.

When the Orthopedic guy suggested that my 'torn meniscus' would only require a

15 minute procedure using

arthroscopic surgery, with a two week recovery period, I elected to step back,

take a breath and research.

I did my own exercises found on the Internet and while I know there is

'something' there, my knee is fine.....I don't limp and I have no pain.

The proper advice is to listen very closely to the doctor, ask pointed

questions, research as much as you can and then, and only then, make your

decision.

As regards antioxidants, apparently there are some that do interfere with a very

small number of agents they use but there is mounting evidence that some

antioxidants and other supplements actually 'enhance' the efficacy of chemo and

some that minimize the often terrible side-effects.

Do not let me or anyone else talk you out or into anything without doing your

homework. It is your decision not your friend, not your Internet buddy and not

even your doctor. It is your decision.

Joe C.