Making the Right Choices About Treatment

Making a decision to proceed with treatment requires  you to strike a balance between taking too long and acting too hastily. If your symptoms don't bother you, you have a busy work schedule, or your doctor says, "Let's wait and see," you may be tempted to procrastinate. However, remaining undecided for too long can put you at serious risk. Cancer cells for example, grow at a geometric rate: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc. It is much easier to treat cancer before it spreads. On the other hand, it is most unlikely that a few days will be critical -- and they may make all the difference.

I believe it is what we still hope for and expect from life that can make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful treatment. At the same time, it would be highly unusual if you weren't filled with doubts about your ability to cope. You have to take risks, but consider them as coolly and as rationally as possible -- no mean feat when you feel as if you're looking down the barrel of a gun, as I was when I was diagnosed with lung cancer.

The doctors wanted to operate on me immediately. I wanted to understand more about lung cancer before I committed myself to surgery. In the week I took to research the subject, consider my treatment options, examine other possibilities, if any, and come to terms with a second diagnosis of cancer, I found the most experienced and skilled surgeons and anesthetist, established what was possible and what wasn't, and made out a living will in case I became unable to make my own decisions. That was twelve years ago!

Over the past half-century or so, there has been amazing progress in the treatment of certain diseases, in easing pain, prolonging life; but the same medical technology that can keep you from dying can often keep you from living. If you are kept alive through life-support  systems but are unable to enjoy some activity -- physical or mental -- you may well ask, "Is life worth living?"

Your doctor's idea of what "success" means may not be the same as yours, so it is essential to discuss this candidly with your doctor, and consider carefully how far you want him to go in maintaining your vital functions if this means:
(a)    remaining permanently unconscious; or
(b)    being conscious but confined to bed; or
(c)    being conscious but unable to live your life as you would want to live it; or
(d)    being conscious but indefinitely dependent upon family and friends.

We take good health for granted until we become ill and face the dilemma: do we become victims of our disease or prisoners of technology? We have to consider how far we are prepared to go in letting our doctors treat us, what sacrifices we are ready to make, how long we are prepared to face treatments and their side effects.

The prize we seek is life, but at what price? To live as if we were vegetables attached to a hydroponic feeding system?  I doubt it!

If you have any health or illness related questions you would like me to answer, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below. My answers to your questions will be posted on our blog and it is my sincere hope these will be helpful to you.

In light and peace
Joel