Why do they call it Chemo-therapy?
Why do they call it Chemo-therapy???? They should call it something else. Therapy should be soothing. It should be healing. The dictionary says therapy is the “physical method of treating disease.” That certainly fits in this case, but when “chemo” is attached to it, the meaning changes. “Chemo” adds the drug part to the therapy part and it’s a nasty mix.
It just so happens I have many friends who are in the chemo-therapy phase of cancer treatment. All but one, had stays in the hospital, because of their chemo. Dehydration was the biggest problem, blood counts were barely making a blip on their charts, and they couldn’t possibly think about food or drink.
They always say chemo’s punch builds as the treatments increase. The body just can’t process all that poison. I remember Leroy’s blog the day he wrote “My doctors are trying to kill me.” He endured 12 hard chemo “therapies” on top of taking chemo pills by the handful at home. He would swallow these huge football shaped tablets. Five of them in a dose. What a warrior. He did it because he believed it would prolong his life.
Maybe it did.
But I still think they should come up with a new word for this drug treatment. Or just cut it off officially at “Chemo.” Forget the therapy part…save that for something a little less toxic.
April 17, 2012 @ 7:45 am
I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I hear the word chemotherapy. The side effects John got from the chemo treatments were awful. With each new drug came a different side effect. All this just to buy a little more time…….knowing that he could not be cured. Still lifting…….
April 16, 2012 @ 8:30 pm
Each time Jim had chemo I would try to not think about all the poison that was being dripped into his system and concentrate on the part that might allow him to stay with us longer. I hated what it did to him and what it robbed him of but he was still here. In retrospect, I think I would have understood if he has refused some of those last treatments because of the quality of life that was taken from him. Between chemo and radiation his last 18 months left him with barely enough space in his lungs to get dressed. Therapy should make you better but in the case of chemo, it so often makes you worse.
April 16, 2012 @ 7:10 pm
Sadly it seems that chemo is about all, save for some radiation, that is available. I guess the euphemism of “therapy” is OK but it seems like an oxymoron when you consider its effects on the body and mind. It may be treating but mostly it is killing both the good and the bad and we all hope that the good wins. I continue to hope and pray that one of the garage guys/girls will come up with some thinking outside the typical cancer treatment box so that an innovative and effective treatment will be discovered. Until that day, I like most all others will willingly submit my veins once again to the poison hoping to extend my life’s timeline.
April 17, 2012 @ 1:25 pm
Al,
I “second” your comment. As patients, we know that the whole process puts our caregivers through an awful lot, and – to me at least – that is worse than the chemo…