Comments on: When Cancer Strikes

By: Fiscal sickness | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine

Fiscal sickness | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:07:17 +0000

[...] have had a number of lively discussions on CV as of late (e.g., here and here) on the state of health care in the United States. Capitol Hill is at present completely [...]

By: gopher65

gopher65 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:12:13 +0000

I look forward to a day when MRIs (or a similar technology) become cheap and simple enough to be installed in every doctor’s and dentist’s office, like X-Ray machines are today.

By: Welcome 2009! | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine

Welcome 2009! | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:27:53 +0000

[...] get a President that can pronounce the word nuclear. Personally, I am bidding good riddance to my Annus Horribilis and refuse to set any New Year’s resolutions. I am unapologetic in my plan to be [...]

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:50:17 +0000

Typo, this is the correct link

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:48:52 +0000

I think not being to eat well would be very hard for me if I ever had to undergo chemotherapy

I read here that:

Do not eat your favorite foods during this time. They will no longer be favorite foods if you begin to associate them with nausea and vomiting episodes.

So, perhaps it isn’t a bad idea to eat your favorite junk food during this time

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:47:11 +0000

Count: My doctors warned me about vitamins, and so I didn’t take any during the chemo. And I certainly didn’t eat enough to worry about getting vitamins from food.

By: Count Iblis

Count Iblis — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:58:33 +0000

More potentially bad news for JoAnne:

What vitamin C does is protect the cancer cells from the chemotherapy mainly by protecting their mitochondria

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:10:38 +0000

Estraven: Sorry for the delay in reply – I hope you are still checking the comments. Obviously I am not a medical doctor and am no substitute for a long talk with your doctor -which you clearly should have. However, from my vantage point, every pre-menopausal woman with a family history of breast cancer should be getting MRIs for screening. Insurance doesn’t like to pay for it, and it may lead to false positives, but the insurance does bend once family history is mentioned, and false positives are a small price to pay for the real positives.

All: I read an article today which stated that the chemical folks are recently concerned about in plastic bottles is not only carcinogenic, but specifically results in resistance to chemotherapy for breast cancer. Now, the chemo makes you **extremely** thristy, and so I drank cases of bottled water from Costco….I never drink anything from plastic normally, except for this water during the chemo! And now tonight, I’m in tears thinking that I screwed myself and went through the chemo for nothing…..

By: Jean D.

Jean D. — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 06:54:28 +0000

JoAnne, Glad to hear that you’ve made it through to the other side of your ordeal — and thanks for sharing what you’ve been through and what you’ve learned. (I agree with Sili — it seems like cancer is a “when” and not an “if” proposition for us all these days…)

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:40:01 +0000

I discovered this blog some weeks ago when looking for info on the Large Haldon Collider…and discovered something quite different. Most of the physics alludes me, but I read it none the less…and your piece touched me at a place that no sub atomic particle can.

I know it makes no sense and may seem trivial, but one of my beloved cats was just diagnosed with cancer…and as I watch him sitting across the room, under a warm antique panel lamp, I consider how precious life is to all of us.

Ron