Saying 'No' to chemo

Excerpt from my diary, December 2015,
after receiving a single session of chemo.

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I knew that this would not be easy. I've already had to overcome my wife's resistance to the alternative route. She accompanies me, and is not at all happy with my decision.

Oncologist: Hello John, good to see you again. How have you been?

JB: (Shaking the oncologist's hand as I sit down) Hello my friend. The chemo has severely impaired my hearing, and so I won't be proceeding with any more sessions.

Oncologist: Oh dear, John, what is the problem?

JB: Well, the chemo has severely compromised my hearing, to the extent that I thought initially that I wouldn't be able to play guitar with the band at my daughter's wedding tomorrow.

Oncologist: But it shouldn't affect your hearing.

JB: Well believe me doctor, it has.

Oncologist: Ok. I will make you an appointment with the hearing department.

JB: That doesn't change my decision, doctor, I'm still not going to go ahead with chemo-therapy.

Oncologist: I can offer you alternatives. We can leave the vincristine out of the treatment (Vincristine is one of the R-CHOP chemo drugs, the one which I believe caused the deafness). There are also three different chemo-therapy combinations, options we can use.

JB: No, really, I've decided to go with nutrition, supplements, cannabis oil, herbalism and a lot of other stuff. (At this point he looks on me with disbelief at my childlike faith in what to him was suicide)

Oncologist: But John, think about your family.

JB: I am.

McMillan Nurse (almost gasping with concern): But John, we're not offering you a palliative here, we're talking about a cure!

JB: I'm still convinced that there is a more natural way of dealing with cancer. I've done my research. My plan now is to cut out the toxins and give the body plenty of nutrition.

Oncologist: Ok, John. But we won't abandon you. If you ever decide that it's not working, do please come back and we'll see what we can do.

A scan one and a half months later showed no visible evidence of cancer.

Why was I urged to continue having chemo? Chemotherapy drugs are classified as toxic, and 'toxic' is a softer way of saying 'poisonous', but it does mean the same thing. They are also carcinogens, as is the radiation used to create a picture of the location of tumours in the body. I find it quite puzzling that so many medics never seem to question their belief in the use of carcinogenic devices to treat cancer.

The intervening months of juicing, hemp oil, supplements, stopping the intake of sugar and salt, alcohol, wheat, dairy and flesh were to his mind an irrelevance. But I can't lay blame on him. Doctors are extremely intelligent people. Only the brightest minds advance at all in medical school. The drug-oriented tuition that doctors are given in those same medical schools ensures that they do not deviate from the cut, poison and burn route.

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