Watchful Waiting

My sister doesn't think much of "watchful waiting" as a treatment for cancer. Or rather, as a non-treatment for cancer, which is her point.

The form of cancer that I have, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, can be treated, but, at this time, not cured. I plan to live with it for a long time. The doctor explained that I have a fairly mild form of the disease, and she'd rather save the treatments that are available for when I need them more.

That's in addition to the fact that the available treatment is chemotherapy. Chemo is hard on the healthy cells as well as the defective ones. Do I really want to go through chemo in order to avoid needing a nap every day? Uhh, no.

That does not mean, however, that we're doing nothing.

The better able my immune system is to fight the cancer cells the longer we'll be able to postpone treatment. Also, the excess lymphocytes are defective, and don't fight infection very well. I therefore need to:

• avoid potential sources of infection.
• avoid anything with the potential to weaken my immune system.
• do everything I can to strengthen my immune system.

There's actually quite a lot that can be done to strengthen my immune system. I'll explore that in another post.

Also, Traditional Chinese Medicine considers leukemia to be a result of unresolved resentment. Western medicine might not put it in those terms, but there is increasing recognition that there is a strong relationship between mental and physical health, that runs both ways. Depression, in particular, has repeatedly been shown to suppress the immune system.

There are a couple of issues that I've been avoiding dealing with. They are difficult to the point of being traumatic. They have been a source of serious, ongoing, stress, one for more than two years. Apparently, it's time to do something about them.