I pray for your health, Azazel.

Azazel,
Well, you asked me to be Brutally Frank.  I couldn't do it because I don't know who Brutally Frank is.  I heard a rumor that his wife is Sincerely Yours, but I don't know for sure.

Anyway,  if you any need help, I'm vonlunteering.  Whatever it takes.  Stay strong and do not forget the power of prayer!!  

May I add my best wishes for your journey?

We are all facing death; some have a better idea of when than others.

My suggestion to you is live your life as YOU want and enjoy each day as best you can.  Do NOT let medical people DICTATE to you about anything.  It remains your body, your life and YOUR choice.  Whatever  treatment you believe in is the one to use.  Refuse what you do not want.

My X wife's uncle has leukemia and is still living more than 17 years after being diagnosed.  A lady who owned a store I service has had Hodgkins for about as long and is in complete remission.  There ARE success stories out there.

I have known others who did not do as well for some reason.  I do not have a clue as to why.

I hope you find the answers you seek.  I have known far too many people who have been lied to and had it detract from their life.

As for MGTONY, I chatted with him at GSFS and must admit he looks very healthy.  It would appear he is one of those success stories as well.  Seems like a great guy - I wish him the best too.

Azazel,

Both my parents died of cancer; my father had multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer), my mom had pancreatic cancer.  At the end, her various systems began shutting down, she was retaining fluids, and she swelled up like a jaundiced beach ball.  She briefly recognized me, but was otherwise not lucid.  She was on morphine for pain and just stared at the TV watching videos my dad brought to the hospital for her.  My dad died a year later.  He wasted away from about 200+ pounds to around 130 or so.  Although he didn't come right out and say it, he was scared sh**less.  He was disoriented; for example, the doctor would ask him if he knew his address, he would say yes and give the doctor his address from 10 years before.  He was having paranoid delusions.  In his work and in other areas of his life, he was used to bossing/bullying people around, and he had a very hard time coming to grips with the loss of control over his life.  Control over his bowel movements became kind of a metaphor for his life.  He would hold them in until me or my brother arrived at the hospital to visit.  This gave him some amount of dignity even though it was hugely uncomfortable I'm sure.  The night he died I helped carry him to the bathroom.  He was just kind of a wasted skeleton at that point and his stools just let loose, no control whatsoever.  He just looked at me with pure dread and said "uh oh" and he died a few hours later.

So, in other words, dying of cancer totally blows!  Fortunately, my parents had done a lot of traveling and had seen me and my brother grow up, graduate from college, etc., and did not seem to have any regrets about missed opportunities and the like.  I think that gave them some amount of comfort.

My wife is a children's cancer doc who used to work at City of Hope, and their bone marrow transplant unit is renowned.  Steve Forman who runds the unit is very well-regarded and wrote the definitive text on bone marrow tranpslantation.  Do yourself a favor and get a consult there.  I think they will give you straight information about treatment options and rates of survival.

Aren't there any support groups that you can get the straight skinny in?

Get straight with the man and we will all have all the 5.56mm ammo we can shoot on the other side.

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I strongly recommend you contact the local Hospice organization. Their job is to tell it to you straight and to minimize pain/maximize independence. They help dying people every day, no-one else is better qualified to answer any and all blunt questions. Check yellow pages or call local hospital. You don't have to wait til you're in pain or bedridden, check them out.

Also recommend you get a book called "How We Die" by Dr. Sherwin Nuland.  Amazon has it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679742441/qid=1038376363/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-2241037-0273435  Straight scoop on the experience of death from various causes (heart attack, stroke, cancer, etc.)

On the Positive Attitude and Alternative Medicine approach, read anything by Bernie Siegel MD. He wanted to find out why some of his "terminal" cancer patients *didn't* die, and his research proves that attitude and diet have a lot to do with survival rates: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060919833/qid=1038377819/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-2241037-0273435

After my Mom was diagnosed with cancer for the 3rd or 4th time, I bought her Nuland's book and I became a Hospice volunteer. We both faced it straight on.

The last few months of her life she became physically weak, had trouble standing up or walking. Chemo was worse than the cancer, and she bought a little extra time with the chemo then told the docs she'd rather have quality of life over quantity and quit the chemo. Thanks to Hospice she had total control over her pain meds, so she could take the edge off without becoming disoriented. She died with more dignity and class than most people demonstrate while living. Glad I got to watch her die, she taught me a lot.

I'll also add my name to the list of willing bone marrow donors. Tomorrow I'll call around and see how I get listed in the national database.

MD Anderson in Houston TX is the cancer capital of the world: http://www.mdanderson.org/  State of the art and experimental treatments available nowhere else.

Private message or email me if I can help in any way.

Prayers going out to you.

Alazel, instead of reading books about death how about this, you start researching about eating right? Here's something for openers.

How about start eating broccoli sprouts! Broccoli sprouts contain glucoraphanin which is a precursor to sulforphane. "Sulforaphane has been shown to mobilize, or induce, the body
's natural cancer protection resources and help reduce the risk of malignancy. Broccoli is the best source of the chemical precursor to sulforaphane -- glucoraphanin. Now, broccoli sprouts are an 'exceptionally rich source' of inducers of cellular enzymes for 'detoxifying' chemical carcinogens -- cancer causing compounds."

[url]www.mercola.com/1997/sep/21/broccoli_sprouts.htm[/url]

Also, here's another article entitled Broccoli Sprouts Fight Ulcers and Cancer

[url]www.mercola.com/2002/jun/12/broccoli_cancer.htm[/url]

Your can start here while you get in touch with the Burzynski Clinic. Don't give up man. And don't let anyone program you into a death date. Screw 'em. What the hell do they know? God be with you.