What I'll do when I get cancer

Dramatic title, but legitimate. I estimate there's 1/3 probability cancer sees me off, 1/3 general decline because aging, 1/3 hit by a bus/asteroid. I still smoke, spent most of my life drinking at a risky level. So I can do a first-person view on this.

I'm actually prompted because a friend's mother got a bad diagnosis. Wish I could help. I'm a little embarrassed about how little I know the science around cancer. I lost my wife to a very aggressive leukemia. I think it was the aggressive chemo that did for her, but I do believe the medics were doing their best.

What do I know? Well for starters, despite the cultural norm on it, it's not a death sentence. My dad got bladder cancer 4? decades ago. Had radiotherapy, left him with a tangerine for fluid storage, but he's still happily plodding through his 90s.

What do I know? Well quality of life is the overarching principal. Health issues are monsters at sapping the will to live. One day at a time, sweet Jesus H. Yeah, that's a thing - religion can mitigate the deathiness. I don't think it's necessary for making the best of things. One of the physicists' models of the universe ("block"?) has reality as a smear over space-time. Also, like butterfy wings, a person's existence modifies the universe. Caroline has persistence.

Sod Dignitas. I have a serious phobia there - suicide, and nearby capital punishment. I'm blubbing up now, cannot think on such things. Bit ironic given that I repeatedly have the ideation, very prone. Actually got ropes hanging from the ceiling in most of my rooms, for fun stuff. Loads of sharp things and toxins. But just no. Point there, IMHO, if you're thinking Dignitas, you are missing the point. And being a drama queen.

The only good suicide : Cheree

I have very strong reservations about the power of positive thought in fixing physical problems. But there's no argument against the converse, if you have negative thoughts all the time, you have a shit life. Very likely to cause physical problems.

What? Ok, practically. Cancer is cells that have slipped out of kilter, reproducing when they shouldn't be. So on an intuitive level I think this suggests that encouraging the norm is likely to be helpful. We have evolved to be creatures to survive in this bizarre environment. Got brains even. I don't know, it sounds nonsense as I type, but bear with me. We move around, gather food, are very sociable, procreate.

Oh yeah, first, that's a point. When I get my own bad cancer diagnosis, all kinds of crank ideas will be worth considering. It might be nonsense, but if there's a 0.001% chance of some Siberian tree snot being helpful, why not.

Nobel prize smartypants Linus Pauling got convinced Vit C was the cure for cancer. I remember throwing the notion to AaronSW and he threw it back, he said it speaks for itself - no supporting evidence, and prostate cancer got Pauling.

But I do suspect high dose Vit C might be useful. What I think is important is that the human body doesn't neatly categorise its subsystems. When I'm crashing with my internal organs destroying themselves at a cellular level, I will be extremely vulnerable to external forces - viruses, bacteria, yeasts and the crew. Vit C is good for boosting immune system before infection, Vit D good for chasing off the infection after it's got you (I read a lot during Covid).

As far as I can gather, an awful lot of the human system relies on gut bacteria. To the pile of Vit C & D, plus a multi I'll add Saccharomyces boulardii as a supplement worth taking. Lactic stuff is probably useful if you like cheese. Water kefir aka tibicos (lovely word, like chisanbop) is a bit pot luck, but I grow it, it has sorted bad guts for me more than once. Avoid heavily processed food, yadda yadda...

I'm about to make myself blush. The feeling that doing the stuff that we were built to do, normalise the system : forage/hunt, socialise, procreate. The first is well-documented, physical exercise and creative thought is good for you. People are massive, community, friends - health issue, bring people closer. Ok, blush time : have sex, or more conveniently : masturbate a lot. Do you see now why I'm narrating this cancer as my problem? Suggest to my friend to suggest to his mother that she masturbates a lot. Laughing is medicine for aching wrists. I'll get my coat.