Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Rituxan

Scientific American has published an article this week talking about the improvement in life span of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma patients who take Rituxan with Chemo. This was the R in my R-CHOP treatment. Glad to read that it is really making a difference.

Except I still hate to hear them talk about 5 year survival rates. What do I care about 5 year rates at 31 years old with a toddler son and the (pipe)dream of having more children? I want to talk about 20 years, 30 years, not 5. Five years is simply not good enough.

Am I supposed to say now that I am ever so grateful for any measly ol life extension? Well, I'm not. I want more. Demand more. Insist upon more. Am I ungrateful? Youbetcha. Fuck off, cancer. Don't come back. Not in five years, not in twenty. So there. Case closed.

2 comments:

KT said...

Hi Marsha, I know what you mean about the 5-year survival rates. I don't look at the numbers anymore. But my math major husband reminds me that this is just the average (and I am NOT average, thank you!) and also that they haven't studied all of the cancers long enough to get 10-, 20-year, etc rates. So it doesn't mean that 5 years is all we have, they just don't have all the right data. That was comforting. And I like to defy odds anyway!

Glad to see you're back after being sick. Isn't it kind of nice, in a weird way, to have a "regular" cold or flu instead of the "other thing"? I just got over a double-ear infection, and while it really hurt I was relieved that that was all it was! Enjoy your day,
Katie

Unknown said...

Sorry, sorry, I know you're being serious, but I couldn't help thinking of Rutger Hauer in "Bladerunner" when he says "I want more life...FUCKER."