jso2897: Years ago, when I was living in Topanga Canyon, I had a neighbor who was a casual friend, and he and his wife were customers at my store. The guy was a pediatric oncologist at UCLA, and specialized in difficult cases. He seemed like a pretty normal guy, if a bit quiet, and I liked the couple, and we had them round for a drink now and then. I did notice that he never talked about his work, at all. This was around 1973.
Then, somewhere around '76 or '77, one day he was in the middle of a consultation with the parents of one of his dying patients (of which he had many) and he suddenly got up, and without a word, hung his lab coat up and walked out of his office - never to return.
He then went home and proceeded to spend every day sitting on his veranda, watching Old Topanga Creek trickle by and drinking himself to death.
Took him about four-five years. By the end he had pushed everyone - wife and kids, brothers, me and all his friends out of his life. The last couple of times I went to his house he pretended he wasn't home.
It's my belief that cancer killed him as surely as it did any of his little patients.
It's one hell of a disease.

Awful stuff. There are some jobs I know I could never do - seeing sick children day in, day out is one of them. People talk up cooking as some kind of high pressure job. It's not really. We fark up and someone has a bad meal. Knowing young lives depend on your professional performance? I couldn't do that.

Kelly Clarkson? My inner dick is reminded more of a few Nine Inch Nails songs. I know that's about as uplifting as a lead balloon, but I can't help it.

The Shatner Incident: Childhood cancer is one of the saddest damn things I can think of and one of the reasons I don't believe in God. If there is a God, he sure is an asshole of highest proportions just by that one point.

/I agree...that's exactly what i was just thinking. :((((

When my mom watched this on Fox News, for some reason she was outraged. Something along the lines of "Don't people realize some corporate bigwig is gonna make big money off this Youtube video, off of cancer patients who will never see any of that green? That's a darn shame..."

Granted, she watches Fox News, but it still kinda weirded me out.

Lost my Dad to cancer, so all I have is a big FARK YEAH to those doctors and nurses and those amazing kids for fighting and laughing and telling cancer to suck it. I don't care if they find that inspiration in a Nickleback double album, whatever it takes to fight one more day.

PorradaVFR: I don't care if they find that inspiration in a Nickleback double album

Don't say things you'll regret later.

bojon: Some aspects of life cause you to cry, some aspects bring a smile. Life is not fair.

And some make you wish for genocide. We could all be painless if we could just commit.

What if being alive is the flaw?

The nurse in the green T-shirt is cute.

My now 14yo daughter was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago with a brain tumor (ependymoma). Treated at Seattle Children's and after 2 surgeries and radiation treatments, no sign of recurrence (not out of the woods yet, though). Absolutely love the staff at Children's, couldn't watch the video without crying.

An Pick13, Burzynski is an absolute fraud. The douchebag charges people outrageous fees to participate in his clinical trials and never seems to be able to report any results. He plays the "maverick doctor fighting the system" card to increase his appeal. Respectful Insolence over at ScienceBlogs has a wealth of information on the guy.

Scaevola: The nurse in the green T-shirt is cute.

That's what I came in here to post. But then the thread made me sad, so I wasn't going to.

jso2897: Years ago, when I was living in Topanga Canyon, I had a neighbor who was a casual friend, and he and his wife were customers at my store. The guy was a pediatric oncologist at UCLA, and specialized in difficult cases. He seemed like a pretty normal guy, if a bit quiet, and I liked the couple, and we had them round for a drink now and then. I did notice that he never talked about his work, at all. This was around 1973.
Then, somewhere around '76 or '77, one day he was in the middle of a consultation with the parents of one of his dying patients (of which he had many) and he suddenly got up, and without a word, hung his lab coat up and walked out of his office - never to return.
He then went home and proceeded to spend every day sitting on his veranda, watching Old Topanga Creek trickle by and drinking himself to death.
Took him about four-five years. By the end he had pushed everyone - wife and kids, brothers, me and all his friends out of his life. The last couple of times I went to his house he pretended he wasn't home.
It's my belief that cancer killed him as surely as it did any of his little patients.
It's one hell of a disease.

Reminds me of a story one of my professors relayed to my class back in the first year of med school.

When he was an intern on a prestigious clinical psychology rotation, he had a mentor who was a very well-known psychologist who was an expert at dealing with personality disorders. One of their patients was a 17 year old girl, who probably had Borderline PD, along with some Axis I stuff. Anyway, one day he showed up to work, and there she was, hanging by the neck by some of her bedsheets wrapped around the lower rung of the fire escape ladder.

His mentor showed up to work the next few days, but was increasingly more disheveled. He was normally very well-dressed in matching suits, and would show up poorly coordinated, hair unbrushed/combed, and not speak to anyone. Later in the week he showed up wearing a poorly buttoned shirt that he hadn't even bothered to tuck in with a pair of unmatching slacks, cleared out his stuff, and just walked out. When our professor asked him what he was doing he just responded, "I'm not doing this shiat anymore." Interestingly, this professor ended up delaying his training when he was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma, which he happily went on to beat, and then went on to become an incredibly accomplished psychologist.

Regardless of what field of medicine you are in, some patients' illnesses are terminal. In psychology/psychiatry, some people will get terminal depression and there is nothing we can do for them, no matter how hard we try. Luckily these people are few and far between, and DBS may give us an additional weapon to combat their disease, but some will succumb to their illnesses. Cancer, as a nebulous term for a whole host of different diseases, unfortunately, is a disease where the disease still tends to win out against the treatment teams far too often. We're starting to get better at treating it, but it definitely takes some special people to help patients fight for their lives day in and day out, and do it in a legitimately compassionate and caring way.

My hat goes off to these men and women, and all the patients fighting this terrible illness.

/losing patients sucks
//you need to have some sort of coping mechanism
///ideally that coping mechanism won't be malignant narcissism or psychopathy

The nurse in the green top can check my temperature.

Man, these kids are pretty dumb. I mean, don't they realize that they are weaker from, you know, the weakness they are experiencing as a result of the cancer and its treatment?

It's a wierd kind of pity I have for their ignorance, but also jealousy.

Wasn't that Christina Aguilera?

. fark you guys .

thelordofcheese: Man, these kids are pretty dumb. I mean, don't they realize that they are weaker from, you know, the weakness they are experiencing as a result of the cancer and its treatment?

It's a wierd kind of pity I have for their ignorance, but also jealousy.

I think you need to go find a quiet room, with no one around to find you, place the nice cold barrel of a pistol in your mouth and savor the taste of the gunshot as it pierces your brain. The world would be a better place for it.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?

Pick13: Interesting I was watching this movie last night.
[ecx.images-amazon.com image 356x500]
Fark the FDA and, I hope these kids get better

/Watch it on Netflix if you got a few minutes

fark you, and people like you. You people trumpet about how revolutionary Burzynski is, and how he's being suppressed by the FDA, and all this crap, but the fact remains that NO ONE other than Burzynski himself has been able to provide data and research to back up the claims made by him, and most of his "research" is in reality a highly profitable hope-scam for desperate and rich cancer patients, often times costing 20-30 times what the same chemotherapy treatment would be.

Seriously. fark you. From the bottom of my heart.

Do you know what my coworkers did last week? They drove for 30 hours so a brain tumor patient could go and die at home with dignity. St. Jude did everything. EVERYTHING. they could for him, and this young child will never know what it's like to be a teenager.

People like you with your blame the victim mentality deserve a good kick in the nuts..

BronyMedic: Pick13: Interesting I was watching this movie last night.
[ecx.images-amazon.com image 356x500]
Fark the FDA and, I hope these kids get better

/Watch it on Netflix if you got a few minutes

fark you, and people like you. You people trumpet about how revolutionary Burzynski is, and how he's being suppressed by the FDA, and all this crap, but the fact remains that NO ONE other than Burzynski himself has been able to provide data and research to back up the claims made by him, and most of his "research" is in reality a highly profitable hope-scam for desperate and rich cancer patients, often times costing 20-30 times what the same chemotherapy treatment would be.

Seriously. fark you. From the bottom of my heart.

Do you know what my coworkers did last week? They drove for 30 hours so a brain tumor patient could go and die at home with dignity. St. Jude did everything. EVERYTHING. they could for him, and this young child will never know what it's like to be a teenager.

People like you with your blame the victim mentality deserve a good kick in the nuts..

What he said.

Yakivegas: My now 14yo daughter was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago with a brain tumor (ependymoma). Treated at Seattle Children's and after 2 surgeries and radiation treatments, no sign of recurrence (not out of the woods yet, though). Absolutely love the staff at Children's, couldn't watch the video without crying.

An Pick13, Burzynski is an absolute fraud. The douchebag charges people outrageous fees to participate in his clinical trials and never seems to be able to report any results. He plays the "maverick doctor fighting the system" card to increase his appeal. Respectful Insolence over at ScienceBlogs has a wealth of information on the guy.

My daughter is 3 years out from a recurring ependymoma (at 18 months and at four years treated at st Jude. Good to see a good result from another hospital. We've told people to stay away from Bryzinski as well. Won't see the video...to dusty already.

I think I'm allergic to bald people.

piledhigheranddeeper: My daughter is 3 years out from a recurring ependymoma (at 18 months and at four years treated at st Jude. Good to see a good result from another hospital. We've told people to stay away from Bryzinski as well. Won't see the video...to dusty already.

Who was your neurosurgeon? Boop or Einhaus?

Yakivegas: What he said.

Sorry. Cancer kids touch a chord with me because they're one of the primary populations we deal with at my job. Quacks - like "holistic" cancer treatment assholes like Burzynski, and Antivaccers are my rage button.

It makes me mad to be accused of letting children die for profit.

Cancer sucks but it's our damn fault. Chemicals and pollution in the air we breathe, the water we drink and food we eat.

Cancer causing agents in everything from cookies to laundry detergent, its just a way of population control and it's only going to get worse.

The 4chan Psychiatrist: jso2897:
You need to find a coping mechanism

You sound fat
stupid
arrogant
poor

like a good golfer.
Why your name relates to 4chan, I am perplexed

bkeyport: Isn't this the fourth or fifth time this has been greenlit here? I'm sick of hearing of it....

But not sick of taking the time to come threadshiat all over the rest of us. Says a lot for your perseverance, I guess.

/lost more than one relative to cancer

BronyMedic: piledhigheranddeeper: My daughter is 3 years out from a recurring ependymoma (at 18 months and at four years treated at st Jude. Good to see a good result from another hospital. We've told people to stay away from Bryzinski as well. Won't see the video...to dusty already.

Who was your neurosurgeon? Boop or Einhaus?

Yakivegas: What he said.

Sorry. Cancer kids touch a chord with me because they're one of the primary populations we deal with at my job. Quacks - like "holistic" cancer treatment assholes like Burzynski, and Antivaccers are my rage button.

It makes me mad to be accused of letting children die for profit.
Both resections were performed in Omaha by an awesome surgeon. Because the first tumor traveled down her spine, the radiation was complicated, which is why we went to st Jude. Dr. Stanford was still working at the time. No one wants him to retire because he is one of the few surgeons willing to be aggressive. BTW, I went to a cancer research meeting in Chicago last month. The data that st Jude is putting out is mind blowing.

Pick13: Interesting I was watching this movie last night.
[ecx.images-amazon.com image 356x500]
Fark the FDA and, I hope these kids get better

/Watch it on Netflix if you got a few minutes

Stop peddling horse shiat.

"The American Cancer Society has stated since 1983 that there is no evidence that antineoplastons have any beneficial effects in cancer and recommended that people do not buy these products since there could be serious health consequences to patients who use this therapy."

Toy_Cop: Cancer sucks but it's our damn fault. Chemicals and pollution in the air we breathe, the water we drink and food we eat.
Cancer causing agents in everything from cookies to laundry detergent, its just a way of population control and it's only going to get worse.

Yeah, cancer was totally non-existant before modern society and invented by the omniscient council of vagueness to control our population. It's not like cancer is actually just a blanket term for any of 1000 types of malignant cell growth with a huge variety of hereditary and environmental causes that has been with us since the dawn of man.

/derp

Toy_Cop: Cancer sucks but it's our damn fault. Chemicals and pollution in the air we breathe, the water we drink and food we eat.

Cancer causing agents in everything from cookies to laundry detergent, its just a way of population control and it's only going to get worse.

The blunt reality is that most cancers are directly rooted in the fact we live longer. There are some exceptions, to be sure... but far and away the biggest factor in cancer diagnosis is age... exposure to the world, to the sun, to all the various things in the world... is strongly linked to most cancers. Fortunately, the way people live today, heart disease will likely kill people well before they get cancer... so there's always that silver lining. Most of these kids suffering from cancer didn't get it because they had a bologna and cheese sandwich or because their parents used All detergent instead of making their own (which is fun, incidentally), they got cancer because shiat happens, even to good people, even to good kids, even to people who do everything right. Enjoy your life and take measured risks... it's ok not to be stupid (don't eat the paint), but don't be so crippled by fear of vague bogey men that you forget that you need to live, not just fend off death.

That song makes me want to club a baby seal...

As if dying of cancer is not difficult enough, people are admonished by friends and family to "be strong, fight it." I can't really think of a more selfish thing you could say to somebody facing their last days.

"It pains me to see you breaking down in pain, depression, and fear. Don't do that, I don't like it."