What is the Hardest Part of Fighting Cancer?
It may not be what you think it is. The physical battle is one thing, but the hardest part is psychological... and cannabis, not Big Pharma, may offer the best answers for that.
Fighting cancer ABSOLUTELY SUCKS in all cases and in every possible way. That should never be questioned. It’s not “fair” to be diagnosed as having cancer, and no one knows exactly why, or exactly what will save your life.
The day that you find yourself sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for a physician to tell you what you’re facing… and he or she walks in with a serious expression to tell you that you have cancer… well, let’s just say that’s a day you’ll never forget. It’s a lot like getting punched in the stomach.
Being diagnosed with cancer is a death sentence, but you don’t know when it will happen, or how it will happen… all you really know is that, as of that day, you could die a lot sooner than you’d previously hoped. It’s terrifying.
I know. My late wife and I battled Stage 4, metastatic breast cancer for 13 years. As it returned over the years, it became bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer and finally colon cancer. That’s not a story you hear often. To the contrary, it’s something you almost never hear because few with Stage 4 metastatic cancer live for 13 years.
During that time, we endured 52 weeks of intravenous chemotherapy and a year of oral chemotherapy, 26 weeks of daily radiation, hormone therapy throughout, and 11 surgeries over 13 years… to offer only the highlights. During that time, among other things I’d rather not remember, , I watched white counts rise and fall, living from scan to scan with a list of prescribed medications far too long to remember.
So, what is the hardest part of fighting cancer?
Is it chemotherapy? Losing hair, throwing up, the inability to eat? The answer is no, but that’s what many who have no experience with chemo might guess. Chemotherapy is certainly one of the scariest words in the English language. But, starting chemotherapy is actually a bit anti-climactic, after the word itself inspiring so much fear and dread.
For example, when you come home from your first day of chemotherapy, you realize that you feel the same as you did the day before, it wasn’t nearly as horrible as you’d feared. You sat in a comfortable recliner for 4-6 hours and probably took a nap after reading a book or watching a movie. When it was over and you returned home, you felt okay and went about your life.
The effects from chemotherapy, however, are cumulative. So, by the 18th week, when you return from getting chemo, it’s quite a bit different. You’re more than tired. Your nauseous and don’t feel like eating. You’re already dreading the next appointment even though it’s three weeks away. You know it’s getting harder to endure. You’re afraid of how hard it might continue to get.
The good news is that you’ll probably feel okay in 3-4 days… what you feel in the days following your chemo treatment won’t last. By the next week you’ll be back to normal.
Is it the recovery from surgeries? No. Recovering from surgeries can certainly suck, but it’s far from the worst part of the cancer fight. How about the exhaustion or longer-term effects of radiation?
No. It’s none of those things. Truth be told, today the physical aspects of treating cancer are generally manageable. It’s neither easy or fun easy or fun, but the physical aspects pale in comparison to the mental battle you’re fighting when you’re fighting cancer.
Here are the factors that contribute to the hardest parts of the cancer fight. It’s my hope that understanding each one makes you better prepared for the fight.
1. The emotional and psychological toll is excruciating – Fears about the future, about cancer’s reoccurrence and ultimately about death are never far away. Depression is common and, at times, it can morph into hopelessness. Many report feeling like their entire identity has been changed by having cancer, that nothing feels normal.
2. You are NOT in control and don’t know what will happen next – You can’t tell if your treatment is working or not, so even after many months, you’re still unsure about how you’re progressing, so you feel like you can’t plan for the future.
3. You live from scan to scan – You’re likely going to need at least an annual scan to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned and waiting for those results can feel the same way it might feel to be on death row… waiting to find out if the governor will grant you a stay or throw the switch.
4. Financial Stress – In this country, becoming seriously ill is never inexpensive. Fighting cancer is like moving into a really old, fixer-upper-type mansion. Maybe you can make the mortgage payment, but you never know what major repairs are going to be required tomorrow. Your partner can no longer help… and you can’t move out.
5. Social Isolation – You lose friends when you have cancer. Some withdraw slowly; you stop getting invited to gatherings. They don’t know what to say or how to help. You can end up feeling disconnected from life, as others live “normal” lives, while you’re doing anything but.
6. Impact on Relationships – Cancer can put enormous strain on marriages or partnerships. One partner may become overwhelmed by fear, guilt, or grief. The healthy partner has suddenly become a full-time caregiver, while the patient may feel like a burden, or helpless, and that can, at times, lead to resentment or shame. Many couples struggle to maintain closeness or affection, as chemotherapy, hormone therapies and surgeries like mastectomies all affect libido sexual function.
7. Parenting is always hard, but this makes it harder – Raising children while being seriously ill is a challenge that deserves its own book, and a single volume is likely not enough to cover it. Parents can feel tremendous guilt over not being able to be the same parent they were, to say nothing of the fear of not being there in the future for their children.
8. Fear of Recurrence – Cancer is never “cured.” Chemotherapy or radiation may shrink or retard its growth and/or surgery may remove it, but even though you may be “cancer free” at a given moment… you know that it can come back. Cancer patients live every day with that knowledge and resulting fear.
And, I’m sure there’s more that can be added to that list…
I know that fighting cancer is, in some ways, different for everyone. And, I also know that different cancers have different realities. So, I’m sure others would have more to say about the psychological challenges related to fighting cancer. The points above are just my own.
Big Pharma has no great answers…
There are no great pharmaceutical answers to the mental struggles that cancer patients face.
Most patients today are prescribed a class of drugs called benzodiazepines. The most common benzodiazepines are the prescription drugs Valium®, Xanax®, Halcion®, Ativan®, and Klonopin®.
Benzodiazepines “work” by slowing down the central nervous system, causing sleepiness and hopefully a relaxed mood. However, benzodiazepines are also associated with amnesia, hostility, irritability, and vivid or disturbing dreams, none of which are ever positives, but especially not when fighting cancer.
I can’t even imagine how anyone can live life while taking a Valium® or two every day, and Xanax® isn’t much better. Don’t even get me started on Halcion® or Klonopin®. If I have to choose, I choose small doses of Ativan®, but it’s still a serious drug that, over time, can lead to cognitive decline.
In today’s pharma-reality, there’s just not a great answer when you’re going to need this type of medication every day and perhaps for many years.
What about cannabis and cancer?
The push to legalize medical marijuana was in large part driven by cancer. The story I remember hearing had to do with cannabis’ ability to reduce nausea and stimulate appetite in patients undergoing chemotherapy. I’m sure there was a lot more involved, but that’s what I remember.
The problem is that I’m not even sure it’s a great idea anymore, because cannabis has become far too strong for someone who isn’t already used to it, and since smoking or vaping doesn’t allow you to control the dosage, it’s impossible to know how much you’ve taken… until it’s too late. You either take too much and feel horrible, or you take too little and don’t get the symptom relief you needed.
If you have memories of smoking pot during the 1960s, 70s, 80s or 90s, what you remember is nothing like today’s high-grade cannabis. As with everything else, science and technology have contributed to making today’s cannabis MUCH stronger than what you remember. Consequently, smoking or vaping today’s cannabis is far too strong for the average cancer patient to use comfortably.
So, THC gummies are popping up everywhere…
A recent study from the University of California San Diego found that between 2015 and 2020, there was a 75% increase in cannabis use among adults 65+, largely driven by edibles like gummies that contain THC. And, Headset, a cannabis data firm, reports year over year, double-digit increases in gummy sales to customers over 60.
What the doctor didn’t order, but should have…
If you or your loved one is involved in a cancer fight, THC gummies may be exactly what the doctor didn’t order… but should have. Oncologists, as a group, are not exactly qualified to advise their patients on the use of cannabis, because oncologists, as a group, have little or no personal familiarity with cannabis.
You will likely never meet an oncologist that was a major partier back in high school or college. And, for decades in this country, medical research that might have uncovered therapeutic or beneficial uses of cannabis was essentially illegal, so they didn’t cover it well in medical school either.
The bottom-line is that cannabis in any form is simply not something with which most oncologists are familiar or comfortable. That’s not intended to take anything away from oncologists. They are amazing individuals who exist to save our lives, and I don’t even want to think about a world without them.
The U.S. is SHOCKINGLY BEHIND in cannabis research. Here’s why…
This country is woefully behind when it comes to cannabis research. For decades, as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970… right alongside heroin or LSD, it was essentially illegal to even conduct research on the cannabis plant…
… UNLESS THE RESEARCH WAS DESIGNED TO STUDY HARM, ABUSE POTENTIAL, OR NEGATIVE EFFECTS.
Until the Farm Bill of 2018 was passed into law, any research on BENEFICIAL uses for cannabis, such as pain relief, PTSD, or cancer-related symptoms, was SIMPLY ILLEGAL in the United States. Even studying hemp-derived cannabinoids like CBD was not permitted, since hemp itself was still considered illegal at that time.
If that doesn’t shock or anger you, perhaps you should read it again.
This country’s extreme paranoia over drugs during the 1960s and 1970s, has prevented medical researchers from studying the cannabis plant… unless, of course, the outcome of said research was predetermined to be negative.
That explains why, over the last 40 years, the only conclusions we’ve heard about cannabis from the scientific community have been negative.
Big Pharma profits from pills, not plants.
Of course, BIG PHARMA has always been free to ADDICT us to Valium®, Xanax®, Halcion®, Ativan®, Klonopin®, et al. And, while we weren’t allowed to conduct research on the cannabis plant for its therapeutic potential, OxyContin, a HIGHLY ADDICTIVE and frequently abused drug due to its effects, which are similar to heroin… was A-OKAY, according to our government.
To quote Tom Hanks in Forest Gump… that’s all I have to say about that.
The times they are a’changin’… hopefully.
We’ve made some significant progress related to cannabis use in this country since 2018, although there are some who would undo all the forward progress if they could. Perhaps if they actually endured something on the scale of fighting cancer… maybe then, they’d realize what their collective ignorance costs individuals in need, and our society as a whole.
Those who oppose progress related to cannabis often couch their positions in the “need to protect children,” and frankly I’m tired of such excuses. Obviously, children need protection from substances that may harm them, which is why we don’t sell alcohol or cigarettes to young children, nor do we let them drive cars or buy guns.
Alcohol, tobacco or driving cars are all FAR MORE DANGEROUS than cannabis, based on decades of medical research, public health data, and policy analyses, but no one is trying to make drinking illegal. (We did try that, we should all remember. It was called “prohibition,” and it didn’t work.)
Overdosing from alcohol can cause death, while there is NO KNOWN LETHAL DOSE of THC.
Things are finally changing in this country as related to cannabis, and the number of older consumers taking a look at what cannabis products can bring to their lives is growing, as their use of alcohol is not.
Alcohol is known to cause liver, brain and heart damage. Alcohol is also a KNOWN CARCINOGEN, with links to over seven different cancers, while only frequent, heavy smoking of cannabis may cause lung damage.
According to the National Institutes on Health (NIH), alcohol causes 140,000 deaths each year in this country… there is no data showing any deaths from cannabis… NONE. And, alcohol causes fatal auto accidents and violence, while cannabis simply does not.
To sum it all up, here’s a quote from Dr. David Nutt (former UK chief drug adviser):
“If cannabis were discovered today, it would likely be considered safer than alcohol and tobacco.”
If you or someone you care about is fighting cancer, THC gummies may be lifesaving. I don’t mean that THC gummies can cure cancer… as of today, nothing can make that claim.
But, for cancer patients, the psychological aspects of battling cancer are even more challenging than the physiological ones, so taking an all-natural gummy to help fight that battle can be a MUCH better solution that what the pharmaceutical industry has to offer.
There shouldn’t be any question about that, and its become painfully obvious that had we as a country not literally outlawed medical research on the beneficial effects of cannabis for decades, there wouldn’t be.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Martin Andelman is the CEO/Co-Founder at Deltrium, a company founded solely to create “Gummies for Grown-ups.” Deltrium is the only company with a proprietary dosing algorithm consisting of a series of questions that consumers answer about themselves in order to obtain a personalized dosing recommendation, thus ensuring that no one takes too much or too little.
Deltrium uses only all natural ingredients to create the following blends, each with its own specific purpose: DREAM for sleep, SOOTHE for pain, UNWIND for anxiety and to relax, JOYFUL for a brighter outlook, ENERGIZE for extra energy without caffeine, and SOARING for that euphoric feeling. And, DeltriumTM products are all double-blind lab tested so you always know exactly what’s inside.