From many different perspectives on cancer – as patient, family member, physician, care-giver or researcher – the language we often use evokes the image of cancer as a war. As we try to be resilient, determined and aggressive in the struggle with cancer, it is accurate to make this connection? More importantly, is it helpful to think in this way, or does it miss something important about understanding and coming to terms with this condition? Are there more useful or constructive analogies we can use to think about and talk about it? This time around we will be talking about the word “battling”.
Our discussion about “Battling” continues on, but here is what we have discussed so far. This was an interesting debate, not because there was lot of disagreement about whether battling is Continue…
| 2 Comments | CommentI’ve been in this cancer business for a while. Through tanker trucks of chemo, twice, and two transplants. Six years so far.
But I wouldn’t say I’ve… Continue…
| 2 Comments | CommentThroughout my childhood, I always understood that a battle had two sides, a win or a loss; where winning was great but losing, not…
| 1 Comment | CommentCan we be at war with disease in our body? Are chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation really weapons? Are doctors, nurses and your care…
| 2 Comments | CommentTo me, battling is a part of the language of oncology that concentrates too much on the imagery of cancer as a war. Battling brings to mind fighting, a struggle, often against…
| 2 Comments | CommentI don’t think of myself as a fighter – more like a nerdy, resourceful, resilient problem solver. Along with my general aversion to militaristic language in everyday speech, I really don’t like thinking about or…
| 2 Comments | Comment