Dedicated to Daddy

December 26, 2010

My father has been fighting cancer for 2 years. He's lost a kidney and had several operations. A panel of doctors gave him a death sentence 10 days ago. They said 6 months to 1 year, maybe 2, because you're strong. Now the fight is becoming desperate. The whole family is diving in to offer support in any way they can. This blog is the result of my efforts to help save my father from cancer. We just aren't ready to let him go, unless the time comes when he just can't stay.

After the initial shock, my response was to start using my knowledge about food to help him gain more time. I may know a little bit about food, but I know next to nothing about cancer, so I had to start with some research. I found some encouraging information from David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, about how changing his diet helped him in his fight. I emailed it to Dad, as well as the section on cancer from the book Nutrition Almanac, Fourth Edition, by Gayla J. and John D. Kirschmann. In his next visit to the doctors office, Dad asked if food could help cure cancer and the doctor told him basically the same thing doctors told David Servan-Schreiber: "Eat what you like. It won't make much difference." Then he proceeded to tell Dad he had a 1% chance of survival.

Before I say what I think about doctors, I want to emphasize that cancer is the deadliest foe you can fight. I do not want anyone to think that anything on this blog suggests that you should try to find a cure without your doctor and the tools of medical technology. That being said, there are some things a doctor can say that you just shouldn't listen to, and science is proving every day that saying someone with cancer should "Eat what you like, because it won't make much difference" is just not true. I can forgive the doctor for possibly mistaking our intentions, which are to lengthen Dads time and increase the quality of it. There are a lot of lingering old theories that cancer can be cured by eating large quantities of asparagus or other more obscure things. Still, both the doctor and the patients concerns would be better served by acknowledging diet as an important part of cancer treatment, even if it isn't a cure. After getting over my initial anger at a doctor's attempt at robbing my father of one of the most important weapons in a cancer patients arsenal ( hope, and a positive attitude), I relegated him to the ranks of the "world is flat" crowd, and set sail on a life changing voyage of discovery.

I accept that my father's fate is sealed by cancer, but we have some control over when the end comes. I also know that what I learn by facing my father's fate with him, will teach me, our extended family and all those we share this experience with how to protect ourselves from this deadly disease. There are cures for cancer, if caught early, but none of them are easy. Cancer prevention is something we all can learn how to do, and amazingly, if we learn to do what it takes to prevent cancer, we will also prevent many other health related problems like heart disease, obesity, and some forms of arthritis and diabetes.