Philosophy Now Forum

marjoram_blues wrote:
HC, yeah it's a pretty hellish way to find out that over and above alcohol and tobacco, other risk-increasing factors include infection with a virus called human papilloma virus. We should all be educated on HPV. Apparently there is now a vaccine to help prevent cervical cancer.

The information is out there - but sometimes people decide life is too short to worry about something that might never happen. We all know of a great-uncle Harry who smoked a pipe and drank beer for all his carefree 99yrs, no probs.

HC, you and your partner have been so strong to get through the treatment stages. From what I've read here, you have the best attitude ever to life and the meaning you give to it.

As to Sphere's question re any sensitivity to sexual terminology. Sense and sensibility support my laidback position. Frank is good. But I think you both know that.
Be well - be yourself. Take care.

Thanks for your kind words.

A couple of things.

First is that most adults who have add sex, and are over the age of 20 are likely to be carrying HPV. Now the vaccine is routinely given to gils at the age of 12, and I think now even boys.
This will hopefully lead to a reduction in cervical cancer in the future, and perhaps the new rise of head and neck cancers, though the vectors are not well understood. It is thought that in the post-HIV period which recommended oral sex as "more safe" might be partly to blame.
Despite the commonness of HPV, cancers that are correlated with it are still fairly rare.


The thing about having a suspect salivary gland, and a verified tumor in the tonsil is not the best place on the human body to get cancer. The treatment is fucking shit.
You may know people who have had radiation and chemotherapy to various parts of the body, and I would not want to minimise their suffering; but having 6+ weeks of radiotherapy in your face, and being pumped with platinum once a week is not a box of chocolates.
I was so lucky to have my partner by my side throughout.

HC, sending mega hugs to you and your partner. Have you thought about writing your story? I hope you both received support of every kind. Such a terribly traumatic time.

A personal question which you need not answer...
....no, not that one...

Did your philosophy of life change as a result. Or was it the case that your already well-grounded philosophy helped see you through ?

marjoram_blues wrote:HC, sending mega hugs to you and your partner. Have you thought about writing your story? I hope you both received support of every kind. Such a terribly traumatic time.

A personal question which you need not answer...
....no, not that one...

Did your philosophy of life change as a result. Or was it the case that your already well-grounded philosophy helped see you through ?

I'm lucky to live in the UK. I had two operations, numerous biopsies, bucket loads of drugs, several scans, as well as the radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I was also offered some physiotherapy for the restoration of the muscles of my neck and mouth, which can suffer fibrositis as a result of the radio-therapy. The only thing I had to pay for was the car park, and a years subscription for prescriptions which is £104. Everyone was friendly and patient.
I've not thought about telling the whole story. When it was over I wanted to try to get a bit of life, as I did not know how long I had. For the next rive years I had to attend follow up checks, and they were enough of a reminder. I can live with the knowledge that I am going to die, but obsessing about the numerous symptoms and problems that the treatment leaves you with I found was something I needed to avoid over-thinking. There is a high risk of necrosis of the jaw, and the longevity of teeth is compromised.
Additionally, since they also irradiated my shoulder lymph nodes, I have chronic neck pain. The other thing was loss of saliva for the first 3 years or so, and having to carry around fake-spit in a bottle, due to dry mouth was a constant reminder.
My saliva is practically back to normal, though I still use special toothpaste and mouthwash, I have lost one tooth as a result of the treatment, hopefully I can keep the rest for the foreseeable future.
The radiation field has to be strong to reach the tonsil area and has to go through the jaw bone and the artery which supplies the lower jaw tends to harden and block after time. The results of Radiotherapy can continue to grow for years afterwards. The field also was directed within a few millimeters of the spinal cord and associated nerves (which as not supposed to be affected by radio), but the tissues on and around the nerves get disrupted. Neck pain is a daily problem still - seven years later.

My mum had died the year before, and left her kids a share of a large house in fashionable Brighton. After I had sorted out my schizophrenic brother, and flaky sister and her share. I had signed up for a Masters in Intellectual History with £120,000 in the banks. The cancer meant that I had to postpone the study one year. So I had already decided that my life was going to change.
I was always careful with money, but as soon as I got the 'all clear", I bought a second hand BMW convertible and by the end of the first year a brand new Harley Davidson - a thing I'd always wanted.
Would I have done this had I not had the cancer? _ I cannot say. I might not have bought both!!!
I do tend to live without a long-term plan, and this is the most liberating thing about cancer. But I'm not sure how much of a difference this made.
Taking up sculpture and sticking to it, would not have been possible without cancer, though. I'd still be worrying about some sort of career.

I found Albert Camus useful during my treatment, and used to listen to "Reasonable Doubts"; an atheist podcast from the US. When you think you are going to die, it is a comfort to know that at least you won't be bored to death listening to choirs of angels singing fucking hymns for eternity, or being roasted over flames for that matter. Not sure which is worse.

.



.......................................................................Great post...



.

Bill Wiltrack wrote:.



.......................................................................Great post...



.

Thanks.

Obvious Leo wrote:Anybody who seeks the meaning of life in its destination is going to have a pretty miserable time of it because this destination is well known. The meaning of life lies in the journey of life, not in its destination, and since the nature of this journey changes from one moment to the next then so too does the meaning of it. This is the ultimate expression of personal freedom because it means that we are always free to define this meaning for ourselves in whichever way we choose and we are equally free to change this definition whenever we choose and we need give no advance notice nor offer any explanation for doing so.

I concur Leo! And indeed its a shame that many probably are made to feel that they must explain. To live and let live, is the only way!

What gets me pissed off, SOB, is that people are so reluctant to change their minds about anything. It's somehow seen as a sign of intellectual fickleness to change your views about a given subject but I tend to see it as the exact opposite. A belief is the antithesis of knowledge but an opinion is not a belief. An opinion is that which we hold on the basis of our current state of knowledge and as this knowledge base grows so too must our opinions evolve in accordance with it. Politicians seem to be particularly vulnerable to this failing.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

marjoram_blues wrote:HC, sending mega hugs to you and your partner. Have you thought about writing your story? I hope you both received support of every kind. Such a terribly traumatic time.

A personal question which you need not answer...
....no, not that one...

Did your philosophy of life change as a result. Or was it the case that your already well-grounded philosophy helped see you through ?

I'm lucky to live in the UK. I had two operations, numerous biopsies, bucket loads of drugs, several scans, as well as the radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I was also offered some physiotherapy for the restoration of the muscles of my neck and mouth, which can suffer fibrositis as a result of the radio-therapy. The only thing I had to pay for was the car park, and a years subscription for prescriptions which is £104. Everyone was friendly and patient.
I've not thought about telling the whole story. When it was over I wanted to try to get a bit of life, as I did not know how long I had. For the next rive years I had to attend follow up checks, and they were enough of a reminder. I can live with the knowledge that I am going to die, but obsessing about the numerous symptoms and problems that the treatment leaves you with I found was something I needed to avoid over-thinking. There is a high risk of necrosis of the jaw, and the longevity of teeth is compromised.
Additionally, since they also irradiated my shoulder lymph nodes, I have chronic neck pain. The other thing was loss of saliva for the first 3 years or so, and having to carry around fake-spit in a bottle, due to dry mouth was a constant reminder.
My saliva is practically back to normal, though I still use special toothpaste and mouthwash, I have lost one tooth as a result of the treatment, hopefully I can keep the rest for the foreseeable future.
The radiation field has to be strong to reach the tonsil area and has to go through the jaw bone and the artery which supplies the lower jaw tends to harden and block after time. The results of Radiotherapy can continue to grow for years afterwards. The field also was directed within a few millimeters of the spinal cord and associated nerves (which as not supposed to be affected by radio), but the tissues on and around the nerves get disrupted. Neck pain is a daily problem still - seven years later.

My mum had died the year before, and left her kids a share of a large house in fashionable Brighton. After I had sorted out my schizophrenic brother, and flaky sister and her share. I had signed up for a Masters in Intellectual History with £120,000 in the banks. The cancer meant that I had to postpone the study one year. So I had already decided that my life was going to change.
I was always careful with money, but as soon as I got the 'all clear", I bought a second hand BMW convertible and by the end of the first year a brand new Harley Davidson - a thing I'd always wanted.
Would I have done this had I not had the cancer? _ I cannot say. I might not have bought both!!!
I do tend to live without a long-term plan, and this is the most liberating thing about cancer. But I'm not sure how much of a difference this made.
Taking up sculpture and sticking to it, would not have been possible without cancer, though. I'd still be worrying about some sort of career.

I found Albert Camus useful during my treatment, and used to listen to "Reasonable Doubts"; an atheist podcast from the US. When you think you are going to die, it is a comfort to know that at least you won't be bored to death listening to choirs of angels singing fucking hymns for eternity, or being roasted over flames for that matter. Not sure which is worse.

OK HC. You deserve some serious slack. Obviously dealing as you have had to deal, would at least make me, madder than hell. How dare such a thing take me on, and the warrior would emerge, complete with plate-mail, and great-sword. I just wish I knew earlier, because I would have recommended Rick Simsons Hemp Oil, and don't scoff, as it's not hype at all. It probably would have saved you all that really nasty, destructive mainstream, "money making," treatment. If there's even a hint that you even start to fall out of remission, seriously, seek Rick Simpsons hemp Oil. I would do so even if I was still in remission, as a form of insurance, as it surely is such. Sickness treatment shouldn't be all about money, and as always nature is the best cure for something of nature, which we are. The first thing I'll do is make my own Oil, fuck mankind's laws when it comes to my health! I only need to answer to the universal laws as far as I'm concerned, as they support me one hundred percent, with my knowledge of them!

So as far as I'm concerned the hatchet is buried, what hatchet? In the name of your health, use biofeedback and aim your 'anger' at any disease that would challenge your existence, along with that which supports your human endocannabinoid system, i.e., Rick Simpsons Hemp Oil. There is no mystery, just dissenters for the sake of a glittering prize, and under such circumstances, who has time for that shite!

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

marjoram_blues wrote:HC, sending mega hugs to you and your partner. Have you thought about writing your story? I hope you both received support of every kind. Such a terribly traumatic time.

A personal question which you need not answer...
....no, not that one...

Did your philosophy of life change as a result. Or was it the case that your already well-grounded philosophy helped see you through ?

I'm lucky to live in the UK. I had two operations, numerous biopsies, bucket loads of drugs, several scans, as well as the radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I was also offered some physiotherapy for the restoration of the muscles of my neck and mouth, which can suffer fibrositis as a result of the radio-therapy. The only thing I had to pay for was the car park, and a years subscription for prescriptions which is £104. Everyone was friendly and patient.
I've not thought about telling the whole story. When it was over I wanted to try to get a bit of life, as I did not know how long I had. For the next rive years I had to attend follow up checks, and they were enough of a reminder. I can live with the knowledge that I am going to die, but obsessing about the numerous symptoms and problems that the treatment leaves you with I found was something I needed to avoid over-thinking. There is a high risk of necrosis of the jaw, and the longevity of teeth is compromised.
Additionally, since they also irradiated my shoulder lymph nodes, I have chronic neck pain. The other thing was loss of saliva for the first 3 years or so, and having to carry around fake-spit in a bottle, due to dry mouth was a constant reminder.
My saliva is practically back to normal, though I still use special toothpaste and mouthwash, I have lost one tooth as a result of the treatment, hopefully I can keep the rest for the foreseeable future.
The radiation field has to be strong to reach the tonsil area and has to go through the jaw bone and the artery which supplies the lower jaw tends to harden and block after time. The results of Radiotherapy can continue to grow for years afterwards. The field also was directed within a few millimeters of the spinal cord and associated nerves (which as not supposed to be affected by radio), but the tissues on and around the nerves get disrupted. Neck pain is a daily problem still - seven years later.

My mum had died the year before, and left her kids a share of a large house in fashionable Brighton. After I had sorted out my schizophrenic brother, and flaky sister and her share. I had signed up for a Masters in Intellectual History with £120,000 in the banks. The cancer meant that I had to postpone the study one year. So I had already decided that my life was going to change.
I was always careful with money, but as soon as I got the 'all clear", I bought a second hand BMW convertible and by the end of the first year a brand new Harley Davidson - a thing I'd always wanted.
Would I have done this had I not had the cancer? _ I cannot say. I might not have bought both!!!
I do tend to live without a long-term plan, and this is the most liberating thing about cancer. But I'm not sure how much of a difference this made.
Taking up sculpture and sticking to it, would not have been possible without cancer, though. I'd still be worrying about some sort of career.

I found Albert Camus useful during my treatment, and used to listen to "Reasonable Doubts"; an atheist podcast from the US. When you think you are going to die, it is a comfort to know that at least you won't be bored to death listening to choirs of angels singing fucking hymns for eternity, or being roasted over flames for that matter. Not sure which is worse.

Bravissimo, mon brave. You are one courageous guy. Your writing deserves a wider audience. I understand your need not to overthink the experience and to get on with your life. There is so much to respond to in this most personal and meaningful post.
I don't even know where to begin...

Perhaps later, when less tired...
This has been a rare read to savour...exceptional, thanks.

SpheresOfBalance wrote: OK HC. You deserve some serious slack. Obviously dealing as you have had to deal, would at least make me, madder than hell. How dare such a thing take me on, and the warrior would emerge, complete with plate-mail, and great-sword. I just wish I knew earlier, because I would have recommended Rick Simsons Hemp Oil, and don't scoff, as it's not hype at all. It probably would have saved you all that really nasty, destructive mainstream, "money making," treatment. If there's even a hint that you even start to fall out of remission, seriously, seek Rick Simpsons hemp Oil. I would do so even if I was still in remission, as a form of insurance, as it surely is such. Sickness treatment shouldn't be all about money, and as always nature is the best cure for something of nature, which we are. The first thing I'll do is make my own Oil, fuck mankind's laws when it comes to my health! I only need to answer to the universal laws as far as I'm concerned, as they support me one hundred percent, with my knowledge of them!

So as far as I'm concerned the hatchet is buried, what hatchet? In the name of your health, use biofeedback and aim your 'anger' at any disease that would challenge your existence, along with that which supports your human endocannabinoid system, i.e., Rick Simpsons Hemp Oil. There is no mystery, just dissenters for the sake of a glittering prize, and under such circumstances, who has time for that shite!

Only a fool would decide to eschew the accumulation of medical science on the dream of some unverified bullshit.
You argument about "money making" treatment counts for shit. I never paid a penny, but received expensive treatment in a fund limited health system- so take you ideological bullshit back to the USA were you are overcharged and over-treated routinely.
IN the UK if it does not have the evidence of results the treatment is not made available by the NHS.

Fuck the anger. The best way to deal with illness is through calm serenity. Your body reacts negatively to stress. If you want to get cancer and die: then get angry.
I'm sure Rick Simpson (whoever the fuck he is) is rich selling his snake oil to gullible fools.

marjoram_blues wrote:

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

marjoram_blues wrote:HC, sending mega hugs to you and your partner. Have you thought about writing your story? I hope you both received support of every kind. Such a terribly traumatic time.

A personal question which you need not answer...
....no, not that one...

Did your philosophy of life change as a result. Or was it the case that your already well-grounded philosophy helped see you through ?

I'm lucky to live in the UK. I had two operations, numerous biopsies, bucket loads of drugs, several scans, as well as the radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I was also offered some physiotherapy for the restoration of the muscles of my neck and mouth, which can suffer fibrositis as a result of the radio-therapy. The only thing I had to pay for was the car park, and a years subscription for prescriptions which is £104. Everyone was friendly and patient.
I've not thought about telling the whole story. When it was over I wanted to try to get a bit of life, as I did not know how long I had. For the next rive years I had to attend follow up checks, and they were enough of a reminder. I can live with the knowledge that I am going to die, but obsessing about the numerous symptoms and problems that the treatment leaves you with I found was something I needed to avoid over-thinking. There is a high risk of necrosis of the jaw, and the longevity of teeth is compromised.
Additionally, since they also irradiated my shoulder lymph nodes, I have chronic neck pain. The other thing was loss of saliva for the first 3 years or so, and having to carry around fake-spit in a bottle, due to dry mouth was a constant reminder.
My saliva is practically back to normal, though I still use special toothpaste and mouthwash, I have lost one tooth as a result of the treatment, hopefully I can keep the rest for the foreseeable future.
The radiation field has to be strong to reach the tonsil area and has to go through the jaw bone and the artery which supplies the lower jaw tends to harden and block after time. The results of Radiotherapy can continue to grow for years afterwards. The field also was directed within a few millimeters of the spinal cord and associated nerves (which as not supposed to be affected by radio), but the tissues on and around the nerves get disrupted. Neck pain is a daily problem still - seven years later.

My mum had died the year before, and left her kids a share of a large house in fashionable Brighton. After I had sorted out my schizophrenic brother, and flaky sister and her share. I had signed up for a Masters in Intellectual History with £120,000 in the banks. The cancer meant that I had to postpone the study one year. So I had already decided that my life was going to change.
I was always careful with money, but as soon as I got the 'all clear", I bought a second hand BMW convertible and by the end of the first year a brand new Harley Davidson - a thing I'd always wanted.
Would I have done this had I not had the cancer? _ I cannot say. I might not have bought both!!!
I do tend to live without a long-term plan, and this is the most liberating thing about cancer. But I'm not sure how much of a difference this made.
Taking up sculpture and sticking to it, would not have been possible without cancer, though. I'd still be worrying about some sort of career.

I found Albert Camus useful during my treatment, and used to listen to "Reasonable Doubts"; an atheist podcast from the US. When you think you are going to die, it is a comfort to know that at least you won't be bored to death listening to choirs of angels singing fucking hymns for eternity, or being roasted over flames for that matter. Not sure which is worse.

Bravissimo, mon brave. You are one courageous guy. Your writing deserves a wider audience. I understand your need not to overthink the experience and to get on with your life. There is so much to respond to in this most personal and meaningful post.
I don't even know where to begin...

Perhaps later, when less tired...
This has been a rare read to savour...exceptional, thanks.

Ask me anything you want. I have no problem talking about it.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:When you think you are going to die, it is a comfort to know that at least you won't be bored to death listening to choirs of angels singing fucking hymns for eternity, or being roasted over flames for that matter. Not sure which is worse.

I think I'd go for the flames because at least I'd be in the company of people more to my aesthetic taste than the self-righteous gits gazing adoringly at their invisible best friend until the end of time. However you raise an interesting point about the subject of immortality more generally. Who in their right mind would fucking want it?

.




...................................................




I'm trying to find data that would support the notion that WE ARE NOT IMMORTAL.







.

I guess that all depends what you understand by the meaning of the term "we" doesn't it, Bill? If we were to chop ourselves up into our teeniest no-more-divisible bits then all we are is a collection of energy quanta which have been configured in a particular way, as proven by Einstein's mass/energy equivalence principle. These energy quanta are indeed immortal, as mandated by the first laws of thermodynamics, but the "we" which they are currently encoding for shall not pass this way again.

Hobbes' Choice wrote:

SpheresOfBalance wrote: OK HC. You deserve some serious slack. Obviously dealing as you have had to deal, would at least make me, madder than hell. How dare such a thing take me on, and the warrior would emerge, complete with plate-mail, and great-sword. I just wish I knew earlier, because I would have recommended Rick Simsons Hemp Oil, and don't scoff, as it's not hype at all. It probably would have saved you all that really nasty, destructive mainstream, "money making," treatment. If there's even a hint that you even start to fall out of remission, seriously, seek Rick Simpsons hemp Oil. I would do so even if I was still in remission, as a form of insurance, as it surely is such. Sickness treatment shouldn't be all about money, and as always nature is the best cure for something of nature, which we are. The first thing I'll do is make my own Oil, fuck mankind's laws when it comes to my health! I only need to answer to the universal laws as far as I'm concerned, as they support me one hundred percent, with my knowledge of them!

So as far as I'm concerned the hatchet is buried, what hatchet? In the name of your health, use biofeedback and aim your 'anger' at any disease that would challenge your existence, along with that which supports your human endocannabinoid system, i.e., Rick Simpsons Hemp Oil. There is no mystery, just dissenters for the sake of a glittering prize, and under such circumstances, who has time for that shite!

Only a fool would decide to eschew the accumulation of medical science on the dream of some unverified bullshit.
You argument about "money making" treatment counts for shit. I never paid a penny, but received expensive treatment in a fund limited health system- so take you ideological bullshit back to the USA were you are overcharged and over-treated routinely.
IN the UK if it does not have the evidence of results the treatment is not made available by the NHS.

Fuck the anger. The best way to deal with illness is through calm serenity. Your body reacts negatively to stress. If you want to get cancer and die: then get angry.
I'm sure Rick Simpson (whoever the fuck he is) is rich selling his snake oil to gullible fools.

Your so called knowledge on this topic is tainted and is in fact mainstream hype. Rick Simpson has never sold his Hemp Oil, he's only given it to people for free, and he's only ever cured cancer by doing so. He's also done Jail time for saving peoples lives, because Hemp was illegal in his country, Canada! You should do research instead of opening your mouth and spouting such ignorance, it causes you to look even more foolish than you already do. If I ever get throat cancer and fight it only with the oil, which is all I'll ever do, I'll show you the pics, of a 'cure' without destruction. The authorities here in the US have finally admitted that the mainstream solution of both radiation and chemotherapy kill one more than they save one, that's right they've finally admitted the facts. And you can keep your invasive surgery and stick it where the sun doesn't shine, because an enema is all such hype is good for. Allopathic doctors; Mengele sublime! The golden prize, their rise to power, is simply a historical fact. Edify yourself!

You'll not get my dander up because now I know where your anger emanates from, peace and calm my friend, anger where anger belongs! As you certainly don't exemplify your hype as mentioned above.