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Another anniversary, come and gone

Yes, it's been 8 years [a year and 8 days to be exact] since my diagnosis with Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), and I barely even realized it.

Even to this day, it's hard for me to comprehend the fact I was diagnosed with a very aggressive lymphoma, with an average life expectancy of only 5 years.

Of course one of the drawbacks with life expectancy predictions for a terminal illness, is there is almost no way of knowing how long the person had the disease before diagnosis. Was it one year, two years etc? It's difficult to know, especially with the health care system that exists in the US, where a large portion of the population is excluded from the health care system, and others can't or won't go to see a doctor, because of the cost, until it's too late. [OK, that was my political rant for the day.]

Just how many other cases are there like mine? How many others are walking around with cancer, and don't know it?  If I hadn't gone for a physical exam that fateful March day in 2002, I likely wouldn't know I was sick. Heck, I still find it hard to believe I am sick, and I have all the documentation to prove it.

And how many people are diagnosed early on with a terminal illness, and get treatment prematurely, because of a fee for service health care system which encourages unnecessary treatments, when waiting and watching would have been a better approach (such as in my case), and then die prematurely due to complications of the treatment. [OK, so that's two political rants. I couldn't help myself.]

Who knows? I sure as hell don't, but I still bless my lucky stars I did learn early on. Otherwise I likely wouldn't have done many of things I have done since my diagnosis.

The only problem now is, the longer I go without feeling sick or needing treatment, the more complacent I've become, sometimes thinking I'm not really sick, while at the same time becoming more depressed with every blood test, thinking treatment is just around the corner, and the less likely I am to live life to the fullest. Some how I have to put a stop to that.

OK, enough feeling sorry for myself. Time for a bike ride.
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Comments

Altaloman said…
Congratulations, Marc. All of your fellow survivors with this disease (including me) celebrate your longevity and appreciate your blogging. As you know, while we have the same disease, mine is a different type and after four years with the diagnosis, I am sure that I would not be alive today without opting for the aggressive treatment plan (MSCT and TomoTherapy). You can disparage the health care fee-for-service system, but that same system often works for the benefit of real patients, although the costs are astronomical. But what is the value of life?
3:59 AM
Marc said…
Umh! Not sure how to take that comment.

Certainly our health care system works. I don't think I've ever said it didn't, nor has anyone else. The problem is it doesn't work for everyone, at least not equally, and it's not geared to benefit the patient, as much as it is geared to benefit health care providers and insurance companies.

And even those people who can afford health care, or are lucky enough to have health insurance provided for them, run the risk of complications resulting from over treating and from unnecessary treatment, because of some ill conceived [IMO] notion that free markets are the solution to everything.

I also never claimed treatment wasn't required in your case. I was only posing the question, as to how many people might have been better off without treatment. Of course we'll never know that with any certainty, but it is logical to assume some would. (As in my case, where treatment was recommended when I was first diagnosed, but which, after reading everything available and talking with many experts in the US as well as in Europe, I concluded was not in my best interest.)

And in answer to your question as to the value of life. My simple response to that is, in the US, it appears some lives are more valued than others.
4:27 AM
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