Mike,
Thank you for sitting down and taking the time to put these posts together. Can't tell you how many people just don't seem to get that they are gambling with their LIVES when dealing with cancer... any kind... every kind.
My next door neighbor and me and my husband's best friend, Charlie, was diagnosed with cancer the same day I was. We stopped at his house on the way home from the cysto where the tumor was found and told him the news. We were quite shocked that he had also been to the doctor that day and diagnosed with lung cancer. I hauled ass to M.D. Anderson where I was treated by a wonderful team of bladder cancer specialists and I am here today. He chose to save 30 minutes of drive time and went to a hospital in College Station. We spent 6 months trying to talk him into joining us at M.D. Anderson. We could even car pool! No luck. He died 360 days after his diagnosis in a hospital bed in College Station. When I talked with him the night before he died, he had JUST (moments earlier) found out that his cancer was all over his body and that he was dying. I will NEVER forgive that hospital for keeping him in the dark about his cancer and I will never forget the fear in his eyes as he lay there dying. I don't know that his cancer was curable from the beginning, but I do know that had he used the incredible resources available to him, he would not have suffered that shocking moment at the end.
I'm helping one of my neighbors right now who was diagnosed around Thanksgiving with breast cancer. She's 43 and works at that same damned hospital Charlie went to. She has chosen treatment there, too. We tried to talk her into going to M.D. Anderson, but had no luck. I hope it works out for her... I really do. She has a lot to lose. A husband, 3 kids, a lot of life ahead of her. Why, why, WHY don't some people get the best possible treatment for cancer? I just don't get it.
Christine