“Cancer” is a rubric for an enormous range of physiological difficulties. Some cancers are caused by spontaneous mutations, some are triggered by environmental causes, some, like childhood leukemia, by insufficient immunologic challenge early in life (i.e., keeping kids away from numerous relatively benign childhood disease microbes makes their immune system ineffective when leukemia begins) [1]. Some, perhaps many, cancers will have relatively simple and painless cures via emerging technologies such as molecular engineering, protein chemistry, and nanotech therapies. Others will grind on as they have for millennia, taking lives prematurely or controlled only by painful and debilitating treatment methods. And of course there’s the conspiracy theory—that “big pharma” and “big government” know how to cure cancer, but suppress said cure out of greedy self-interest [2].
There is hope, however, that one of the worst-case scenarios in my personal case could end up being complicated but not flat-out tragic. A story circulated on CNN this week [3] about a guy in Europe whose nasty malignancy required excising his larynx. An artificial larynx, custom fit, was constructed of flexible polymers. Then the prosthetic larynx was put in a bath with some stem cells harvested from the guy’s marrow. The stem cells built a film of tissue around the prosthesis, which was inserted without difficulty (article says he successfully coughed two days after the reconstruction surgery) and, since it was genetically appropriate, his immune system did not reject it.
I’m assuming that if Dr. H decides my larynx needs to go, they’ll grow me a new one.
I’ve been back at work for a couple of weeks now. On the same three day cycle I’ve been on throughout and after treatment, I get acutely week, feel like hell, and have to leave early for a nap. Plus my mornings are pretty hungover, a consequence of the pain killers I still need and difficulty getting the amount of sleep I also need. So I usually arrive late at the office. But at least I’m around to GO to the office! That, and the fact that I am just beginning to be able to get yoghurt, applesauce, and undiluted canned condensed soup into my GIT by mouth are enormously encouraging.
Still, having cancer brings mortality into sharp focus. Here’s a good “end of the road” game. Who would you trade your life for? I don’t mean family and friends, we’d all go there. Is there someone in history whose life was cut short that you think could have accomplished so much that if you had the choice, you’d let the Fates take your life in place of that person’s? I thought of some of the obvious ones—Martin Luther King Jr., JFK, Jimi Hendrix. John Coltrane. But you know, they all changed the world with the life they had. Possible they’d do much more with more time, but they already had given us more than we had before. For me, I’m thinking maybe Buddy Holly. I listened to the 6 disk compilation Hip-O Select put out a few years ago on my office commute this week. In 200 recorded tracks, Holly made it clear not only that he was a genius, but he was gonna change the world. For the better. The potential for good will, humor, and music that died with him is a tragic loss. If I had the choice, I’d think very hard about taking a seat on that plane in his place. If I’ve managed to make a few dozen people’s lives funnier and more interesting, Holly would’ve done the same and more for millions.
The message isn’t morbid. It’s that we all have that kind of potential. Most of us don’t realize it. I suggest we kick ourselves into gear every day and make things funnier, fairer, and better for as many people as we can. That’s a good practical use to make of the knowledge that we ain’t gonna be around forever!
Remind me to tell you about the time I met a guy who played with Holly in Clovis, New Mexico. I got a photo of his photo playing with Holly and the Crickets, and I got him to autograph a napkin for me. Awesome, no?
PS. I’ll have all the weblogs updated this weekend. As the weekend goes by, check out http://theresaturtleinmysoup.blogspot.com/, http://sustainablebiospheredotnet.blogspot.com/, and http://docviper.livejournal.com/. By Sunday night there’ll be good new material up at all of them. Thanks for stoppin’ by. Y’all are keeping me alive!!!
Notes
[1] An interesting and readable summary of causes and cures of various cancers is Mel Greaves’ 2000 book from Oxford University Press “Cancer: the evolutionary legacy”.
[2] For the conspiracy theory (of COURSE there’s a conspiracy theory) see http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/cancercure050405.cfm . For a compact debunking, http://www.cancersolution.tk/2011/05/conspiracy-theory.html .
[3] Link to CNN article is http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/07/trachea.transplant/index.html
Clearly there are amazing implications of this technology far beyond larynx cancer.
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