Although I appeal to science, this post is *not* science. This is anecdotal, but human, and hopefully relatable to others who are human.
I hear and read things quite a bit on cancer treatment and medicine in general. Everybody has opinions, especially where human life is concerned. "Big Pharma" is NOT, however, out to kill you.
Cancer
I hear this a lot: Chemotherapy is a killer. Chemotherapy is a ploy to make money off people with cancer. It's also, somehow, a way to kill them because they cost too much money. At the same time, there are "secret" cancer cures that are cheap.
While my brain tries to re-adjust from that much derp, the same people have all of those thoughts in their head at the same time. It makes no sense.
Cancer is awful. It took my mother from me when I was a child.
At age 14, she was given 6 months to live. I was her second child. She lived long enough for me to get to know her, thanks to chemotherapy, and modern medicine.
If there were a natural cure that was so cheap, or even better - "Vegetarians don't get cancer" - people would have caught on by now. It's not true. It's nice to think that something so horrible could be eliminated so simply, without any harm to somebody.
People also want to think that cancer is a single thing. There are many forms, many causes, and many triggers. Nothing "causes" cancer on it's own, but anything at all can help trigger it. We all have potential cancer cells in our body. We just didn't used to live long enough for as many to develop, or survive, cancer.
In a world of hair regrowth and boner pills, I can't get behind the idea that "Big Pharma" needs to keep anyone sick. If health is so easy, keep everyone alive and productive so they buy boner pills until they're 120.
Thanks, medicine.
Rett Syndrome
 |
| Thanks, science, for improving her quality of life. |
My 7 year old daughter, Campbell, has Rett Syndrome. Not that long ago, she would have a life
A little more than a year ago, she was a scant 26 lbs. Today, she's near 60lbs. She had a feeding tube put in, and gets scientifically developed formula, which provides the needed caloric energy and nutrition for her to enjoy life. She's even got the energy to try learning to walk. Fingers still crossed.
Thanks, Big Pharma!
Someone who is care-dependent 24/7 could never hope to be a profit maker for Big Pharma. Insurance pays a whopping amount, and those guys have at least as much say in the government as Pharma.
expectancy in the teens at best. Now, her quality of life is better than it ever would have been.
Stop it, internet!
 |
| Science, bitches. |
So, although I might respect you as a person, if you try and simplify horrible human conditions, just because you "really want" something simple to be true, I will get mad at your argument. I might even swear. Heck, I probably will later in this post(disclaimer).
I take horrible offense to someone telling me to ignore my diabetes medicine and eat real sugar. It's stupid. It's dangerous. You don't get to tell people to kill themselves because you're afraid of the boogeyman.
It makes me mad, after watching my mother finally pass, living through suffering, from her condition as well her treatment, to see people who think she should have "just eaten carrots" or "used cannabis oil".
There's some promise in some compounds, but this shit(there I go) isn't magic. Trivializing suffering so you can feel superior to others and tell them how to live is beyond fucked up.
Watching my daughter finally thrive, and hearing her laugh every day again is amazing. Hearing or reading that Big Pharma is out to kill us makes me want to punch a baby unicorn. In the dick.
I used a few foul words, but the real vulgarity is trivializing what you don't understand, what you don't WANT to understand, to suit an ideal based on a pretty picture and simple quote on the internet. That shit is totally fucked up all to fucking fuck.
Everybody, person and business, has done things. Business make money - it's why they exist. Because someone did something once 50 years ago doesn't mean you get to judge me because I'm not forcing organic kale through a feeding tube. Give me complete nutrition in a can. Give me a child much healthier than even a year ago.
Give me science. Peer reviewed science. Study. Testing. What works.
Every single goddamned time.
