Perhaps

Perhaps it’s because the pain in my groin has spread up to my lower left spine, or perhaps it’s because the pain has gotten worse, or it could be because I wrote a lens for Squidoo entitled “Cancer of the Colon” that I made a knee jerk decision and subscribed to a “newsletter”, notice the quotes, that arrived in my inbox at the most opportune time to hook me.  It promised to defeat cancer.  It promised a free newsletter.  I’m awake at 2:30 in the morning because of a burning sensation I get in my upper left thigh every day in the early morning now, what do I have to loose?

Nothing.

The letter was full of teasers.  What food does Bill Clinton eat that the rest of America throws away and probably protects him from getting cancer?  What ingredient both flavors cakes, eases pain and fights cancer?  Is your system acidic?  This ingredient blasts cancer cells with oxygen and kills them instantly.

What were any of these ingredients?  Not in the e-mail, although a few I could guess at, and one I looked up on the web with a simple Google search.

The newsletter came soon after.  It too was full of teasers, but no information unless I bought the book.  Or rather books, because within a day or so of becoming a subscriber I had received two more e-mails.  One offered me a money back guarantee, even if I used their advice and was cured of cancer.  If I wanted my money back, I could have it.

The one therapy that really caught my interest ended up being cesium, but not the radioactive kind.  However, over and over I was warned not to try this therapy without being under a doctors supervision.  On later pages it was stated that no doctor would put his neck out for this therapy, when they are all tied into big Pharmacy and chemotherapy.  So where was my doctor supervision supposed to come from?

Then I tried to even find cesium.  Impossible.  But it did keep me busy for a while and kept my mind off the burning and sharp needle stab in my leg for a while.

But it made me depressed too.  After doing some very preliminary research for my lens on Squidoo, I was reminded again that stage four colon cancer is in most cases terminal.  Even those with stage three colon cancer don’t fare very well.  And here I was chasing around for a cure, again.

There are so many cures available.  Caring friends who are scared to death for me, have told me about Cancer Centers of America, a really promising sounding clinic in Texas, whole fruits and vegetables, different supplements that cost about $100 a bottle.  I even tried a regimen that was in Suzanne Sommers “Knockout” book, but cancer has made my stomach very sensitive, and I ended up not being able to tolerate the supplements.  The lists of food I can tolerate has decreased too.

Maybe someday, modern medicine will use apricot pits, cesium and aloe, anise(?), turmeric, and mushrooms and actually cure people.

Will it happen in my 2 1/2 year window of opportunity? Doubtful.

So what is the take away lesson for today?  I guess to know myself.  To realize that I am desperate for a cure, and that makes me vulnerable.  And when you are vulnerable, there is always someone there to take advantage of it.

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