How much would we spend extra on ourselves?

pete43lost_at_sea

PhillieG said:

Clear as Starbucks Coffee :-)
"I am more treating the survival stats going forward, "time remaining" as if certainties from most current tables, as if we could glue an improvement in for a price, to try to avoid the speculative "what works" discussions."

I don't believe in stats other than I am 100% certain that I will die one day. It's part of the life cycle.
If I had say... $1000 extra to spend I might buy a nice guitar instead of going to a health clinic for a detox.
I don't have $1000 so it's speculative. If I DID have it, I might do the detox. It's hard to answer the question given there are so many "what ifs" involved...

I still like the question though...
I've been very busy lately so I'm a bit fried in the brain cell dept. Not from chemo, just from too much coding, so it's likely just me.
-p

phil are you sure about dieing?
you know i am reading about reincarnation and everlasting life.
maybe death is not as certain as we think.

eternity is a long time, going to mass once a week for an hour seems like a good each way bet for an option on eternity.

hugs,
pete

ps I would detox at home for free ( well almost ) and buy the guitar!

pete43lost_at_sea

Lovekitties said:

A caveat
I think it is important to remove surgery from the mix of treatments which may be considered optional.

Whether it is colon or rectal cancer, a tumor blocking outflow can cause surgery to be an absolute must. As a personal opinion, I also feel that surgical removal of the primary source of the cancer is the best bet.

We can always make an informed choice about chemo and radiation.

your caveat, not everyones about surgery
i just met an amazing woman who is fighting her stage 4 rectal with 100% nuts and berries and meditation and organics. etc etc. she is inspirational, surgery was not an option for her. i have also been introduced to another man who claims to have beaten his stage 3 colorectal by going 100% raw juicing and no surgery.

but yes for me, i agree that most would benefit from surgery.

we can also make informed choices about alternatives and chemo and radio.

hugs,
pete

pete43lost_at_sea

great thread tanstaafl, so consider this everyone
most alternatives are really cheap to do. its the effort and time that cost. the loss of income in the short term. I clearly see sacrificing all my time and money now as a very safe bet that at least buy a funeral with no regrets whenever that will be!

so consider a poor colorectal stage 4 guy who is a poor villager in china and mr pear the richest man in the world with a computer fortune behind.

now we all fall between these extremes on treatment choices.

the chinese villager gets great tcm from his local doctor, practices qigong and has an organic low protein diet, he lives by the sea in an unpolluted part of china. he is really lucky. he get plenty of sun. he has some coconut and his uncle in tibet sends him goji berries. he works all day in the field and is incedibly fit. his wife and 10 kids love him dearly. he get hugged every day and some healing massage. he learnt to meditate from his tibetan uncle and now meditates 3 hours a day like me. he also get free accuptuncture from his brother who is pretty good at the needles. i have to pay $35 for 2 hours including qigong massage included.

the moral of my story is that a vegan chinese guys is getting pretty good alternative care for little financial outlay.

now the richest guy in the world sets up 10 labs all trying to find a cure, has 100 person team coming up with strategies. he is still greedy and stressed and confused by all the conflicting opinions. he spends his entire fortune in a year and dies soon after.

all the money in the world does not help if you don't make good choices. now if the the rich guy learnt to meditate and trust his intuition he may have had a better chance with his science based alternatives.

I am somewhere in between, alot closer to chinese villager to the really rich guy.

what i am trying to say is the core alternatives cost very little but a very difficult if you are attached to our western lifestyle.
meditation is free,
organic vegan is breakeven fish and meat are expensive lentils, legume and seeds and nuts are cheap. supermarket shopping is also massively reduced, no processed foods purchased. also no going out getting pissed everynight, stoped smoking and drugs. the savings keep on adding up, if you had those vices at diagnosis. also you stop going out as much as you just cannot get the same nutrient value as at home.

exercise is free, ie walking, except for shoes. now i have a workout routine that just uses a couple of cheap dumbbells and park benches.

now supplements are not cheap, but you can do so much cheaply. ie get all the advice from lef. which has been published here and then buy from the cheapest internet suppliers, often they have specials.

my biggest expense is IV vit C which now costs me $80 a day out of pocket for 3 hours care and a consult with my alt gp's. So I am aim to do this 3 times per week. i am trying to pickup a few more 90 minute massages each week and have budgetted $30 each session out of pocket. but i have to shop around.

i have reduced the number of consults down with naturopaths and non covered consultants. our medical system here is pretty generous, i have paid alot of taxes here and am getting some payback which might save them high costs if my health stops improving.

so in my books the extra money is just not a valid reason for not doing alternatives, at least most of the free ones. all the alternatives require considerable effort and devotion and committment that can only be given if you have faith they have merit for your health.

i clearly have the utmost faith in my alternatives, i feel terrific, i have heaps of energy. i am blessed, my faith is strong.

having a positive outlook, a hopeful outlook. I have read lots of studies of spontaneous remission. all of them had faith and an optimistic outlook. our brain is very very plastic. i cannot remember reading in the above book any amazing survival stories from cancer patients who were convinced they were going to die from their illness. I don't want a big argument here, i just read "the brain that changes itself" , if you are interested in the power of your mind to change your biology then i recommend it. its not about cancer, its about plasticity of our minds, the discussion about pain is so relevant to all of us here.

so being positive is free. unless you have to buy a few books.

i am 46 now, if i love my kids and wife well enough, maybe they will spend it all on keeping dad around, maybe not. i will let that be their decision and mine along time in the future. i have to climb mount everest first.

hugs,
pete

ps this makes sense to me, i hope it makes some sense to you!

PhillieG

pete43lost_at_sea said:

phil are you sure about dieing?
you know i am reading about reincarnation and everlasting life.
maybe death is not as certain as we think.

eternity is a long time, going to mass once a week for an hour seems like a good each way bet for an option on eternity.

hugs,
pete

ps I would detox at home for free ( well almost ) and buy the guitar!

Pretty sure...
I think it was in the fine print on my birth certificate!
I'm not saying our soul/spirit/essence/mojo/______, doesn't stick around.
Only that our physical bodies are through with this "Act". Maybe there's Act II in reincarnation?

I've listened to a lot of theological stuff (I enjoy the different ideas) and really if one thinks about ETERNAL LIFE it almost sounds like hell.
I certainly wouldn't want to exist as a person forever. It would get boring after a few hundred years.
I've thought of reincarnation too at times. My Mom, who's health is failing, was angry about something
that happened 60 years ago. My brother helped her get through it so she "wouldn't come back as a toad"...

I have strong feelings on spirituality and religion. I'll take spirituality any day of the week (except Sundays, that day I rest!)

Maybe I'll just buy a guitar and "play the $hit out of it!"
;-)
-p

pete43lost_at_sea

PhillieG said:

Pretty sure...
I think it was in the fine print on my birth certificate!
I'm not saying our soul/spirit/essence/mojo/______, doesn't stick around.
Only that our physical bodies are through with this "Act". Maybe there's Act II in reincarnation?

I've listened to a lot of theological stuff (I enjoy the different ideas) and really if one thinks about ETERNAL LIFE it almost sounds like hell.
I certainly wouldn't want to exist as a person forever. It would get boring after a few hundred years.
I've thought of reincarnation too at times. My Mom, who's health is failing, was angry about something
that happened 60 years ago. My brother helped her get through it so she "wouldn't come back as a toad"...

I have strong feelings on spirituality and religion. I'll take spirituality any day of the week (except Sundays, that day I rest!)

Maybe I'll just buy a guitar and "play the $hit out of it!"
;-)
-p

amen
hugs,
pete