“Although the pleura fluid does not contain cancer cells, the origin is very likely cancer related.”, my oncologist said. I’m afraid we have to get used to this type of unsatisfying news. We got a similar answer to the bone-punction back in May of last year. I have no primary tumor in the kidney and still the doctors are “pretty sure” that the visible metastasizes in the bones originate in the kidney. Very uncommon, but not impossible.

Sometimes it seems we’re back in the times of Hippocrates, about 2500 years ago. Hippocrates’ medicine was fully based on observation. An important difference with today’s medicine is that the ancient Greek did not have x-rays or radioactive PET-scans at their disposal. Despite of that, their observations must have lead to similar vague conclusions.

I had scans to see how bad the metastasizes were spread out. When I asked to repeat that same scan a few months later to compare and measure ‘progress’, I learned that the inaccuracy of the scan would not allow us to draw any conclusion about pro- or regression. Human interpretation is still more sophisticated than the machines we have in the 21st century.

In ancient times no one expected the doctor to make you better. The doctor could only observe and the patient had to do the healing him- or herself. That is putting the responsibility where it belongs, in my opinion. If you wanted to overcome a disease, you had to live a healthier life. No Prosac to mask underlying causes, but sport and diet to undo the fungus that was causing depression.

Of course Western health-care has developed many good things, and our life expectancy has gone up due to effective therapies and medicines. But could it be that we became so over-confident in our doctors that we don’t pay enough attention to what we can do ourselves as patients to prevent and overcome diseases? Aren’t we sometimes relying on conclusions that have the same predicting value as the Delphi Oracle? Shouldn’t we rely more on ourselves, what our body tells us?

So, how do I feel then? Up to now the fluid around my lungs did not really bother me, but as of today it slowly starts to hit. I am exhausted from walking up the stairs. I’m suffering from sinuses infections for about six weeks now. I still try to swim every other day, but physically it’s all getting a little hard.

Mentally I believe I have dealt with last week’s bad news on potential cancer cells around my lungs. There is only one main indicator of how I am doing: what my body tells me. Vague pathology results like “high protein fluid with unidentified origin” don’t touch me anymore. I have had too many of those rare, “we don’t know” type of conclusions. I need to focus on my body now, make sure I keep my strict diet and sport enough in order to keep resistance against the infections. Simply stay in contact with myself.

“Man is measure of all things” (Protagoras)

Joost

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