James Randi Speaks - Chemotherapy

hello I'm James Randi today is the 12th of January 2010 this last New Year's Eve I made a scheduled visit to Broward General Hospital just down the street here in Fort Lauderdale specifically I went to there in theeven Ward where 48 hours before I'd had the start of the last of 12 doses of chemotherapy chemicals I've been taking bi-weekly since last summer this procedure involved the painless insertion of a tiny needle into a small port inserted just under the skin of my chest six months ago now the port has been simply forgotten I'll keep it in place for a while just in case I might need it again but I'm totally finished with the chemo as we patients refer to it in two weeks I'll be having a PET scan which will determine whether the chemo was successful and the prognosis is excellent thank you now a lot of people are afraid of chemotherapy and no wonder chemotherapy is famously unpleasant when people share stories about it those often involve hair falling out a loss of strength equilibrium and mobility a feeling of concert nausea and fatigue but that doesn't characterize my experience you see medical science has made great strides in this process and things have changed I was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in June of last year near the end of that month I underwent surgery a laparoscopic minimal invasion procedure that left me with three navels and obviously introduced confusion to my regular naval contemplation sessions they removed not only my tumor but also a small portion of the gut to which it was attached a week later I attended the annual J ref conference the amazing meeting in las vegas upon returning home i immediately embarked upon the chemotherapy regimen and discovered to my delight if i can call it that the tea bowl isn't necessarily as awful as they say it is every other 2z I'd visit Barbra General Hospital down the street and check into the infusion lab there I would first be injected with all all kinds of fluids to clear my system in preparation for the medication to come appropriately flushed I was then hooked up by a very fine plastic tube to a small pressure pump bottle filled with a cocktail of chemotherapy agents which would deliver its contents to me over the next two days I'd simply drop the bottle into my pocket then I'd go back to the jrf or go home during those two days I'd feel just fine I came into work at the same time as always and went home at the same time too I was told to drink more water than usual and this I did to keep up my hydration you see the tubing taped down to my chest came out after infusion and I then noticed that I began to tire I was profoundly fatigued by Friday morning and that continued through the weekend sometimes I didn't want to get out of bed even once his voice I didn't my muscles felt very weak and my equilibrium was really shaky nevertheless he was on one such weekend in the final term of my chemotherapy that I attended a banquet to celebrate the first annual Carl Sagan day the following night I delivered a 45-minute address in Carl's honor even in my Energy's lowest ebb I still decided to come into work perhaps because I was excited about something I was writing or perhaps because I just didn't feel like staying home no matter how badly I felt during the weekends immediately after the infusion I was always a great deal better by Monday and then I had about ten days of good health to look forward to before my next chemotherapy infusion now I'm telling you this because a few tensor patients of my acquaintance have decided to ignore their doctor's advice and forgo chemotherapy I'm worried that these people are risking their lives needlessly yes chemo does cause hair to fall out as you can see my beard is considerably thinner and less lustrous than it once was but hair grows back there's some of it not this part yes chemo does tire you out but you can always take a nap yes chemo isn't pleasant but it's a damn sight more pleasant than cancer none of the difficulties posed by chemotherapy are insurmountable I can honestly tell you that I didn't have one instance of nausea I never lost my faith in my oncologist and I kept busy every hour of the six months I was being treated my most important item of this message is something I discovered during the ordeal attitude is a paramount importance if you allow despair or fear to get hold of you you'll not do as well as I did during my visits to the Broward General infusion ward I went out of my way to be the bully walk out sort of without the cabbie and held a lot of hands chatted joked and generally cheered up my fellow chemo partners it worked at all of us felt better for it I can assure you so please do yourself a favor friends if your physician says you need chemo get it don't risk your life and especially don't risk your life over the bogeyman of the ravages of chemo or the silly words of TV stars with no expertise whatsoever I have an expert I just went through it medical science improves by the month and the experience of a cancer patient in the hands of a good oncologist is very different from what it was twenty ten or even five years ago don't be afraid of medicine medicine you can handle be afraid of going without it I'm James Randi we thank you for watching this latest episode of James Randi speaks for more of James Randi and the educational foundation make sure you visit Randy org

Channel: JamesRandiFoundation

Views: 170,314

Rating: 4.8595581 out of 5

Keywords: james, randi, cancer, treatment, hemotherapy, skeptic, magacian, survivor, jref

Id: LzySHcWuRqw

Length: 6min 10sec (370 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 12 2010