The Why's of Petunia's Blog

I thought I would share what motivated me to start this blog.  The bottom line was that I realized that writing about my Mom's experience - and eventually allowing the blog to reach a wider audience - might actually encourage or inspire, give courage or hope to, or in some way help someone else who has multiple myeloma or other cancer, or help someone who loves someone with MM or cancer.  

All of  us know of or hear of or meet someone with cancer - it seems like it's everywhere.  In the space of a week, I had so many emails or talks with friends related to cancer.  It was weird. What really got me thinking about blogging (hoping that my Mom would write too) - was when two friends asked me to send them my Mom's multiple myeloma protocol - the supplements and things she is doing that have led to her remission of MM. 

There was my friend whose coworker's daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer; our friend who was diagnosed at age 46 (same age as me) with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had started chemotherapy; another friend who has a coworker who is facing, at age 36, a recurrence of her colon cancer.   There's my niece who was fighting cancer and lost the battle.  The last motivating straw was hearing about a dear friend's brother being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, the same supposedly "rare" cancer as my Mom.  He was 49 at diagnosis and started chemotherapy for his MM (an update on him is that he is responding great to the treatment!).

What is going on? 

When faced with cancer - or disease of any kind - we all have to make our own difficult decisions, taking in all that we can to decide the best course. In this last year, we've learned so much about multiple myeloma, cancer in general, the billion dollar cancer industry, nutrition and supplements and the part they play in our health, and how to help the body fight cancer... the list is endless. 

I have some questions to pose:  What do you think about an adult's right to refuse treatment for cancer (or any disease) and to try alternative therapies, or to try nothing?  Is it an easy answer?  Have you ever contemplated this for yourself?