27/10/19 Bill Turnbull programme

Yesterday we watched Bill Turnbull's TV programme about living with prostate cancer. A part of it was about the shock of getting the cancer diagnosis, and not for the first time we seem to be unusual because it just wasn't like that for us. I knew I had MGUS, and therefore a slightly increased risk of myeloma, for a year but certainly didn't expect it so soon - if I had done, we might have spotted a couple of signs a month or three earlier. Sue was aware, but had I think put it pretty much out of her mind. We were 95% sure it was myeloma for a few weeks before it was formally confirmed, so neither of us had much in the way of "denial" to be challenged. For me, it's just the next hand of cards that life has dealt in our direction, to be played as best we can. There's no point complaining that the dealer isn't being fair, you just get on with the game.
The rest of the Turnbull programme was about alternative treatments, and that felt wrong all the way. For a start, his conventional treatment was going quite well and there was no real case made for going off in other directions. The section on cannabis seemed designed more to show how daring he was by fudging the borders of legality on TV rather than anything else, and it didn't do anything for his PSA levels. Then he moved on to a vegetarian diet and that didn't do much good either - the programme ended with his PSA back up into unpleasantly high territory. And never any real contrast with the orthodox routes of radiotherapy and surgery. He just seemed to be floundering around, looking for a magic cure but unable to stick with anything for long enough to give it a chance.
If there's one thing I take from a rather messily constructed programme, it's this: choose your path, and stick to it. No harm in a little wandering to the side here and there, but don't leave the path altogether. Others have been down the road before, so learn from them what works and what doesn't.