Donna Smith - Fighting the Real Enemy: Cancer in America
May 30, 2012 For the second time in my life, I find myself in need of cancer care. Somehow it seems the universe conspires to put me in settings where I observe and can report on the on-going insanity of the dysfunctional U.S. healthcare system. Such was the case this week as I sat in the oncology infusion center near a prestigious medical center.
The need for a progressively financed, single standard of high quality care for all under a social insurance model – like Medicare for all for life – has never been clearer to me than it was this week. The enemy faced in cancer treatment is not the cancer itself.
Every patient is different in terms of how he or she handles cancer diagnosis and treatment. While we have built such a culture of terror around the word and the disease, having cancer does not necessarily mean one will die from cancer. It is a serious thing, but in many cases early detection and treatment means being a cancer survivor is a more likely outcome than being a cancer casualty. I like to face most of my tests and appointments alone. So for this week’s visit to the infusion center, I was on my own while my husband went to his usual Friday golf play. That seems so good and normal to me in the face of something sort of lousy overall. And I like the feeling of that illusion of normalcy. Other patients bring friends or family along for support.
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