According to Wikipedia, the definition of chemotherapy is:

[Diane12855]

"Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, is the treatment of disease by chemicals[1] especially by killing micro-organisms or cancerous cells. In popular usage, it refers to antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen. In its non-oncological use, the term may also refer to antibiotics (antibacterial chemotherapy). In that sense, the first modern chemotherapeutic agent was Paul Ehrlich's arsphenamine, an arsenic compound discovered in 1909 and used to treat syphilis. This was later followed by sulfonamides discovered by Domagk and penicillin discovered by Alexander Fleming.

Most commonly, chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly, one of the main properties of most cancer cells. This means that it also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal circumstances: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles; this results in the most common side effects of chemotherapy—myelosuppression (decreased production of blood cells), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract) and alopecia (hair loss).

Other uses of cytostatic chemotherapy agents (including the ones mentioned below) are the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis,Dermatomyositis, Polymyositis, Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and the suppression of transplant rejections (see immunosuppression and DMARDs). Newer anticancer drugs act directly against abnormal proteins in cancer cells; this is termed targeted therapy."


Please note paragraph #2. It sure looks like what a lot of us are dealing with right now.

[Diane12855]

I was speaking for all of us who are in the middle of tx NOW, and feeling the effects today... not remembering them from years ago.

Yes, WE are the ones that need validating. I imagine you needed it when you were doing tx too. If you want to validate cancer patients, go to a cancer site. I bet you would find people complaining there too, because that is what a forum is for.

[nygirl7]

For people like Trinity, Bill and I who have done much more than 48 weeks of treatment, to validate for the new members what is true and what is a gross exaggeration of dramatics - should not denigrate anyones feelings.

Fortunately for me, I am able to just say "oh I didn't know that, sorry I was wrong" and move forward with my life. I've done it PLENTY of times in here in the past almost five years.  When someone points out something to me, because they are more knowledgable than I am, I appreciate learning and thus become more informed myself.  It doesn't take away any validation - it just teaches me something and in fact when you think about it - actually gives me MORE validation because my facts are now CORRECT.

You should try and think of it that way.  You've been on here a few weeks now and learned a lot.  Don't you want to learn more from those who have the knowledge to share?

[Trinity4]

Oh brother, now we're talking about denigration?   I'm sorry, I don't follow you.  Validate what you wish, I have no vested interest either way and if you feel slighted I will be more than happy to wish you well moving forward with your chemotherapy.

Trinity

[Diane12855]

Even though it has nothing to do with the initial thread... What is wrong with people wanting their feelings validated anyhow? We are VALID PEOPLE. We show people that we care about them when we validate what they are dealing with. We show that we think we are superior when we degrade people for having weaknesses, which in my opinion is the HUGEST WEAKNESS of all.

[Trinity4]

My brother in law was on interferon for a year because he was diagnosed with cancer, melanoma to be exact.  Unfortunately the interferon didn't do what they had hoped and  his cancer spread forcing him into full cancer chemotherapy.  Trust me, I've had many conversations with him about treatment and he said interferon therapy was a walk in the park compared to his cancer treatment and this guy didn't need his symptoms or feelings validated.

Trin

[Poobah_Johnny]

Are you seriously making a joke out of this??