I don't even understand how you would drive a car without a steering wheel!

By gesturing wildly, like Anya?

Cancer Treatment Centers of America are on the shady side, aren't they? Misreporting survival rates and turning away people with lower chances of success? I just saw an ad where they claimed a 95% patient satisfaction rate and thought "Yeah, it's not too surprising that a high percentage of the people who were treated for cancer and lived would be happy about it, but then I doubt people are filling out patient surveys from the afterlife."

This coffee popsicle is making me pretty happy. I think I have found my preferred summertime weekend caffeine delivery system.

Coffee. Popsicles. Well, I guess I DO need to buy popsicle molds!

Matt,

sounds like you are on to something. DailyKos had a post about this: [link]

I've only driven one keyless car, and never even heard of one without a steering wheel.

Keyless, yes. Steering wheelless, how?

Cancer Treatment Centers of America are on the shady side, aren't they?

I've always assumed that they are only appropriate for treating a very small subset of people diagnosed. You need to be very motivated, committed and also open to the whole range of treatments they offer. But I hadn't thought they were out and out shady. Off to read the article now.

I googled "complaints" and CTA and there are other things. They were investigated in 1993, but I didn't get that far in my reading.

Okay, I think their marketing is kinda shady if you don't realize that they are a private and absolutely for profit hospital and not really open to the public. But I guess I realized that after about five seconds on Google.

There's a skeeviness to it in some respects because they are going after customers at a terrible time in their life. I mean, they aren't caring for the very sick or the poor but they are a business. They aren't doing any of it out of the good of their heart.

Some people are both more motivated and able and willing to pay for either amazing insurance or they can pay for the treatment.

Science-based Medicine on Cancer Treatment Centers of America: [link]

I have also heard, although I can't find online support for this in a quick google, that CTCA leans towards using lower-dose chemo, which may mean that their patients feel better but might not be the best long-term choice.

In terms of "results," they not only cherry-pick patients, but also only report on a very limited subset of their patients. Many reputable treatment centers don't report results at all, because the concept of being "cured" of cancer is problematic. I was diagnosed in 2003 and lived for more than five years. My cancer recurred and spread nine years later. Am I a success or a failure?

One of the hardest parts of cancer treatment is that there is very little that the patient can do. People talk about someone having a long battle with cancer, but battle implies that the patient is doing the fighting. It's more accurate to think of the patient as the battlefield. I suspect part of the patient satisfaction with CTCA is that all these woo-woo therapies (which I suspect do not come cheaply) give the patients the feeling of *doing* something about their cancers.

I am particularly leery of a focus on nutrition, because I have seen people do very badly on chemo because they tried to stick with a lower calorie, fresh fruits and vegetables diet. This may be an excellent plan after chemo, but during chemo, patients need calories and a lot of them. If that means living on ice cream, so be it.

-t just left, and I forgot to ask her about the coffee popsicles. Boo.

Walter was very chill and awesome, even when Fella was less so. He did pretty well, all things considered, but we both have some work and training to do so that he can be chill and awesome like Walter.