…which, of course, is often well-intentioned. The cartoon below is of an exchange I had with my neighbor about two weeks after my surgery. I was still sporting a large bandage on my neck, which prompted her to ask what happened. I explained that I had been diagnosed with a rare form of salivary gland cancer, and was recovering from surgery to my tongue and neck. This opened the floodgates for a torrent of advice, along with way too many details regarding her own medical history. To be fair, I should have seen it coming. This neighbor is a bit of an oddball; she’s a woman in her sixties who lives with her mother (in her nineties) and is self-employed as a professional pet-sitter/banner-maker (is there a large demand for banners this day and age? Who are her clients? These are things I don’t know and haven’t asked). She pet-sits for our cat, in fact, and this is one reason I’ve been reluctant to press her on certain issues she’s brought up, unabashedly, in conversation.
For example, she once brought us a meal when I was home sick for two weeks with the flu and pneumonia–a kind and neighborly gesture. After thanking her profusely, I asked if she had gotten a flu shot this season. “Flu shot?!?” she asked, incredulously. “Don’t you know what they put in those things? Aborted fetuses, green monkeys. No way, no flu shots or vaccines for me. I only eat organic.” I was so flummoxed that I said nothing in response (though I was tempted to tell her that I don’t think they use pesticides on fetuses or green monkeys). So, when she recently insisted that I treat my cancer with diet and essential oils, I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was bothered. Did I ask for her opinion? No, I did not. Over the years, I’ve found that some people are especially eager to offer health advice in certain circumstances–when you’re pregnant, for instance, or nursing, or it happens to be a Tuesday. But I haven’t found nearly as many people who are eager to receive it.
Even so, her warnings and ramblings unnerved me enough to email a college friend who’s now a doctor and ask him to reassure me that treating my cancer with conventional Western medicine was a perfectly sound choice. I particularly loved his response: “You can thank your neighbor for offering to murder you. Cancer treatment is one of the areas where Western medicine excels. Eating a healthy diet certainly doesn’t hurt, but to think supplements could treat cancer is total insanity. Gas, migraines, arthritis? Sure, try whatever you want.” Thanks, doc.
Well, then 