Never all the news

It has been four and a half months almost since my wife was diagnosed with cancer. Two days ago we finally learned that the cancer has a lower than 50% cure rate. This doctor, who we were meeting for the first time, was chagrined to learn that no one had told us about this before now. So were we.

It's not like this was a death sentence being invoked. We knew this wasn't going to be easy. My wife certainly knows this, being the one who has been cut open and irradiated over and over. Yet the doctors have known from very early on what type and grade of tumor we are dealing with and they avoided sharing this bit of news.

The question comes to our minds: How many doctors are we going to have to see before we learn everything we should be learning? No one likes sharing bad news, and we certainly don't like hearing it, either, but it's hard to make informed decisions about treatment when we don't really have all the information. We are supposed to make informed decisions.

This morning my wife told her radiation doctor about all this. The doc is now clear that we want all the news, not just the sanitized version. She's giving it to us straight. That's what we need. Maybe others appreciate the candy coating. We are way beyond that now.

Demand to know everything. Make informed decisions. This will help to avoid regret later on.