Radiation and Chemotherapy

[astroAPhi]

carnation, I'm so sorry about your father in law. My grandpa's funeral was a week ago from today, so I understand what your family is going through. In his case, it seems like it was more the treatment that killed him than the cancer. He got too dehydrated from the chemo and had an infection in his mouth. The cancer was supposedly gone, but they told him he should finish the treatments anyway. A whole lot of good that did him. To be fair, he was 80 years old and lived a good long life. But I wish we had just forgone the treatment because he was simply too weak to do it.

My other grandpa passed away from cancer a year and a half ago at age 83. The small doses of radiation he got were enough to keep him comfortable and give him about 6 more months with us. He never got sick from the treatments and it was only his last few days that were bad.

I think chemo and radiation can do wonderful things for some people, but isn't a viable treatment for all people. In the case of the elderly, I think it's just a good idea to make them comfortable so that they can put their affairs in order and go out peacefully.