I was truly shocked by both the title and the writing of this story, giving very little credence to anything but the 'power of positive thinking' that Ms. Carr represents. It is the kind of superficial article I would expect from Time or People Magazine.
I spent five years caring for my wife, a terminally ill bone cancer patient. She did ultimately die at home from her disease. During that time she was desperate to find a cure. She, like Ms. Carr, was uniformly positive in her thinking, right up to near her death. At that time, she became very despondent about her inability to cure herself. I would bet that this is not unusual, and that if Ms. Silcoff interviewed some hospice workers, and asked them what they thought of Ms. Carr's ideas, that she may have got a balanced view that would have given a different slant on this article.
Apparently Ms. Carr, who was lucky enough to be diagnosed with a slow developing fatal cancer, has become a celebrity by embracing her cancer, and laying claim to the marketing buzz of "Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor." While there is a part of this that is wonderful, in that taking charge of your cancer and being bold about declaring your willingness to stand up and be counted rather than live in fear, is a good thing, it ignores some ugly obvious truths and conclusions. The first is that there is no truth to the notion that, "Every Cancer Has A Silver Lining". I assume that Ms. Silcoff had some input into the title of such an important story. How many of you know people who had cancers without a silver lining, people who died in horrible pain, suffering and the draining of their personal resources. Ms. Carr's cancer could have gone two ways, one, killing her before she could decide to be "crazy and sexy" or one that might have stretched out for many years, as she has. Ms. Silcoff might have also mentioned that a similar situation exists for Hepatitis C and other cancer sufferers. Some die quite quickly, some can tolerate their disease for decades without significant symptoms. Any oncologist that Ms. Silcoff could have talked to could have confirmed that.
Certainly, there are some lessons that many people learn from cancer, but I would bet that there are many who don't see anything positive in dying in pain. My wife certainly didn't. Some interviews with people who didn't see anything positive about it might have given some balance to this article.
Ms. Silcoff covers Ms. Carr from the point of her celebrity. There is no questioning in the early part of the article, where it is most likely to get read, about Ms. Carr's background in all this. The reader gets to understand that Ms. Carr has the curriculum vitae's to talk about cancer as a survivor, as she has lived since her 2003 diagnosis of her rare cancer without dying from it. Fine. However, the article gives much credence to her celebrity as a cancer survivor, and her 'think positive' message. This message includes support for many products that we are not clearly able to discern whether Ms. Carr is profiting from them or not.
While Ms. Silcoff quotes Ms. Carr about being "in the trenches" we don't find out until well towards the end of the article that Ms. Carr has not really been 'in the trenches'. There is no questioning of Ms. Carr by Ms. Silcoff about whether Ms. Carr has even done the most rudimentary work with end of life patients, to see if her simplistic ideas have any credence with them. We do see that she lots of non cancer patients come up and tell her they appreciate her message in the context of some non cancer related situation. The lack of cancer sufferers feedback in this context is quite glaring.
Ms. Carr has joined the ranks of the millions of humans world wide who has been diagnosed with a cancer. Her answer was to tell people to be positive thinkers and that her positive thinking, and her taking over her own treatment, somehow is part of the reason she is still alive. While that is a nice fairy tale for those who are outside looking in at cancer, and for those grasping at straws in their battle for their lives, it just is adding more fuel to the fire that cancer is somehow caused by the patient. It is ultimately incredibly demeaning for the cancer patient who does not survive, and leads to anger as the patient feels that there should be more they could do to cure themselves. Ms. Silcoff spends much of the article glossing over Ms. Carr's actual support of other, terminally ill cancer patients.
Ms. Silcoff finally allows some skepticism of Ms. Carr, albeit it buried much later in the article. It was a welcome balance after reading such a glowing overview of Carr's fame.
For the millions of people who tonight lie in hospitals, hospices, and homes, dying of cancer, with caregivers waking throughout the night to care to bodily fluids, pain meds and the like, the continued drum beat of the power of positive thinking is the height of hypocrisy. It is the ultimate American lie, that the patient is somehow responsible for their disease, which is the root of the message of positive thinking. "If only you had been more positive you might have survived." and Ms. Silcoff gives credence to this lie. It is a dis-service that should be easy to see in this day and age of a more public face to cancer. The thing that could most help cancer patients and their caregivers is honesty. Honesty that, yes, the patient is facing what is likely sure imminent death. And given that, they can make honest assessments, as best they can given the possible pain meds they are on, to make decisions based on fact, and not fantasy.
