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Week of 15 June 2015: The Topic of Cancer
Sponsored by Genesis Energy, LP--your exclusive source for NAHS--1-800-422-6274

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No, not the Tropic of Cancer--the topic of Cancer. It has happened again in the last couple of weeks. I have seen someone receive the news of possibly having cancer and the reaction has been typical. Fear, disbelief, and denial.

I know what I am talking about here--I have received this news twice in my life--February 2000 and November 2006. You don't forget it. If you haven't personally received this news already, you or someone close to you will someday.

The number one issue is speed. The hint of news that you may have cancer should cause you to drop everything and get to the best place there is to diagnose and treat the kind of cancer you think you have. Steve Jobs would likely be alive today if he had not dilly-dallied around with voodoo cures. Most cancer "families" have a center of excellence somewhere in the country. Go to it. Now. I don't care if it is clear across the country from where you live, be there by this time tomorrow, unless you have to drive, then drive straight through and be there the day after tomorrow. I don't care if they say they don't have an open appointment until next February, go there and pound on their door until they pay attention to you.

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You don't have a cold, although I wish you did, instead of cancer.

Cancer is not cancer is not cancer. That is why you have to get to a center of excellence for the family of cancers you may be facing.

In 2000, when I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, they thought there were 15 kinds of lymphomas, both Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's. By 2006, when I was diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma, they had identified 150 types of lymphomas. Who knows how many they have found by now.

Breast cancer is not breast cancer, pancreatic cancer is not pancreatic cancer and so forth and so on. For every "street name" there is for a general type of cancer there are many, many clinical names and they are all treated differently and have different outcomes. Back to Steve Jobs--he had a type of pancreatic cancer, but not the type that typically kills within six months.

You have to know what you have, down to the finest detail. And you have to fight. On my computer is a printed strip I put there in 2006. It says "I want to live."

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The mistaken idea that uptime is directly related to market conditions: Mills generally run flat out ... Check out the latest edition of Strategic & Financial Arguments.

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People have all kinds of crazy excuses, besides treatment being too far away, when it comes to treatment. One is cost. Your treatment could cost somewhere between $50,000 and $750,000 today. I was on one chemo drug, for instance, that cost $12,000 per liter in 2006. If you want to live, you can find a way to raise the money.

Enough said. Print out this column and put it somewhere so you can find it when you need it. Hey, I want you to live. I need you--I need all the readers I can find!

Seriously, this column is off topic---but it is on topic. Some readers of this column will get the news, within the next couple of weeks, that they or someone they know has cancer. If it jolts them out of denial, it was well worthwhile for all of us to spend a week of column time on it.

What are your cancer experiences? You may take our quiz here (it is just one easy question this week).

Be safe and we will talk next week.

You can own your Nip Impressions Library by ordering "Raising EBITDA ... the lessons of Nip Impressions."


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