The late Jake Seliger and his widow Bess blogged at length about their experience navigating the medical system after his squamous cell cancer diagnosis. That was in 2023-25 though.
jakeseliger.com
bessstillman.substack.com
jakeseliger.com
bessstillman.substack.com
The first cancer-related post - https://jakeseliger.com/2024/05/25/the-one-year-anniversary-...
Bess is an ER doctor, but even with all that medical knowledge, navigating cancer care seemed difficult.
So those with no medical knowledge from themselves or family or friends may have a much more difficult time.
If I ever get such a disease, I have it in writing with my family that I will not seek any treatment after the first recommendation, I will not do experimental treatments and I will not prolong a life of suffering. Rather go out under my own terms.
I'm forever grateful to Jake for writing his experiences in such detail and candidness.
It is only by giving people too much and too little chemotherapy that humans figured out the dosages and regimens that optimize survival and minimize relapse rates.
I think about it a lot when I see kids in the pediatric cancer ward, and what decision I would make for myself, versus the decision to subject a child to very painful treatments to kill the cancer. And how mine only has a good prognosis because so many others went through hell, and didn’t survive.