Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Giving Advice

The DFCI Facebook page posted a question: "What advice would you give someone who was just diagnosed with cancer?" It generated more than 100 responses, which is good for the page.

I was going to wade into the comment pool but what I would say was already said - be positive, advocate for yourself, do your research, don't go online, lean on friends and family.
For a moment, I was going to paste a link to this blog because most of what people talked about there, I've talked about here. I decided against it, in the end, but I couldn't help wonder why this post generated such response.

Why do people feel so compelled to offer advice and counsel on this. It's well intended and there are some truths that approach universal, but some of what I would have said as advice is really just what works for me. Should everyone write about it? Probably not. Should everyone talk about it? What if the people you talk to say idiotic things that make you feel worse? Should everyone lean on friends and family? I suppose... if you have friends and family that can be leaned on.

So in the end, I read the posts. I composed a response. Then I deleted it.

---michael

ps - I might not post as frequently in the next two weeks as I'm working on a slightly longer post and that's been occupying my train time of late.

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