Will to Fight is Not False Hope
A patient who is enrolled in a clinical trial may have mixed feelings.
On the one hand, clinical trials may offer novel therapies that aren’t yet available, and these therapies may have a dramatic effect on the patient’s illness. On the other hand, clinical trials are experimental, and there are never any guarantees (well, except maybe side effects) to drugs.
It’s understandable that one of the mixed bag of feelings a patient has is “false hope.” The patient doesn’t want to get his hopes up, because it would be devastating to have that hope dashed to the ground.
However, we want to be careful and not mistaken willingness to fight with breeding false hope. A willingness to fight is focused squarely on our attitudes and behaviors, every moment, and moment by moment. False hope is focused squarely on the result.
There are some patients who bravely fight a disease and lose. There are also some who bravely fight a disease and win - or “win for now”.
We may have little control over the ultimate outcome of a fight against a disease, but we can always choose how we fight.
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3 opinions for Will to Fight is Not False Hope
justice
Apr 27, 2006 at 12:10 am
we’ve had this situation too in our family. told by some doctors that the drug to be used could either have a negative or positive result.
my and my siblings’ hopes were shattered, when the treatment didn’t work for my dad, because it worked for my mom.
what i’ve learned is that, we have to understand the fact that it’s a per case basis on how each patient’s body would react.
***sorry, i’m not sure if i’m still on the topic here :-)***
Jane Chin, Ph.D.
Apr 27, 2006 at 9:14 am
Justice you’re still on topic, and thanks for sharing.
You’re right, it can be devastating when a treatment doesn’t work. It differs from person to person, which is why medicine is still in large part, an “Art”.
Chinspirations.com (est. 1997) » Volume I Issue 2 April 23-29, 2006
Apr 28, 2006 at 9:01 am
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