What makes terminal illnesses like AIDS and terminal cancer incurable?

Can’t fix broke !!

Doctors cannot fix terminal diseases !

AIDS: untreated HIV infection destroys the TCell part of the immune system, and allows otherwise minor infections to attack various parts of the body. While the body is ineffectually fighting those infections, other parts of the body are susceptible to other infections, such as pneumonia. The body becomes so weak that what would be gone in a week or a few days in a healthy body becomes deadly.

AIDS is caused by a viral infection that mutates just enough that creating an effective vaccine has not worked. Fortunately, there are other ways to prevent the spread of the infections,

Cancer is a description of a whole family of cellular mutations, which differ significantly from each other such that treatment for one is not effective for another. Treatments for melanoma are different from treatments for colon cancer are different from treatments for breast cancer. And while the link to many substances and behaviors to various cancers is demonstrated, it is difficult to say at what point the initial mutation into a cancer cell occurs.

Cancer is so complicated that there is no singular approach that will be effective for all types of cancers.

There is no cure for any disease caused by a virus, including the common cold and AIDS.

As for cancer, what Zenvelo said.

I don’t know about AIDS, but I truly suspect cancer, most cancers, aren’t cured because there is too much money to be made treating.

“What is it that we have not yet figured out?”

Well if we knew that we’d have a cure, wouldn’t we?

@seawulf575 “but I truly suspect cancer, most cancers, aren’t cured because there is too much money to be made treating”

Nonsense. A doctor could cure every patient in his office today. Tomorrow there will always be more patients.

My aunt just had a malignant tumor in her liver this week, stage 4, inoperable due to major arteries and vessels. The only hope is that chemo can shrink it and buy some time. My mom rang the remission bell yesterday on her breast cancer and her oncologist said she will probably outlive my aunt.

There is only so much doctors can do to fight this monster. Some are less aggressive, some respond to chemo some dont.

Goes to show there arent always precursors and warnings, doesnt matter if you live clean or not. My aunt didnt smoke, didnt drink, is healthy and on no meds at almost 70. Anti big pharma. My heart is breaking.

What makes it incurable is we can’t figure out how to either stop it from growing or how to completely eradicate it in the body or how to reverse the damage that is done once we finally diagnose it. One or a combination of these things.

@seawulf575 I say nonsense also. Even if you think everything is money motivated, the person or company that develops a cure will get rich, so they have every incentive to do just that.

Because the only real cure to the illness is to kill the person who has it. Like with antibiotic resistant superbugs, there is too fine a line between curing and killing.

Let me relate a little first hand tale of cancer, to those that think what I said about cancer is total nonsense. My wife had breast cancer. She found a lump during a routine mammogram. That started her into the system for cancer treatment. I, of course, started asking questions. The first came up when the radiologist showed us the mammogram and was explaining how they know there is a lump there. I pointed to a gathering of white dots on the x-ray. These, he said, are calcium deposits…that’s how they know there is a lump there. So I asked why there were calcium deposits there. He had no idea, suggested I ask the surgeon that was going to remove the lump. I asked the surgeon. He had no idea and suggested I ask the oncologist on the follow up treatments. I asked the oncologist. He says he had no idea, that he had never heard that question before. This bothered me because we see something going on at the site of the cancer and nobody has asked why it is happening? The next issue came with the follow up radiation treatments. There were radiation therapies that put a radioactive source near the site of the tumor (where it was) to provide the treatment. This allows better treatment, less damage to surrounding tissue, and fewer treatments being required for the same effect. But that isn’t the “standard” for treatments. The standard was to put a woman on a tilting table, line up where they want to treat, tattoo a series of dots onto her to ensure they always line it up the same way, and then shoot x-rays across the breast from two different angles. This treatment, right off the bat, damages all the tissue between the x-rays and the site of the tumor plus any tissue beyond that site. The standard is to do this 5 days a week for 6 weeks. The other version of radiation therapy only took 2 treatments a day for 3 days. So already they are able to increase the number of treatments (and charge for each of them) by a factor of 5. When asked about the other treatment, the oncologist indicated he knew of it but that they didn’t use it, though he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) say why. The story goes on and on like this. Add to this all the money brought in by all the “pink ribbon” initiatives in comparison to what they provide and it becomes a HUGE industry, generating billions of dollars. And before you dig into me about the pink ribbon rip-offs, I also have experience with them. One of the services they offered was to provide a ride for women getting treatments…to and from their treatments. One day I couldn’t get the time off to drive my wife and her car was in the shop. We called them up to see how we could take advantage of their service. They started off by asking what our household income was. Huh? Then, with that information they said they felt we made too much and should be able to find alternate means to and from the treatment and they would not give us that service. Additionally, I worked with a number of women that wanted to do one of the many “walks for charity” to raise money for these scam artists. Each woman was told they had to pay $2500 up front to join in the walk and then, if they could raise donations they could recoup their money. There were 10,000 women in that walk. That’s $25M from one walk. And they can’t give us a ride one time for treatments? Please.
So I am a firm believer that there is FAR more effort put into figuring out how to treat the disease and almost none put into curing the disease. If they came up with a cure, there would be billions of dollars lost in treatment.
@Darth_Algar Yes, if a patient came in and was cured, tomorrow there would be another patient. But just like with all diseases, to cure it means we understand where it comes from and why and we correct those along with getting rid of the actual disease itself. So eventually, just like with polio, it could be eradicated.

Cancer is curable and preventable. There is even a vaccine against it. I personally have cured many.

People with AIDS now can live normal lifespans.

@seawulf575 No question cancer is a money making industry and no question that the treatment you get depends on where you live and what doctor or cancer hospital you wind up at. No question that current standards of medicine might be found to be less effective than originally thought, or less effective than new standards. No question some doctors and hospitals add on treatments or add on consultations that are unnecessary for money or CYA. No question that patients have the HORRIBLE burden of having to watch out for themselves.

With all of that, I still firmly believe medical RESEARCH still actively pursues cancer cures and wants them. Doctors want them too. There is plenty of illness to treat even if we cure some of them.

Look at the new Hep C drug. It’s a cure from what I understand. They charge an unconscionable (in my opinion) price for that drug. They still are making plenty of money with cures.

I empathize with your story. When a friend of mine got breast cancer in her early 40’s she had a lumpectomy and was told if she wanted to be prudent, to help ensure it’s all taken care of and won’t come back, she should get chemo and radiation too. Her treatment didn’t cost her anything, it was under military care. I told my husband I would not do it if I was her. She did everything. 12 years later it came back (extremely rare for her type of cancer to reoccur). This time they have genetic tests. Her gene test showed that on a scale of let’s say 1–10 she’s a 5, so basically 50/50 the Chemo would be effective. Didn’t we already know that anyway? The cancer cane back and she had had the treatment. Her arteries already have some damage from the first time from the radiation, so she can’t do it again. So basically, I think I was right. No chemo and no radiation probably would have been fine in her case originally, although maybe one could argue better targeted radiation would be worthwhile. She had a double mastectomy. I really do understand what you are saying and your frustration.

My mom worked at NCI at NIH. The cancer researchers want to cure the patient’s, believe me. I know researchers/doctors who work at St. Jude’s, they want to cure those children, all children.

I had a small spot on my nose that the doc excised and biopsied it. Turned out to be cancer. But it’s gone now.

I just did a bit of googling. Calcium build up can happen anywhere @seawulf575 and it’s not unusual or abnormal. Most calcium is in our teeth and bones, but a little bit is in the blood stream. It can build up for no reason, or it can build up for a reason. In your case it sounds like it started building up in response to the cancer. So the calcium was a marker, not a problem in and of itself, so they just dismissed it.
If I am wrong @Caravanfan, please let me know. But BE NICE!

Oh is this where we get to the “my personal anecdote proves me right” part?

And we aren’t getting the whole story, either @Darth_Algar. We don’t know what @seawulf’s attitude was, or exactly how he asked questions. Was he demanding and angry? Was there some reason they choose not to give a long involved answer to his questions?

My husband’s best friend died of cancer a year ago, after a years long battle that saw him in and out of the hospital. His wife was a holy terror to the hospital staff. She is one of those people who is convinced of her own rightness, when, in actuality, she’s quite dense. She had hospital staff literally kicking her out of her husband’s room she was so combative, so certain she knew what they were supposed to do and they weren’t doing it!! God. Her poor husband, in pain, dying, and he has to tell her to STFU.

@tp, the way your question was worded (“terminal illness….terminal cancer….”) leaves no outcome, other than death. Life is terminal. Are you asking why we die? Or why some diseases kill us off before we can die of old age?

@Caravan Thats a big statement. Care to expand on that?

@KNOWITALL Sure. I’ve removed noninvasive colon cancers via colonoscopy, stage 1 breast cancers via lumpectomy, and skin cancers. Cancer is preventable by all the ways you would think (not smoking, etc.) and the vaccine is the HPV vaccine that is given to children. AIDS is now treatable with therapy to supress virus for the life of the person.

The statement doctors don’t treat cancer effectively so they can make more money is so fucking asininely stupid that it’s simply laughable.

@zenvelo Would you post the link?

@Dutchess_III The calcium was interesting. The radiologist showed us a picture of a healthy breast mammogram and then my wife’s with the lump. In the healthy breast there were a couple random white spots (calcium deposits). At the lump, there is a mass gathering of the white spots. The radiologist says “that’s how we tell there is a lump there. They always have all these calcium deposits.” My mind immediately went to “why?” I was thinking there has to be a reason for the calcium deposits. Is it that the body is throwing calcium down to try blocking the growth of the cancer cells? If so, there might be a new treatment that could be developed. Is it that the cancer cells always change to where they can’t keep calcium in solution and it falls out? If so, there might be something that could be used as an early detection test. But when I asked why, I got baffled looks. Baffled looks from the radiologist, the surgeon, and the oncologist seemed an odd reaction.
As to how I asked and what my attitude was, it was simply “Why are there calcium deposits there?” No anger, no attitude, just a question. It was a bit odd, though. The first answer I got from all three (radiologist, surgeon, oncologist) was “That’s how we tell where the lump is.” I clarified: “yes, that is what they said, but why is the calcium gathering there?” The radiologist and the surgeon told me they have no idea, that I would have to ask the next person. When I got to the oncologist, his final answer was “I don’t know. I’ve never heard that question before.” That bothers me in many ways. I’m not the smartest guy in the world so I know I’m not the first one to ask that question. Why is there no answer for it?

Oh, and @Dutchess_III I understand there is calcium all around in our bodies. Teeth, bones and blood about cover it as far as I know. But in soft tissue? That is what seems so odd about it.

From what you wrote, it sounds they don’t exactly know how or why it happens…but it’s not important. It’s enough to know that if they see calcium deposits, better take a closer look.

Googling again, I find this.
“Before launching the study, the authors had noted that many ovarian cancers express parathyroid hormone-related protein, which raises blood calcium levels. So, they hypothesized, perhaps high calcium levels might be used as an indicator of ovarian cancer – even at a very early stage.” Well, now we need to find out what “parathyroid hormone-related protein” is, and exactly how it raises the blood calcium levels.
But again, it’s really not important. They have no reason to think the calcium some how causes the cancer or makes it worse.

@seawulf575 The thing to remember is doctors aren’t researchers and medical science often doesn’t have all of the answers. Once I got that into my brain it reduced a lot of my anxiety with doctors.

Calcium can build in soft tissue from low vitamin D. That’s just one example of why it might happen. Unfortunately, mega doses of D supplement can also cause high blood calcium. High calcium levels often signal a parathyroid problem as mentioned above.

@Dutchess_III Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe calcium causes cancer. Actually, I believe it is the exact opposite. I think the body throws down calcium as a way to block the spread of the cancer. Calcium is a pH buffering agent. Changing pH can affect the growth of cells quite significantly. At the very least, some physiological change occurs where the calcium can no longer stay in solution, so to speak. In that case, there might be some early detection methodology that could be used, much as what you describe with ovarian cancer.

@JLeslie I understand that doctors aren’t researchers. But when you are talking to a specialist (a radiologist or oncologist for example) I would expect them to understand a little more about what they do. For them to not even have asked the question of why calcium is there is sloppy and lazy in my book. AND I would expect them to be up on the latest research that is out there. Let’s put it into a layman’s example. What if you planted flowers in your yard and you noticed that the ones you plant in a certain area always die. Do you just keep planting them and hope for the best? What if you notice that the area is near, say, pine trees. Do you not wonder why they don’t grow near pine trees? No. You do a little research to find out what about pine trees might not be conducive to growing flowers. That step, doing the little research when handed an indicator, is what was missing with the doctors.

@seawulf575 One of the things doctors are very good at is memorization. The amount a doctor has to remember is huge. They have actually found that on average, doctors have a larger memory center in their brains compared to the general population. This skill is a good thing, something we should all be grateful for, but at the same time it promotes rote learning, more than a thinking out of the box mindset.

Doctirs can’t experiment much, because they can be sued, and they certainly don’t want to cause harm in a hunch. They are supposed to stick to standards in medicine, that’s their role.

It frustrates me too that a lot of doctors don’t wonder more “why” or don’t question current standards in medicine when the standards don’t seem to be working.

Most doctors want to make their patients better, and want to do it in the best way for the patient.

Many doctors tell patients things that they believe will help the patient feel better or worry less, when it actually does the opposite for some of us. They do know more or wonder more than they let on, but don’t want you to worry about it, or they have read current research, but want to stop the conversation so they can leave the room and go to the next patient.

^^^Or they don’t say anything because “current research” leads to a lot of “maybe, could be” conclusions that have not, necessarily been confirmed by enough rigorous testing.

@Darth_Algar I don’t buy that. If I asked a question and the doctor told me “There is research looking at that right now, but as of right now, we don’t have a solid answer.” I’d be good with that. Going into who is looking at it or how long before they would have a solid answer is meaningless with the doctor, unless he is in that research group.

@JLeslie I agree with you on almost all of what you say, except there is on incongruity that keeps popping up to me, that brought me to my conclusion that cancer could be cured except for the money that would be lost if they did. When I look at most your statements, they are true, but stop short. For example, Doctors stick to the standards of medicine. That is true. But in every job I have had (and I have worked in scientific fields) there has always been the drive for the next thing. The thing that will open up a whole new area. Sticking to the standards is fine, so long as you are pushing for more. I don’t see that happening. Another example: Doctors want to make the patients better, and want to do it in the best way for the patient. I see that as partially true. They want to make patients better. But what they are doing is often treating symptoms. My wife had breast cancer. She had to have surgery to remove the lump and then had to do radiation therapy. That was the standard at the time. But the best way to make a patient better is to cure the disease. What I saw was that the standard made a whole lot of money, ignored other options that would be better for the patient, and couldn’t answer questions, and in fact never asked questions, that might lead to a cure. It was rote. They had X symptom, they do Y treatment. Period. That is not pushing for the next thing…that is being in a rut.

@seawulf575

Of course you don’t.

@seawulf575 I am constantly frustrated with doctors treating symptoms and not underlying causes, so we are on the same page there. I have so many stories on that very thing that it would bore you and everyone here if I wrote it all up. After years of being really angry about this, I decided that some times it’s ok to treat symptoms, because sometimes underlying causes aren’t clear. Doctors are somewhat confined by what has been tested and proven though, they can’t just go willy nilly guessing and treating. Although, I do have too many doctors who ignore what I tell them, and if I want anything from a doctor what I want most is to be believed. If I tell a doctor that I can control my blood pressure if I keep my thyroid in line, I don’t want to be told one has nothing to do with the other (this just happened to me). That’s ridiculous! I know a ton of people who have their blood pressure go up when they TSH is high. How the hell do we (the patients) know that and the doctors don’t? Not all doctors, but too many. Not all patients, but enough.

My girlfriend’s doctor didn’t take her seriously when she said she found a lump. She already had had a double mastectomy, because every woman in her family gets breast cancer, so she did for prevention. When she finally saw the doctor 6 weeks later (that’s when they could fit her in), well, yup, cancer! Doctor told her, “I guess you know your body, I will have to listen to you next time.” No shit Sherlock. She was in her 60’s, not a teen going through puberty.

I just want to be believed. If I am taken seriously, I will babble less, because I will feel heard. Well, believed, and I need to feel the doctor is open to what I am saying, or willing to tell me why I am on the wrong track.

Doctors don’t want patients to keep their cancer. If the patient dies, they will no longer be a paying patient. Pharmaceutical companies certainly like for you to be on their drugs for long periods of time, but that is a separate issue, there are plenty of research companies and our government that want to find cures. Researchers from all over the world come together for cancer research to find cures at our National Cancer Institute.

I recommend you watch at least the first couple of minutes of this Leslie Stahl interview regarding cancer drugs and oncologists who evaluate the drugs for their patients. It will make you feel better and worse. I have written Leslie Stahl, I want her to do more on drug pricing and how our system works. I wish she did a report every week outing pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, insurance companies, and companies that employ doctors.

@JLeslie Good link. That goes back to what I have said for a long time about cutting our overall healthcare costs. We need to reel in pharmaceutical prices as one leg of that effort. If a Pharma company produces a drug and can sell it to Canada or Mexico for $5/pill, there is absolutely no reason they should be allowed to charge $50/pill in the US, just because they believe the market can bear it. Yes, I know…it goes against my capitalistic nature, but it borders on monopoly as it is. The drug companies are in competition, but are also in cooperation because they know that as long as they can all play that game, they all win.
I am a horrible patient for doctors, but I am also a really good patient. I don’t have any real health concerns. BP, glucose, weight, cholesterol…you name it they are all good. Even a little low in most cases. That’s why I’m a bad patient. But when something is going on that makes me want to go to the doctor, I usually do a little research first. When do I notice the symptoms, is there anything going on that seems to be affecting them, have I started something new in my life…all that gets answered before I ever go to the doctor. When I sit down to fill him in on what’s going on, I give him all the research as well. That’s why I’m a good patient. But if a doctor ignores me or says something I don’t understand, I will question him until I am satisfied. I’m like you…I want to understand and I want to be believed.

But you have to be willing to believe what the doctors tell you, too. You believe, for example, that the calcium has some effect on the tumors, good or bad. You don’t sound like you’re willing to believe that is not true.

@Dutchess_III I believe that because no one has ever confirmed or denied. Deer-in-the-headlights look doesn’t count ad denying it. As I said….none of the doctors had a clue or could even tell me what they had heard about it. They had just never heard the question before. So don’t read into it or try creating a narrative. I have been very clear.

It’s whatever.

”Deer-in-the-headlights look doesn’t count ad denying it.” Whut?

@seawulf575 It’s why runaway capitalism doesn’t work well for healthcare. Monopolies and collusion are rampant in the system. The patient in a life and death situation has zero leverage, they need the treatment. It doesn’t even have to be life and death, it can just be a quality of life issue, or ability to get through a work day.

Health is not the same as buying a dress or selling perfume. It’s why countries like the UK, Canada, and many others have strong commitments to private business and capitalism, but at the same time understand healthcare is in a separate category.

Just something for you to ponder, I’m not looking to argue about it.

A lot of people who say they want full out competition in healthcare often have never paid attention to the costs of healthcare, they maybe have good healthcare coverage through their jobs, or they are the type of people who never question their doctors. If they are lucky they haven’t been very sick. They don’t understand there is not competition in all areas of healthcare, and there won’t be. Pharmaceutical companies are granted patents, sometimes there is only on hospital within 20 minutes of a person’s house. Standards of care vary from state to state and even doctor’s office to doctors office in some cases, although still within a standard acceptable to the state or the locality in which the doctor is practicing. Unless that has changed. The laws basically protect rural doctors from being kept to the same standard as a doctor in a setting where he has the highest tech available. Or, that’s the old reasoning behind it anyway.

I guess I just got crazy lucky that all of the doctors who ever treated me just wanted to heal me. All the hospitals I’ve ever been in just wanted me well enough to get out.

@Dutchess_III

I’m guessing you also never went into a doctor’s office already knowing all the answers.

Spit take

@JLeslie Unfortunately, socialized medicine doesn’t work well either. Most, if not all, the countries with socialized medicine have long waits and limited services unless you can afford to buy health insurance that will put your name to the top of the list or enable you to get special treatments. The problem we have in this country with healthcare is that nobody has actually taken the time to have the difficult discussions. We get very polarized and want to go all or nothing, one way or the other. There are lots of discussions that people don’t want to have, or have honestly. Let’s look at Sweden as an example. They have a lot of free stuff that the people get….education, healthcare, etc. And people in this country want that. But then you look at how they pay for it. Personal income tax at 60%. Social Security tax at 7% for individuals. Sales tax at 25%. We can have many of the same things they have, but it will cost us. It will require many changes within our government on how they operate. It would require most of us to pay at least another 25% our or income to taxes.
But the situation for healthcare…just like all other issues in our country, needs to start with an open and honest discussion. It needs to look at all the things that drive up the costs and make tough decisions sometimes on how to deal with those things. But our leadership in this country is dysfunctional so these things will never happen.

@seawulf575 I would love to be back under military care. I don’t know what the numbers are like for running our military hospitals and clinics.

My uncle, who is politically conservative, and a retired doctor, always bitched about the VA and socialized medicine ideas. Now, he actually uses the VA (he didn’t bother previously when he was working full time) and has completely done an about face on the topic.

@JLeslie I wasn’t impressed with the military care. It was mediocre to poor in my opinion. Too many quacks, no way to really voice displeasure…it was sad. Example: I got a sinus infection. I went to my corpsman on the boat. He agreed it was a sinus infection but was not allowed to dispense the antibiotics I needed. I had to go to the base hospital for that. He told me to tell the doctor what I had, that he (the corpsman) agreed and he should give me antibiotics. Good so far, right? I got to the hospital had to wait an hour or so, got in to see the doctor, told him I had a sinus infection, gave him my symptoms (including sinus pressure and green snot) and told him the corpsman agreed. His response was “I’m the doctor here!”. He sent me for x-rays.
The x-ray technician took a series of 5 shots of my head (from different angles). He screwed up 3 of those and had to re-take them, screwed up 1 of those and had to retake it. That’s a lot of x-rays. Then I’m back to waiting for a couple hours. I finally got back in to see the doctor after lunch. He looked at the x-rays and said, and I quote, “Here’s the problem. You have congested sinuses here and here!” pointing to my sinuses on the picture. I felt it was a brilliant conclusion since that is what I told him when I walked in hours before. He then wrote me out a prescription for Fiorinal. When I got back to the boat, the corpsman asked me if I got the antibiotics. I told him I didn’t think so and told him what I got instead. He looked shocked. He pulled out his Physicians Ready Reference manual to look up Fiorinal. It is a painkiller made up of aspirin, codeine, and phenobarbitol. The directions on the bottle said to take one when I felt pain. All that to get a treatment that masked symptoms instead of curing a simple sinus infection. And no recourse.
Now you might think that sort of thing was unique, but it wasn’t. There was a case when I was in of a doctor that showed up drunk to deliver a baby and the baby died. There was no recourse for that family either other than to file a complaint. Now, fast forward 30 years or so. What did we have going on with the VA? Long waits, poor care, delaying services until people died….and no recourse. See the common thread here? Poor performance with no fear of reprisals.

@seawulf575 Like all of our medical systems there are bad stories in all of the public and private, but at least when you were bounced around you didn’t pay every time. You just spent a long time telling us you frustrating experience in private healthcare, why does that not count too? I just paid over $500 for two appointments that got me nowhere! I won’t bore you with the stories. My experience with DOD medical care was very positive overall, although there are a few things I could complain about. My dad loves the VA clinic here where I live, most of the vets I know here are very happy with the care. My uncle uses the VA in Orlando I think, and he is happy there. In TN a man I knew who had cancer used the VA and always spoke well of his care there. You hear the worst stories, that is what gets promoted. People die in private car all of the time. Maybe the general public is more upset when it is a vet, because they served our country, and the average poor guy is seen as not worthy. That’s pretty shitty. And, don’t think it is just poor people dying, plenty of people get crappy care in the private system, either because the doctor was incompetent, insurance wouldn’t pay, or insurance deemed a treatment unworthy. This happens in all systems.

As far as waits, some of the awaiting gets fixed. I have to wait a few months for some appointments also our here in private healthcare. When Canada had long waits for MRI’s they bought more MRI machines. The waits are shorter for most than when that story first circulated ten years ago here in the states. Not that I want a system just like Canada’s. I think we need to think it through, look at many systems. I also always want people to be able to buy healthcare outside of the public system if they want to.

What an odd thing to say, @Darth_Algar! Of course I have gone to the doctors already knowing what was wrong with me, or the kids. I needed them to get a script for antibiotics.

@JLeslie yes, I did not pay for the treatment I got in the military. But someone did. These idiots were collecting paychecks. And yes, I have had issues with private healthcare. I have had doctors I felt were not good. And guess what? I found a new doctor. With the military I didn’t have that option. If a private doctor did what was done to me in the military, I could file a complaint with the AMA if I wanted. In the military I couldn’t. And so they could continue to provide poor service and bad diagnoses and treatments to others. The check/balance system is not there.

Of course someone pays for the medical care given. Of course it is not free.

@seawulf575 Well, when I didn’t like what the ENT doctor told me I went back to my primary, and she sent me to infectious disease. The ID doctor cured me. I wasn’t on a ship or at an isolated base, that was at Bethesda Naval. You can’t compare having access to one or two doctor to having access to a large medical center or a city with many many doctors. That’s true in private and military. Even military can go out of the system if they want to and pay. That is, if they aren’t on a submarine.

They’re not incurable, just now curable at this point.

@flo

HIV is pretty much at the point where it can be treated like a chronic illness. As far as cancer – there are many different kinds, and all are different from one another. Some are treatable, some are even fairly easily cured, some are not so easy to treat. Some are an almost guaranteed death sentence. What works on one form won’t necessarily work on another form.

…It’s just one more example of mistermed things.

And that’s really of serious consequence, which hopelessness, depression, and worse, just because of misterming it.

Oh…kay…

My typo above…Please read “just not curable at this point“_

They’re only relatively “incurable”, and only for the present age.

@flo some cancer is curable, some is not.
Some cancer that is curable to day was not curable 10 years ago.
It is not a “misterm.”

Story out today of a 2nd person cured of HIV.

^^^ SCORE!!

Incurable means forever and ever, in no way will it be curable. Today’s news regarding stem cells cured-ish is the point that proves my point exactly.

No, that is not true @flo. AIDS was incurable until very recently.
Syphilis was incurable until the advent of antibiotics in the 50s.

… To continue, Not just today’s news but everything was said to be quote unquote “incurable” therefore it makes it misterming

There is no face nor palm big enough…

@Darth_Algar I wish I was that eloquent !

Not everything has always been incurable.

Nothing has ever been incurable.

A lot of diseases are still incurable. EBOLA, Polio, the common cold, just to name a few.

Been responded to.

I am saying that when you said “Nothing has ever been incurable” you were wrong.

Cure has still not been found yet.
Cure wasn’t found at that time.
Never incurable.

Death. Death is incurable. Unless you’re Jesus.