Epstein-Barr: Guilty or Not Guilty?

I'm reading Lance Armstrong's autobiography again. You may know Lance from such achievements as winning the Tour de France just 18 months after finishing treatment for testicular cancer. And then going on to win it 7 times in a row before retiring. An incredibly inspiring story. I've read it before and I'm reading it again as I've been feeling really low recently. Lance was in a much worse position than I was/am. He had brain tumours and spine tumours. He pulled through. Of course, I love the cycling talk as well and you learn a lot about the politics and team work that goes into a race winning team. It's so much more than one man and his bike.

One thing that strikes me is that Lance always refers to the cancer as an invading thing, saying things like 'cancer messed with the wrong guy'. I've always taken the attitude of trying to not hate cancer, like it isn't a foreign entity but me. It is me gone wrong. That acceptance is the way to deal with it. But the truth is is that no-one knows what this cancer is about. Whether it is like a virus that attacks or it is your body saying 'hello, you better change your attitude or I'm not going to be here for you anymore.' Hodgkin's has been linked to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) although not proven. EBV is also linked to many other dis-eases (Wikipedia: Epstein-Barr). I think it's easier to accept cancer as foreigner attacking you. It gives you something to fight. If it's you retaliating against yourself then fighting wouldn't get you anywhere. Acceptance and learning are then what is needed.

In the past I've always retaliated very much against conventional medicine. Now I am tired of fighting. I believe there is a long way to go with 'modern' medicine and that it should be used in conjunction with homeopathy and treating the cause and not the symptoms. But at the moment it is all we have, and fighting against the system that is put in place to help me is not my job. This change in medicine and peoples way of thinking will happen over time and cannot be forced. We certainly need to explore the possibilities of alternatives and pharmaceuticals have a lot to answer for in driving down the alternatives as they can't make incredible amounts of money from it. But by entirely pursuing alternatives I am in effect volunteering myself as a guinea pig. The biggest thing I have to accept is the current situation in medicine and even though there is something far better out there it hasn't yet arrived. Maybe in my next life...