I rant for life

I just watched tonight's "Dateline NBC" interview with Melissa Etheridge that I taped earlier tonight. I like her music, I respect her for standing for what she believes in, but I think she -- and the media hungry for a ratings bonanza -- are presenting a false picture to future cancer patients in talking about her experience.

On Dateline, Etheridge said she decided to forgo the prescription drugs for a "natural" method -- medical marijuana.

I understand that everyone's experience with cancer treatment is different. I've had it fairly easy, so maybe I'm not understanding what she's talking about. But if what you're using to ease the side effects of chemo leaves you "in another place," glassy eyed, in pain and unable to speak for several days, maybe what you're using ain't working, honey.

Go check out the discussion boards at breastcancer.org. There's a lot of people going through "dose dense" chemo like Etheridge did, but they don't sound like they're near death. In fact, there's a lot of criticism of her talking about this. There was also criticism of when she was Oprah's show a few weeks back (a whole 10-minute interview) that her description of her reaction to chemo -- "that it's taking you as close to death" as you can get -- would have scared a few people off from that treatment if they hadn't already started it. It would have for me.

Really, it should be the media outlets that get the criticism. Especially "Dateline," which is supposed to be a news program. How about presenting a balanced view, NBC? How about the story of an ordinary woman going through breast cancer treatment? Someone who isn't a millionaire rock star who can "erase" six months of her life for treatment without worrying about how to feed her family or if the lights will get shut off? How about breast cancer patients who don't find chemo puts them near death and go back to work two days (or less) after their treatment day? This is the kind of crap that makes me sorry I chose journalism as a career field.

But that's a whole other topic.