This advice for cancer patients makes sensible suggestions on issues such as diet, hygiene and safety. It is intended to supplement the advice given in the author's medical memoir CANCER PATIENT, which focuses on the issue of how to manage the information overload which is associated with having cancer.

This poem called ADVICE FOR CANCER PATIENTS is one of the poems in the cancer poems section of the Genghis Lotus Poetry Collection which is hosted at two locations, genghislotus.com and zenvirus.com/genghislotus/.

This poem is by Hugh Cook, author of the medical memoir Cancer Patient, the full text of which is available to read for free online.

Click to read Cancer Patient

ADVICE FOR CANCER PATIENTS

Eat sensibly.
Try to cultivate
A varied diet.
Fruit and vegetables are recommended.
Broccoli
Is so disgustingly healthy
That you cannot possibly avoid it.
Do not restrict your dietary intake
To any one of the foods in the following list:
Sherbet,
Treacle,
Sliced lotus root
Or chewing gum.
Do not misconstrue
Alcohol as a vitamin.

Do not share your medications with others
And do not sample theirs, either.
Keep dangerous substances,
Including your personal thoughts,
Well out of the reach of children.
In the case of extreme pain
Your doctor may opt for morphine
Or diamorphine.
But please do not self-prescribe.

Be warned that some herbs
Are serious medicines
And your doctors should be advised
If you are taking them.
Additionally,
There are certain herbs
Which may be illegal in the jurisdiction
In which you are domiciled.

Take exercise regularly.
Be sure to get out of bed
At least once in the course of a day.

Minimize risk.
You have taken your life
To the most serious casino that there is.
Do not make things worse.
This is not the time to be experimenting
With a fresh marriage,
A new job,
Scuba diving,
Bungee jumping
Or Russian roulette.
And always keep in mind this:
A busy road is not a fun park.
Look BOTH ways
Then look again
In the direction of the prevailing traffic,
And only cross when you are ABSOLUTELY SURE
That it is safe.

For the sake of health, underpants
Should be changed at least once in every lunar month.
Toenails,
If never cut,
Will eventually become inconvenient.
Your hair, if never washed,
Will ultimately become attractive to cockroaches.
What else can I tell you?
If a stranger approaches you in a darkened cinema,
Remember that the usher is your friend.
Oh, and ... keep your fingers crossed.


Copyright © 2007 Hugh Cook
May be photocopied for classroom use

This cancer poem touches on the subject of advice for cancer patients. A chapter relating to this subject can be found in the online medical memoir Cancer Patient.

Click to read related chapter:
Chapter Sixty-One

Summary of Chapter Sixty-One
of Cancer Patient:

And what a long strange trip it's been! What a saga! And what did I learn along the way? Well, in a practical sense, what I was doing a lot of the time was processing information, and I have a few practical hints which, I hope, may help someone, somewhere, with the tricky task of managing the information load that accompanies a diagnosis of cancer. Managing information is not the easiest thing to do when reality has fractured and a world of strangeness is pouring in through the cracks. Here, then, some practical hints for cancer patients, all focused on the topic of information management. Looking for advice? This is, really, the one and only chapter of the book which ventures to give any. Click here to read this chapter

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