Cancer boot camp: a military approach to training people to fight cancer

The video below offers a curious way of training people with cancer to fight their disease.

We're all familiar with the "boot camp" concept as it relates to the military. Young recruits, usually young men, are entered into and moved through a demanding, often harsh, training program, designed to turn them into capable soldiers (in the case of the Army). The emphasis is on pushing them to their limits, yelling at them, demanding extreme physical performance from them, in order to strengthen them in the process, to turn them into capable military men.

Well, it seems that at least one person has extended this idea to the training of breast cancer patients to deal with their situations. By using this kind of "tough love" military approach, it sort of "whips them into shape" to fight the "enemy," which is now breast cancer rather a battlefield foe.

A novel approach, to be sure, and one likely not for everyone.

Googling "cancer boot camp" brings up a number of sites addressing this approach to "training" patients as if they were raw recruits inducted into the military, in order to better fight their cancers.

So far, I have found this technique being applied only to breast cancer patients, but I suppose the idea would apply to any cancer.

The verdict on this? Well, I suppose if it works (for some people), then it works.

An interesting idea, in any case.

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y6djjCAyWI

Andrew -

Very good! I like it!

Powerful imagery has always been one of your poetic strengths, and you display it very well in the above lines. And "chemical weapons" for chemo, and "nuclear bombs" for RT? Ingenious!

I don't know but I've been told,
This prostate cancer's getting old.

Sound off, 1 - 2 -3- 4, 1,2 - 3,4!

I hated my drill sergeant 50+ years ago and know I would hate one today. If I want someone to yell at me I'm sure my wife would be glad to comply!

Jim

If it's boot camp, do we still have to worry/hate Jody?

Whatever floats anyone's boat. But for me I did boot camp once and SERE training too and that was enough for this lifetime. I hate the metaphor of cancer = battle. I don't take orders. I'm just a patient who collaborates with my doctors and expects them to collaborate with me.
Jim

I ended up in basic training the same way I got prostate cancer: I was drafted.

The following is what I stole for an article, I don't remember when or where. It's about what Navy Seals do when going through training and having the "grit" to survive it.. I see a lot of it on this forum.

What we can learn from James, the SEALs and the research on how to have grit:
1. Purpose and meaning. It’s easier to be persistent when what we’re doing is tied to something
personally meaningful.
2. Make it a game. It’s the best way to stay in a competitive mindset without stressing yourself out.
3. Be confident — but realistic. See the challenges honestly but believe in your own ability to take
them on.
4. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Grit comes a lot easier when you’ve done the work to make sure
you’re ready.
5. Focus on improvement. Every SEAL mission ends with a debrief focusing on what went wrong so
they can improve.
6. Give help and get help. Support from others helps keep you going, and giving others support does
the same.
7. Celebrate small wins. You can’t wait to catch the big fish. Take joy where you can find it when
good times are scarce.
8. Find a way to laugh. Rangers, SEALs, and scientists agree: a chuckle can help you cope with
stress and keep you going.