h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Cancer; A Personal Story - A3051802
Author: greyhares - U922350

While I may add to this story in the future as my treatment continues, it is complete in itself now.

Hi,

I enjoyed reading your entry an found it very intresting, I just hope never to be in the same situation myself

As a first guide entry, it is very well written and if I could remember the appluse smilie, I woul insert it here ..

However, the edited guide is probably not the place for this kind of personal account, however the Underguide is a great way for articels that do not fit into the criteria for Edited guide articles to be posted and get into the system.

It may well be worth moving this article to the alterive writing workshop where the Underguide reviewers can have the honor of reading your article

cheers

tjm

Well not so quick, there's a precedent for this sort of stuff.
A602876 - My Life with a Cyst on my Brain and A531848 My Experience with Cancer are similar. I don't expect that the one topic one entry rule applies, as it's not really the same story.

I imagine we might need to get approval of the italics for this though.

This said, I thought it was a wonderfully told story. Rather than offensive, it's nice how you've managed to keep your sense of humor about it.

If I posted my story incorrectly I apologize. I'm new here and apparently need to learn to navigate the site more affectively. I do appreciate your kind words and suggestions.

Tom

Jordan,

Thank you for your kind words and inspirational story.

Tom

Keep fighting - keep writing - we're all behind you on this one.

Thanks for your story. I found it very interesting to compare it with my own experiences in chemo -- some the same and some different.

Along with the problem of nausea, many chemo regimens devastate the white blood cells and leave the body vulnerable to infection. My oncology nurse said that Neupogen, a drug to stimulate white blood cell production, was even more important than anti-nausea drugs. Have they given that to you?

For non-US readers, you might want to insert a brief explanation of HMO and PPO. Not everyone has our absurd system of health care!

Fascinating story greyhares.

Good luck with the treatment.

All the critics of the NHS should take notice too.

F

Just a note to say I submitted this for recommendation for the EG, and it was rejected... I can't figure out why, as the two entries I pointed to earlier, A602876 - My Life with a Cyst on my Brain and A531848 My Experience with Cancer managed to get in, and they are basically in the same format.

Has the guide changed this much so quickly?

I've noticed that generally in Peer Review (in the two-and-a-half months I've been here) the entries that have anything to do with personal experience tend to get nominated for a move to the AWW or at least out of Peer Review. Now that there's ever more and more submissions, my guess is that the Editors are being more and more picky, which is a pity since there are some entries of this type that are really quite excellent. Thank goodness we have the AWW and the UnderGuide.

Greyhares, you may want to try submitting this entry to the Alternative Writing Workshop (that's the AWW I was talking about). There's a link to it from the Peer Review page, and it's a review forum for those entries that don't fit the Writing Guidelines for the Edited Guide. If your entry gets picked from this it will end up in the UnderGuide, which is the unconventional equivalent of the Edited Guide.

EMR

I've generally felt (in the nearly two years I've been here ) that the EG should live up to its title as the unconventional guide to life, the universe and everything. The UnderGuide - at least the UnderGuide I know - wasn't made to deal with this sort of thing.

Based on the precedents of the two entries I mentioned, this should be eligible for the EG. The UG guidelines (which I helped write) state that we can't accept entries eligible for the EG, which is of course a decision generally made by the UG Editors. This was consciously put in to keep creative entries which could conceivably be made into EG material from being shoved off into the undergrowth.

"my guess is that the Editors are being more and more picky"

The editors don't decide which entries are recommended, the scouts do. They're the ones to be picky, and the eds use a checklist on a clipboard.

I concede; the scouts are getting more picky then.

EMR

No, I recommended it as a scout.

It has occurred to me that this is an incredibly ridiculous conversation, so I withdraw from it with one remark: didn't you say the editors had overruled your recommendation? Thus the editors tastes have, shall we say, altered slightly.

EMR

I'm still appealing the decision in email.

And of course the eds tastes have changed. Not one of the current ones was around in 2001 or 2000, to have the chance to see why those entries were accepted.

Given the precedent set by the other entries, I have to say that this does belong in the EG. I hope I'll see it there soon, maybe....

EMR

I agree, let's see it in the EG.

Anyone else like to add to this?

F

There are a number of reasons why, regrettably, this won't be going into the Edited Guide. As has already been mentioned, we already have an entry on one person's experience with cancer. While we accept that everyone's experiences will differ - indeed no two people will have the same experience - our existing entry was accepted with a view that it would be our one experiential entry on the subject. Any subsequent stories can be posted to that entry as fresh conversations without detracting from either the existing entry or the new one.

Secondly, some concessions were made in the past to first-person 'experience' entries, and occasionally we may feel that an Edited Guide submission on a new topic might well benefit from that approach, but that was before the advent of the UnderGuide. We do not believe the UnderGuide to be a dumping ground, as some have suggested. We see it as a natural companion to the Edited Guide to offer a home to entries that might not make it into the EG for whatever reason - repetition of subject matter being one.

We recognise that it must have taken a lot of courage to write this entry, and we would like to see that rewarded in some way - our recommended route being the UG - but unlike WW2, or the wider h2g2 Guide, h2g2's Edited Guide is not about collecting a breadth of experience but selecting entries that might be considered representative on a subject. Unfortunately, someone beat you to it on this one.

It's never easy to pass on an entry like this - and I suspect one of the reasons 'third-person' entries became the preferred style is that it's much easier to make a judgement on a neutral report than an emotional personal story. But we're honoured you chose to share your story with us, greyhares, and we wish you all the best.

Jimster
(on behalf of the h2g2 team)

"We do not believe the UnderGuide to be a dumping ground, as some have suggested. We see it as a natural companion to the Edited Guide to offer a home to entries that might not make it into the EG for whatever reason - repetition of subject matter being one."

Funny, that's not what I signed up for... certainly it's an aspect of it, but the UG is more about helping the AWW than helping PR. I pointed it out in email that when I helped write the UnderGuideLines, one of the guidelines was that the UG couldn't accept entries suitable for the EG... this was obviously so we wouldn't be conflicting, but also because we wanted to keep the EG creative and not progress on the dry, boring path it was on.

I can't see this going into the UG - largely because it's not in the AWW and the scouts don't like to move to the AWW. Also, it's my opinion that it isn't suitable for the UG because of the guideline I mentioned before.



As for the idea of keeping it out because it's a duplicate, that's absurd... It's not the same topic at all. The 'My' in the title of the previous entry indicates it's that person's tale... the 'A Personal Story' in this one indicates it is this person's tale.

I'm curious how you know that "our existing entry was accepted with a view that it would be our one experiential entry on the subject." as all current members of staff came onto h2g2 about a year or more after the entry was accepted. I suspect that the eds at the time just didn't take themselves quite as seriously.

Jodan, the former Editors of h2g2 work scant yards away from the present ones - we do still talk occasionally Additionally, this is not the first time that an entry has been submitted that covers a lot of the same ground as an existing entry, so this is very much in keeping with the editorial proposition established before we joined the team.

However, if the UnderGuide Editors are also unwilling to take this entry on, then that's your choice and we respect that.

Best wishes,

Jimster
(on behalf of the h2g2 Team)