My husband is constantly being urged to 'be positive' going in to treatment. Perhaps it is just my nature, but I really crave a bit more 'be positive but realistic'. Maybe its because, with covid, I've never met his doctors.

When doctors smile and tell him how great the outcomes of the latest treatment will be, especially given his age, it feels to me, like they are encouraging him to be naiive.

He is facing a cancer with 15% survival to 5 years. His treatment could boost that to 30% survival to 5 years if he can stay the course, but with 55% experiencing such serious side effects that the treatment will be discontinued. So I wouldn't mind if he was being told that one in three get a good outcome from this, sounds like good odds, or maybe, given that he is at the youngest end of the age range, for him it is more like one in two. But to act like it will be a walk in the park, and he will be fixed, just feels to me like the doctor is being untruthful, though it may just be his way of trying to keep my husband positive.

I really struggle with hearing, cheerfully, that his chances are 'very good' in the face of all the evidence, but I feel like I'd be wrong to challenge it infront of my husband, lest I burst the positivity illusion his doctors want to create. So I'm telling you in Internet land, to get it off my chest!