i was so saddened by the announcement yesterday that elizabeth edward's breast cancer has metastasized to the bone. john said that it is *treatable, but not curable* at this point.
i've always admired them as a couple (my dream team for the upcoming elections would be edwards/obama). they are so devoted to each other & their family. they have two such young children.
a medical expert on GMA said this morning that she could well still be alive in five years & who knows what treatments might become available in that time. i sure hope that's what happens.
john edwards says he will continue to pursue the democratic nomination.
kris
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an ABC soap fan since i was a teen. favorte hobby is reading mysteries & legal or medical procedural mysteries
OH my heart and prayers go out to them. Unfortunately our family is experiencing something similar. Our neice Brittany just found out that she has a tumor in her brainstem. Apparently it's been there since she was probably about 11. They can't do a biopsy so they aren't sure if it's cancer, they were able to use a special machine that usually can work like a colored x-ray and gives a certain color to cancer cells, but they weren't able to see much with it. She started chemo pills and radiation treatment this week. Luckily the leading doctor on this particular type of tumor is in St.Louis from Houston for the next few weeks also. Hopefully the treatments will work and it will not gorw back or if it does something new will be out at that time. It's just in a horrible place because they can't operate because of the location of it.
I lost both my mother and my older sister to breast cancer, and know that this certainly isn't good news.
Now for my rant: WHEN, exactly, are doctors and women going to get smart about having lumpectomies??? For heaven's sake! NO ONE needs to "save" a breast these days with reconstuctive surgery so readily available when keeping the damned thing may mean sacrificing one's life.
I have a childhood friend (have known each other since we were eight) who had breast cancer about seven years ago. There was no history in her family, and yet there it was.
The lump was small, and everyone advised her to go for the simple lumpectomy.
I BEGGED her to have the mastectomy instead. She knew my motives since she remembered my mother's and sister's deaths quite well. Unfortunately, she didn't take my advice... She was well for five years (celebrated), and then within a few months, the cancer came back in the other breast. At that point, she DID have to have the mastectomy, and lymph nodes were involved this time too which meant that chemo was necessary to save her life. She also realized that the chances that it had spread were far greater than they would have been if she'd had the mastectomy in the first place.
Since then, she has also had lymphodema, and a scare with a sore rib (just like Elizabeth Edwards ). So far, so good (thank God), but she's gone through far more trauma than she ever would have if she'd just gotten rid of the breast in the first place, had reconstruction, and gotten on with her life.
Cancer doesn't play around, and doctors shouldn't play around with their patients' lives. Be aggressive. It's not worth it to play Russian roulette with your life...
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
ooh thats scary. I feel really bad for John Edwards though I am a little irritated that he plans to go ahead with the campaign despite his wife being so ill. I hope he doesnt plan on getting sympathy votes for it. I like the guy but really hate it when people choose work, or other things over there family. His campaign will quite possibly take him away from her a lot.
oh and Moore dont worry about me, as the holder of a set that are really too big for my taste (sorry for getting personal) I look for any oppurtunity to get rid of them...
Shelly, I have the feeling that Elizabeth would be FURIOUS with her husband if he bailed out of his campaign because of her disease, and I imagine that SHE's the one who's insisting that he stay in the race. I'm guessing too that he would drop out in an instant if she asked him to do so...
She knows what happens with her will happen, whether he's in the campaign or not. She will be well (which is what we all pray for), or she won't. His campaign will not alter that -- only her treatments, her own determination to live, and prayer.
If he were my husband, I would do exactly the same thing that I'm sure Elizabeth Edwards is doing. I would tell him that the health issues are out of our hands to a certain degree anyway, and that his possible election as President of the United States is a battle that HE must pursue without guilt. Frankly, I don't think that Elizabeth Edwards needs that little guilt trip heaped onto her shoulders right now anyway!
I doubt that a sympathy vote will play into this. While everyone prays for her recovery, I don't think that people will put someone into the White House because his wife is going through chemo...
-- Edited by Moore ideas at 13:20, 2007-03-23
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
very good points, I had a skipper at my last command while we were in Kuwait his wife was really sick and rather then be with her he opted to stay in the desert (where btw he was making loads of money). There wasnt a need for him to be with us, but he decided to stay rather then be with his wife, so I guess thats what I was thinking about when I read that John would continue his journey. I for one am glad that John is continuing in his campaign, and your right he probably wont get sympathy votes this is what the third time he has tried to get into the white house.
moore, i completely agree w/you. if they found i had breast cancer i'd be telling to get rid of that breast sooner rather than later.
elizabeth doesn't want her husband to drop from the race. from everything i've heard about him he would drop in a heartbeat if it was what she wanted.
shelly, remember that first reporter...from NBC i think....who died in iraq due to the blood clot from extended travel? i am still angry w/him. he CHOSE to refuse treatment b/c he didn't want to *loose* his big story. not a thought in his head for his family....the woman he left widowed & the children he left fatherless. every time i hear him compared to what happened to bob woodruff my head wants to explode!!!
kris
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an ABC soap fan since i was a teen. favorte hobby is reading mysteries & legal or medical procedural mysteries
You know, back in 1991 I had a shadowy mamogram, and I figured that my genetic clock had "ticked", and that it was my turn to face breast cancer. This was actually about six months before my sister died, and we didn't know that she was terminal yet...
I had a biopsy (this was in June), and everything came out just fine. I was completely floored, because I was certain that there would be cancer present, and had mentally prepared for it. In fact, my sister asked me how I was dealing with it, and I said, "You know...I'm actually fine with it. I don't have to wait and wonder anymore when this is going to strike me."
It was at that point when I decided that I would just go ahead and have a preventive double mastectomy. I met with a well-known surgeon here in Washington, DC, and also met with another quite well-known plastic surgeon who would do the reconstruction. It was really funny, because when I met with him, I asked, "Are you going to make me look good?" He said, "Honey, I'll give you anything that you want!" The beauty of it all is that insurance was going to PAY for my boob job because of my family's medical history!
I had scheduled my surgery for the fall, but once October rolled around, I cancelled it because my schedule had become crazy. My kids were still young, and I had the Halloween thing to do, my own birthday is November 3rd, then my son's birthday is November 22nd, there's Thanksgiving, and Christmas right behind that. I decided that it wasn't time to have elective surgery, and would wait until January...
On November 13th, just about the time I would have been having the surgery, I was struck with a profound blood clot that nearly killed me. If I had been on the operating table, it probably would have. Of course, it was complicated by the fact that while trying to dissolve the clot, the radiologists punctured an artery in not one, but TWO places, and I nearly bled to death internally. My husband was called to the hospital to say good-bye, and my neighbor (who is a vascular surgeon) performed the surgery on me that saved my life. I ended up having 8 units of blood transfused, and the last time I saw my blood pressure it was 60/40 -- and dropping!
I spent a total of two weeks in the hospital with one week of it in intensive care. During that time, I received word that my sister had only weeks to live; she died on December 19th.
Needless to say, I never quite got around to having that breast surgery because it took me several years to recover from my previous medical crisis, and elective invasive surgery wasn't looking quite so attractive to me anymore!
But, yes. I would have absolutely no problem lopping off my breast if it meant saving my life.
(stupid typo...)
-- Edited by Moore ideas at 11:29, 2007-03-24
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Youknow if I was in the same position, no matter how hard it might be at first I'd get the masectomy, lol then on the bright side I could get work done on both and have a perfect rack! Yeah I know it sounds bad, but I like to look at the positive in every situation, no matter how silly it may sound.
Moore that whole story is a soap story line in the making, one I might actually watach. I'm sorry to hear about all of the sadness. My husband's family has a bad problem with tumors and cancer. His sister has a tumor in her brain (not cancerous thank God), his mother died from cancer, and now his niece has a tumor. The tests couldn't determine whether it was cancer or not, but she is being so darn optimistic, that it's hard to worry. She has to be the braves 20 year old I know. With their family's history, I'd be so scared, but she's not. She's just as wonderful and brght as she's always been, and it really helps keep everyone else's morale up.
oh my goodness Moore, anytime I need advice I am coming to you. You seem to have enough first hand advice and the instances that your friends have you could probably open a medical advice help line. I would pay you for sure...
Oddly enough breast cancer is the one cancer my family doesn't really have. We have a lot of cervical issues though, and it stinks let me tell you. Making the decision to lop off a breast is a lot easier then making the decision to remove my baby making equipment. Thank heavens mine haven't gotten that far yet, and too thank heavens with medicine advances these days I wont have to make that kind of a decision.
But something came out of this story that I didn't like. A small portion of the people are saying "Yeah, I'm gonna vote for him because his wife has cancer". That's not the point. You don't vote for someone because he's a Catholic or because his wife has cancer or he's a former president's son. You vote for them because they would make a competent and compelling leader. This is why America is sinking fast.
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"If you were looking for something clever or witty or funny here, you've come to the wrong place."
I guess I disagree with everyone, I think Edwards should stop campaigning and spend time with his wife, he could always run in 4 years and I don't think he's even close to winning anyway
As far as blood clots, that story is so horrible Moore, how did they puncture you?
I almost went on the pill after my 3rd child and I was watching an Oprah show where a young woman died from a blood clot, took them a while to figure that out, then they realized it was because of the pill After that show, I did not get the prescription filled that was still in my purse. I saw it as a sign.
Tina I actually thought that he should have waited as well. My first post there even says how annoyed I am that he has chosen to campaign rather then be with his wife. I know she wants him to do it, that doesnt mean he has too
I don't really know how I feel about John Edwards staying on the campaign trail, but I do believe that he is an individual with a tremendous amount of love and respect for his wife. I do not doubt for a second that if her health takes a serious turn for the worse, that he will be at her side.
Moore has such a clear way of presenting things, and as an individual who had a cancer scare three months ago, I 110% agree with the remove it all mentality. An organ, or breasts do not define who we are as women and individuals. I can remember my mother coming over to my house, totally dead set against my having my hysterectomy, and telling me that I would not be a woman any longer, and that (eek gads!) I would start sprouting hairs all over my face, and becoming a man. Talk about total ignorance. I'm not bashing my mother, but what an uninformed, stupid thing to say to someone who was potentially facing cancer, going into the operating room and was scared to death.
I explained that an organ like a uterus did not define who I am as a woman, or an individual, it is my heart and brain that take care of it for me. I also threw in that I am blessed to earn a descent enough living, that if I suddenly started sprouting rouge hairs, then I can afford electrolosys! My mother was here every day of my recovery, and I could not have asked for a more compassionate maternal person during my recovery. Oh, I have no rouge hairs anywhere......
I will say a prayer for Elizabeth Edwards and every individual who is faced with a cancer diagnosis, because they are in their own personal hell right now.
shouldn't we have a cure for cancer by now, why can't someone like Bill Gates fund cancer research and let's end this suffering already or do you believe the consiracy theory that drug companies want us to stay sick?
Funny you should say that my step-dad (he's a bit of a conspiracy theorist though) says that in Switzerland and a few other places in Europe there is a cure for cancer, but it's so cheap to make that American drug companies will not sell it because they would lose loads of money in the process. Sounds weird to me but I thought I'd put it out there.
shellyinphx wrote: my goodness tess you were up early this morning
I get up between 3:30 and 4:00 to start my wonderful work days. If I can get out of the house by 5:30, I have a chance of making it to the office by 7:00, and avoiding some of the Boston traffic. If I get in for 7:00 then I have a chance of sneaking out by 4:00, and avoiding most of the traffic going home. With a 4:00 departure time, I can maybe walk through the door by 5:30.
Traffic going into Boston is BRUTAL! To make matters worse, I live 50 miles west of the city, so my commute is filled with solar glare for 40+ miles, if I don't time it just right. If I hit solar glare, I can plan on a two hour minimum commute.
There are really no well paying IT jobs out here, and my only other option is moving closer to the city, where real estate prices are about three times what they are in my little town, and I really would not have much of a yard.
Those are the trade-off's I have to make for a paycheck. I live in Oxford, Massachusetts, in case anyone is curious where it is. About 50 miles west of Boston, which I love!
