Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Cancer is a simple term describing a wide variety of illness.
There's a bit in the Watchmen graphic novel, where a minor character who is a former criminal has a run-in with Rorshack, a costumed crime fighter. Rorshack's idea of crime is very much "letter of the law", and the former criminal is breaking it because he has a proscribed substance - Laetrile, a non-approved cancer treatment. Asked why he has it, he says "You know the kind of cancer you get better from?" "Yes?" "I got the other kind."
Pancreatic cancer is very much "the other kind", with (thus far), a 100% mortality rate, and is a very nasty way to go. Were I diagnosed with it, I'd start looking at ways to check out on my own terms before it reached terminal stage.
A friend is currently under treatment for colon cancer. It's very much operable, but he needed chemo first because the cancerous mass was wrapped around a major blood vessel, and the oncologist didn't want to touch it till it had been shrunk by chemo. It was, and he had surgery. Now he is in the process of trying to regain his former health while being monitored to make sure he is indeed cancer free.
The ex-girlfriend I didn't get over had a double-whammy. She lost her husband of 17 years a while back to metastasized melanoma. He died in her arms at her family home. We didn't work out as a couple, but I never stopped loving her more than anything, and her late husband was a friend. He could be the mate she needed and make her happy, so I was glad he was there, and dismayed when he was taken from her.
More recently, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Chemo and surgery occurred, leaving her with a right foot she can't feel because of nerve damage from the chemo, and has had further procedures since as part of an effort to make sure she's cancer free. On top of battling cancer, she was elder care for parents in their 90's, both of whom are now gone. The good part is she's part of a large family with an assortment of brothers and sisters who pitched in to lend a hand, so she's not coping by herself. I haven't heard from her in a bit, and say the odd prayer the news won't reach me that she's gone too. It will be the worst news I've ever gotten if it happens.
One of the things I've found myself doing in recent years is leading toasts to absent friends. I'm old enough that folks I've known for decades are going. Some have led long and fruitful lives, and the toast takes the form "We should all live that long and accomplish half that much." Others were taken by disease, and the toast is "F*ck cancer!" I've led way too many of the latter.
Funding is only part of the problem with pancreatic cancer. The nature of it makes it often inoperable, and we're still struggling to understand why it occurs and how to best stop it. Pancreatic cancer tends to be resistant to traditional chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and the tumors are highly aggressive. It's also hard to diagnose early, because it causes no symptoms in early stages. There is some promising research on combination therapy where drugs that break up the fibrous tissue in the tumor may clear the way for immunotherapy - the scar tissue that is part of the cancer may shield the cancer cells, and if you can get it out of the way you can fight the cancer. But we are a long way from anything you might call a cure.
If your hubby has lasted for four years so far, he's doing better than anyone else I've heard of. Prayers from here that he continues to do so, and you have more time together.
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Dennis
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Very true Dennis.
Also sadly very short lives as well. I live near Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Camp, for terminally ill children. I've visited the camp a few times, as a volunteer. It's a wonderful western looking town set up on it's own private lake, it's for children that can't go to a normal summer camp. It accommodates for their wheel chairs and medical equipment ,so they can go up ramps to tree houses, and swim and do things other children do. To see them so happy and smiling even though their time is short, changed my perspective on life.
