News from Le Chat House

[RayThom]

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1964. In and out of remission, multiple surgeries, with many physical and mental adjustments along the way. She died in '06 at the age of 88. You might say old age got her but by then the cancer she decided to no longer treat ten years earlier had riddled her frail body and delivered the final blow, killing her.
Barring any real cancer cure -- once you have cancer you'll always have cancer. My mom and millions before and after her has proven this time and time again.

The cold, hard, truth, however, is once diagnosed with cancer you are eventually going to die of cancer -- if old age doesn't get you first.

So if a person was treated for cancer in their early 60s, like my mother, and died 30 years later, then they weren't cured? Thank you for clearing that up for us Dr. RayThom. I've seen a pegged out BS meter smilie somewhere, but it's not available here.

It's not a smiley, MG, but this is even better since there's no chance of someone misunderstanding it.  Just cut-and-save the URL and insert it between the "Img" tags.


-"BB"-

[MG McAnick]

once you have cancer you'll always have cancer. My mom and millions before and after her has proven this time and time again.

There are different cancers and different mothers. You've made a generalization that simply isn't true. I'm sorry it was in your mother's case.

[Tbird251]

Chuck, I agree and just had my latest cancer cleared up for now. I know better than say I'm cured as I've had melanomic cancers on my skin for 40 years. Luckily no bad scars. I just wonder where my cancer will be. I love sunshine and they go together. Lee

[RayThom]

Most people who believe in cures either have the disease themselves or are related to someone who does. Hope and faith may be seen as the greatest panacea, and may even ease its pain and suffering, but the disease at the molecular level remains forever. My mom lived for so long because she wanted to, and not because she was ever cured. I credit her for having the sense knowing that. She learned to live with it -- not fighting it because it was surely the bigger adversary.

Chemotherapy has other drawbacks. There is an increased incidence of second, apparently unrelated malignancies in patients who have been “cured” by means of anticancer drugs. This is probably because the drugs themselves are carcinogenic. When radiation and chemotherapy were given together, the incidence of these second tumors was approximately twenty-five times the expected rate.
Since both radiation and chemotherapy suppress the immune system, it is possible that new tumors are allowed to grow because the patient has been rendered unable to resist them. In either case, a person who is cured of cancer by these drastic means may find herself struggling with a new, drug-induced tumor a few years later.
Ralph Moss, The Cancer Industry – New Updated
http://www.cancertutor.com/war_cure_rates/
AND:
Cure means that there are no traces of your cancer after treatment and the cancer will never come back.
Remission means that the signs and symptoms of your cancer are reduced. Remission can be partial or complete. In a complete remission, all signs and symptoms of cancer have disappeared.

If you remain in complete remission for 5 years or more, SOME doctors may say that you are cured. Still, some cancer cells can remain in your body for many years after treatment. These cells may cause the cancer to come back one day. For cancers that return, most do so within the first 5 years after treatment. But, there is a chance that cancer will come back later. For this reason, doctors cannot say for sure that you are cured. The most they can say is that there are no signs of cancer at this time.
http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/diag ... /prognosis

[TPFKA@W]

My mother was "cured" of cervical cancer. She was diagnosed in 1968. She had developed type 1 diabetes and the MD insisted on a pap smear at that time. She underwent a total hysterectomy and cobalt radiation. In the 34 years after that she lived there was no more cancer. Because of what I know about cancer now, which lends me to agree with Ray, I honestly believe she was misdiagnosed.

[Jarlaxle]

I watched a relative go through cancer treatment. He regretted every second of it and died in agony, after spending 2 years as an invalid and three months begging people to shoot him. If diagnosed with cancer, I will most likely eat a shotgun that day.

[datsunaholic]

I regretfully have to pass on the news:

https://www.mountaineagle.com/obituarie ... resa-smith


I don't have much else to say, but she will be missed.

[wesw]

rest in peace, tess.

[kmccune]

Bad news about Tess,she must have went down hill pretty fast ,She will be missed.

[MajGenl.Meade]

RIP, Smitty.

[TPFKA@W]

It's great that she got to pass at home. I feel sorry for those of you who have lost 2 of your friends back to back.

[wesw]

yeah , it can't not be no bed o' roses for you either, sunshine. you have a tough job. thanks for doing it.

[Econoline]

She was the one who launched the lifeboat that saved a bunch of Cafe Dartre members when that ship went down, and even after she resigned as administrator she worked tirelessly to keep it afloat. Goodbye, Tess.

She probably would have seen the speed of her decline as a blessing...so I'll just try to remember the good times that she had with us and that we had with her, and hope that her last week was as peaceful as possible.

[RayThom]

She was a good woman who helped me out in many ways over the years. It wasn't until her last post at LCH that I realized she was in such dire straits, but by then she wasn't even answering her phone.

Right behind Heart Disease, Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the US, accounting for nearly 1 of every 4 deaths. A disease so insidious and pernicious with no cure in sight. For decades my mom was the neighborhood representative and "poster child" for the American Cancer Society so, in Tess' memory, I am going to make a donation to the ACS.

Good night, Tess, rest in peace.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I didn't know her but I hope she is at peace now.

[Guinevere]

Oh Tess -- I know you're back with your beloved Doug and I hope the two of you are teaching Dennis how to line dance.

Thank you for all you did for our little diaspora. RIP.

[Lostone]

So sad to hear.

[MG McAnick]

I spoke to the funeral home in Jasper Alabama. Tess was cremated per her wishes. There is no service planned at this time. I expect her church will something at a later date. She was a strong member. Her sisters in New York were not close anymore, so I don't think they'd have a hand in whatever happens.