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Old 12-01-2015, 07:04 AM
 
21,589 posts, read 12,650,313 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoot N Annie View Post
Can't blame you! She's kicking your kester.

Mahalo
Don't think so, but she's expending enormous time and energy trying, for some reason. More than I have to devote to this! We're all entitled to our opinions.
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Old 12-03-2015, 09:24 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,281,064 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by JrzDefector View Post
Nobody's "forced" to do anything generally unless the person with power of attorney is misusing their power.

My grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer at 88 after being in declining health for a few months (she had been very active up until then). She had one surgery to help improve her quality of life and then fell and broke her hip and arm. While she was heavily sedated, one of her doctors raised the possibility of keeping her sedated until she passed rather than putting her through another surgery.

My entire family (including me - and I'm a big supporter of euthanasia) was furious that this idea was even raised for a number of reasons, but primarily:

1) She was lucid and upbeat despite her pain levels, even flirting with the male hospital staff.

2) She very clearly wanted to pursue treatment and had been very explicit about that.

She had the surgery, and as expected had difficulty recovering almost immediately. However, after the surgery, she was able to avoid the more extreme pain killers and returned to a very high level of mental sharpness. Over the next two weeks she was on and off a ventilator, but she got to see almost every one of her friends and relatives. She was happy and upbeat until her last 24 hours when she simply slid into a coma. It was a really good death in so many ways. Yeah, she was on medicare, so the cost to the taxpayers was probably pretty big, but I think the focus of end-of-life care should be on providing the death the patient wants, not the most cost-efficient or the most rigorous treatment.

Frankly, I was glad she went out this way rather than sticking around and risking the cancer spreading or having her lungs slowly fail her.

Jimmy Carter is a very healthy man for his age with a very rewarding life. Depending on how he reacts to the treatments, he could have several high-quality months before going into a decline. With terminal cancers like this, you really don't know what will happen until you give it a try.
Agreed. And all those end-of-life stats really say is that people are sicker at the end of their lives, and require more care. Shocking!
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Old 12-06-2015, 11:54 AM
 
Location: Type 0.73 Kardashev
11,110 posts, read 9,743,119 times
Reputation: 40160
Well, this will certainly disappoint the "Cancer treatment is a big scam, Jimmy Carter should just accept it and die!" crowd.

Quote:
Jimmy Carter's cancer is gone, the former president announced on Sunday.

"My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones. I will continue to receive regular three-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab," Carter said in a statement.

Carter, 91, first revealed the news in front of a Sunday School class he was teaching at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.
Jimmy Carter announces he is cancer-free - CNNPolitics.com
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Old 12-06-2015, 12:34 PM
 
9,576 posts, read 7,249,228 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Unsettomati View Post
Well, this will certainly disappoint the "Cancer treatment is a big scam, Jimmy Carter should just accept it and die!" crowd.


Jimmy Carter announces he is cancer-free - CNNPolitics.com
I know many hematologist/oncologists and not one would ever tell their patient that they are cancer-free, because you just don't know. They all just say that the cancer is in remission, even if all the tests and scans show no cancer. Obviously I'm happy for Mr. Carter and he can say whatever he wants, but I prefer the term "in remission", because all you need is one little cancer cell that is just hiding out somewhere in your body to come raging back and it could be even more aggressive than the previous cancer. I realize that news organizations love, love, love the click-bait and saying his cancer is in remission is not as clickable as "Cancer-Free".
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Old 12-06-2015, 01:43 PM
 
Location: 23.7 million to 162 million miles North of Venus
22,951 posts, read 12,092,054 times
Reputation: 10190
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjseliga View Post
I know many hematologist/oncologists and not one would ever tell their patient that they are cancer-free, because you just don't know. They all just say that the cancer is in remission, even if all the tests and scans show no cancer. Obviously I'm happy for Mr. Carter and he can say whatever he wants, but I prefer the term "in remission", because all you need is one little cancer cell that is just hiding out somewhere in your body to come raging back and it could be even more aggressive than the previous cancer. I realize that news organizations love, love, love the click-bait and saying his cancer is in remission is not as clickable as "Cancer-Free".
It was the media that had used the "cancer-free" term, not Mr. Carter.
I saw the speech he'd given regarding that and he stated that he had a previous MRI which showed the four cancer spots in his brain were still there but showed signs of responding to the treatment. Then he went in for his last MRI and they found the four spots were gone. In his speech he stated "when I went this week they didn't find any cancer at all". I'm sure he and his doctors know it's remission and not, as the media hyped it, cancer-free.

Fantastic for him! And maybe for others with the same type of cancer since that particular drug may help them as well.
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Old 12-06-2015, 02:03 PM
 
Location: Georgia, USA
36,972 posts, read 40,966,544 times
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Keep in mind that for Mr. Carter, a remission lasting a few years may mean he dies of something else, given his age, even though he was potentially not "cured".
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Old 12-06-2015, 02:50 PM
 
7,357 posts, read 11,694,007 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd View Post
Reaching age 90 is a pretty good run. He had siblings that died of cancer much younger.

I wonder if he has Obama care?

Ex-Presidents have lifelong health coverage. Just part of the package.




I can see the point of letting nature take its course in a case like this. With metastatic melanoma you are just going to make yourself infinitely more miserable with no benefit at all.
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Old 12-06-2015, 03:13 PM
 
Location: Georgia, USA
36,972 posts, read 40,966,544 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliffie View Post
With metastatic melanoma you are just going to make yourself infinitely more miserable with no benefit at all.
Mr. Carter's response to the medication he is taking appears to contradict this.
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Old 12-06-2015, 06:23 PM
 
Location: Denver area
172 posts, read 250,952 times
Reputation: 299
That's wonderful news about Mr. Carter! When the news first broke about his cancer, like the OP I wondered why he'd opt for treatment. I'm only in my 50s & I'm not at all sure I'd let someone slice me up, fill me with toxic drugs, & irradiate me. But he's apparently getting a form of immunotherapy, which (if I understand it correctly) stimulates the immune system to attack the cancer, unlike chemo which impairs the immune system. I really hope this is the direction cancer treatment is headed in. I think people like me who are very distrustful of current cancer treatments would be more likely to try treatments that are less toxic & work with our own immune system instead of against it.

There's some fascinating reading on the internet about the early days of immunotherapy. Google Coley's Toxins.
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Old 12-06-2015, 07:59 PM
Status: "A solution in search of a problem" (set 20 days ago)
 
Location: New York Area
34,510 posts, read 16,599,025 times
Reputation: 29686
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjseliga View Post
I know many hematologist/oncologists and not one would ever tell their patient that they are cancer-free, because you just don't know. They all just say that the cancer is in remission, even if all the tests and scans show no cancer. Obviously I'm happy for Mr. Carter and he can say whatever he wants, but I prefer the term "in remission", because all you need is one little cancer cell that is just hiding out somewhere in your body to come raging back and it could be even more aggressive than the previous cancer. I realize that news organizations love, love, love the click-bait and saying his cancer is in remission is not as clickable as "Cancer-Free".
I know doctors who say that no person is ever technically cancer-free. There are always malignant cells. They don't always become a problem.
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