Steve settled for nothing ?

That's right, Harley, I had forgotten about your brother. So he actually had the surgery to remove the spots? That would be one thing. But it sounds like Patsy is simply being treated with the chemo so no surgery was involved in her liver cancer. I guess you never know. So glad your brother continues to be cancer free!

 

This is the kind

of confusion that results when we have incomplete information. I still don't know if the cancer that allegedly in Patsy's liver was a metastasis from her ovarian cancer or an entirely new cancer - liver cancer. Ovarian cancer that has spread to her liver is still ovarian cancer, Stage IV, if that is what her original cancer was. If these were ovarian cancer cells on her liver, then she had Stage IV ovarian cancer metastasis to her liver. It also means that although Patsy's ovaries were removed, there were ovarian cancer cells that had already escaped to other parts of her body and hiding from the chemotherapy, only to implant themselves elsewhere at a later time. If it truly is metatastic ovarian cancer, then the liver probably isn't the only place those devious little cancer cells have implanted, and time will have to tell about that.

OTOH, if this was an entirely new cancer - liver cancer (which really isn't all that prevalent, although metastatic cancer to the liver is), then it would have been caught at a very early stage.

My learned opinion is this was metatastic ovarian cancer cells that were on the surface of the liver. Apparently Patsy is going to have to endure the entire course of chemotherapy treatements, even though the claims are that there is no cancer showing up now. I remember the times my sister was proclaimed free from cancer. I have the x-ray reports on her lungs - one month the report said there were no signs of any tumor activity in her lungs. The very next month, the report says there were tumors in both lungs and around her heart. That's how fast a stable situation can turn sour when dealing with cancer.

Harley, the fact that they were able to cut the cancer off your brother's liver - where they could actually test the margins of the cancerous spots to be certain they got all of it - is encouraging news. I don't think Patsy had any surgery - only chemo - and I can't figure out why. Maybe they believe the same combination of poisons they put in her chemo treatments last time will work again on metatastic ovarian cancer on the liver. Maybe it will, I don't know.

I know only too well the ups and downs you and your family are going through, Harley. My sister once described the cancer hospital she was in as a fortress where life and death battles were waged on a daily basis against a relentless, devious opponent - she called them war games. The doctors get as frustrated as the patients - I know my sister's doctor cursed and threw a scalpel clear across the operating room when he, once again, found cancer in my sister after thinking he had it conquered. I know way too much about cancer, and I know Patsy's battle with Stage IV ovarian cancer wasn't even a speck compared to what the majority of women with that disease go through, mostly in vain. I've seen it up close and personal - women with hollow eyes and sunken cheeks - women who had fought long and hard to live, sucking in those powerful chemotherapy cocktails, deathly ill, fighting to hold on. It's not a pretty sight, and it's not over so easily. I saw one 24-year-old woman from my city at the cancer hospital with advanced ovarian cancer. I saw many women with ovarian cancer. None of them lived, and they had some of the best doctors and best treatments available to mankind at the time.

I've never said Patsy's "miracle" wasn't possible, I've said there is more to this story than we are being told, and I think there have been some false information put out by certain people along the way.

We will never know, from the doctors who treated Patsy, what the staging on her cancer was. I even question Stage III, but I could believe that more than Stage IV.

But, what do I know? Maybe she really did have a miracle. Twice.

 

Three miracles, actually:

<ol><li> Cured of Stage IV Ovarian Cancer
<li> Cured of Recurrent Stage IV Ovarian Cancer spread to the Liver
--OR--
Cured of New occurrence of Liver Cancer with Chemotherapy Alone.<b>
<li> Cured of a Murder Rap...Without a Trial.</b></ol>

 

That's the funny thing

about cancer - a cancer patient is never really "cured." There is an invisible leash that ties patients to the disease, a fear, always, that it could recur. It is well known in the medical community that once you are a cancer patient, you are always and forever a cancer patient, making those trips to the hospital for checkups - war games, always trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

When someone says they have been "cured" of cancer, I just cringe, because I know that what they are is a cancer patient in remission, hopefully forever.

On the plus side, though, science is so close to a total cure, or at least a control, of cancer. RNA/DNA manipulation is one hopeful cure. It is possible that cancer could be a thing of the past in the next decade or two. How wonderful is that? So close.

 

You are right WY. My brother never says he is cured of cancer, he says he is cancer free and for the moment he is. He always knows through that at anytime it will rear its ugly head. He does not let it rule his life but he says it is always there.

 

Actually, Harley

I say the cure could come in the next decade or two, but I honestly believe it is much closer than that. From the literature I read that comes into this office (boss is microbiologist) on cancer research - they are so very close. Someone, somewhere, whether in this country or a foreign country, is going to hit on the exact combination and win the Nobel Prize and become filthy rich. In fact, there is an ongoing competition between scientists/researchers in different countries to find the cure that puts an end to cancer forever. They have the knowledge, and they know how to manipulate RNA/DNA, but they aren't quite there yet. They could conceivably hit on the magic cure tomorrow, who knows?

What I'm saying is, every day your brother stays free of cancer is another day closer to the cure that for sure is coming soon. And, treatments are improving all the time. You don't know how much I want to see your brother get through this intact. My sister fought long and hard and submitted to all the new tests available, if not to help herself, then to help those down the line with cancer. I am rooting for your brother, believe me.

 

Thanks WY. I hope they are as close to a cure as you say. As you know and probably many others here watching someone battle cancer is a heartbreaking experience. That is why I can not understand Patsy Ramsey if indeed she exagerates the severity of her cancer experience. How can she belittle the fight that so many have and are going through.

 

cancer mets

My aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November. It was so small that she agreed to chemo, had it and in another visit or two, it was gone. It stayed away about a month. Her funeral is this week. I don't give Patsy a whole lot of time, unless the whole cancer thing is a lie. Patsy, LIE? Naaawwww.....

 

Really Kelly

what are you saying Patsy Lie. Never....... LOL.

Sorry about your Aunt.

 

Pancreatic cancer

is a tough one, Kelly, and the outlook for it is always grim. One of the problems is there are no early symptoms, and by the time symptoms show up, it's too late. Oncologists hate to admit defeat. I believe they (most of them) do everything in their power to stop the cancer in its tracks, maybe because of their egos and the boost to their careers, but the doctors I've known really did care and they fought hard. My sister's doctor was also one of Gilda Radnor's doctors - Dr. Stephen Piver. I can honestly say he was relentless in his fight against my sister's cancer and he's the same way with all his patients. Everyone at Roswell Cancer Hospital is just outstanding.

Harley, that's what irked me about Patsy, too. There are thousands of people who are fighting this ugly disease. I suspect there are thousands who would like to get into those programs at Bethesda - who have been waiting for a very long time, and Patsy Ramsey's husband uses his connections to get her in in a matter of days? I read a post at another forum by a poster (doctor) who used to post at JW who said she read some of the reports on those cancer tests, and I'm almost positive she said that no one with Stage IV cancer survived during that period. Patsy Ramsey is no different from any other human being - if she survived Stage IV ovarian cancer, I damn well want to know how and what the treatment was that knocked that cancer out of her so quickly. She's either lying, or she really did experience a miracle. I'll let you guess which one I think it was. She insults every seriously ill cancer patient on the face of this earth with her histronics.

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.