Comments on: Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow: False hope? http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/03/elizabeth-edwards-and-tony-snow-false.html medical blog Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:35:28 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Anonymous http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/03/elizabeth-edwards-and-tony-snow-false.html/comment-page-1#comment-81860 Anonymous Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:17:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2007/03/elizabeth-edwards-and-tony-snow-false-hope.html#comment-81860 This is the FIRST time I've read of someone addressing what I've thought. Masses pray for adults and children who still die of cancer, good people die, bad people die, people who are incredibly hopeful die too. My mother was diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer (a never smoker) and said, very unemotionally but with understanding, acceptance and grace, "I'm going to die of this" and I'm sure not one person finds her words courageous, they're disgusted by them. Yet Dana Reeve said she would beat the same beast and died - ironically, she was 30 years younger than my mother, having afforded state-of-the-art chemotherapeutic drugs, top physicians, exercise and prayers. Oh and never mind incentive - having a 14 year old child who would be without a parent was a huge incentive my mother didn't have, as she'd raised a daughter who was already 40!<br/><br/>Is it so awful to cry, scream and say, I am too young to die, I have a lethal cancer but I'm too young to die; my children are still babies so I have to fight this thing with everything in me!? Is that such a bad thing? Apparently so because what you hear instead is, "I'm going to beat this thing and I'll die an old woman." <br/><br/>Elizabeth Edwards might want to spend a few minutes talking about how IRRESPONSIBLE her choice NOT to make time for a mammogram or a GYN exam for years was for a woman in her 50s, particularly after having received hormone therapy to have children in her late 40s. Elizabeth might want to acknowledge that it wasn't actually her fervent dedication to her family that lost her sight in having cared for her health - certainly she had time for hair coloring sessions, shopping, manicures and many other "guilty" pleasures in the years that she didn't have a mammogram. Maybe describing REGRET wouldn't sound so hollow and would impart some value to other women who could use a lesson vs. all the "everything's going to be just fine" rhetoric from Edwards. <br/><br/>No wonder women weren't scared into having mammograms and that the numbers - in INSURED PATIENTS - is still dismal! This is the FIRST time I’ve read of someone addressing what I’ve thought. Masses pray for adults and children who still die of cancer, good people die, bad people die, people who are incredibly hopeful die too. My mother was diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer (a never smoker) and said, very unemotionally but with understanding, acceptance and grace, “I’m going to die of this” and I’m sure not one person finds her words courageous, they’re disgusted by them. Yet Dana Reeve said she would beat the same beast and died – ironically, she was 30 years younger than my mother, having afforded state-of-the-art chemotherapeutic drugs, top physicians, exercise and prayers. Oh and never mind incentive – having a 14 year old child who would be without a parent was a huge incentive my mother didn’t have, as she’d raised a daughter who was already 40!

Is it so awful to cry, scream and say, I am too young to die, I have a lethal cancer but I’m too young to die; my children are still babies so I have to fight this thing with everything in me!? Is that such a bad thing? Apparently so because what you hear instead is, “I’m going to beat this thing and I’ll die an old woman.”

Elizabeth Edwards might want to spend a few minutes talking about how IRRESPONSIBLE her choice NOT to make time for a mammogram or a GYN exam for years was for a woman in her 50s, particularly after having received hormone therapy to have children in her late 40s. Elizabeth might want to acknowledge that it wasn’t actually her fervent dedication to her family that lost her sight in having cared for her health – certainly she had time for hair coloring sessions, shopping, manicures and many other “guilty” pleasures in the years that she didn’t have a mammogram. Maybe describing REGRET wouldn’t sound so hollow and would impart some value to other women who could use a lesson vs. all the “everything’s going to be just fine” rhetoric from Edwards.

No wonder women weren’t scared into having mammograms and that the numbers – in INSURED PATIENTS – is still dismal!

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2007/03/elizabeth-edwards-and-tony-snow-false.html/comment-page-1#comment-73440 Anonymous Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:38:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2007/03/elizabeth-edwards-and-tony-snow-false-hope.html#comment-73440 The fact is that we are all dying, some sooner than others. Carpe diem. The fact is that we are all dying, some sooner than others. Carpe diem.

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