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That's sad. No matter what you think of the man or his politics, this sort of serious illness is sad.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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quote:Average survival can range from less than a year for very advanced and aggressive types — such as glioblastomas — or to about five years for different types that are slower growing.
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This is very depressing news. I feel for him and his family at this difficult time, and I hope the treatments go well.
Posts: 155 | Registered: Apr 2005
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The thing is, his hard drinking could be a complication with the chemo. It's hard enough without a liver that is probably struggling in normal circumstances.
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My academic advisor for next year in my new grad school had a brain tumor last month (eep). Being from MA, the tumor was taken out at MGH, where Ted Kennedy is now. I don't know what kind of tumor it was, but as far as I know he's still at home recovering and everything will be a-ok. When I heard about the tumor I heard surgery in the same sentence. From my understanding of brain tumors (next to nothing), you can (sort of) breathe easy when you hear the word surgery. Basically, if they can get at it and the patient can take it, they will take the tumor out. My advisor is 65ish.
So they mention surgery, just not in the context of whether Kennedy will get it.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Unfortunately, malignant gliomas really aren't curable. Surgery, chemo, or radiation can shrink the tumor and perhaps prolong life or reduce symptoms, but I think most people don't survive beyond a few years, if that. Chances are good that someone else will need to serve out the remainder of his term Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Yeah, I don't know anything about my advisor's tumor much beyond they took it out at MGH, surgery took 12 hours, he has to spend a month/6 weeks recovering, probably is getting chemo, and his wife is probably going to give him another talk about dropping his workload a wee bit more like his family did after his stroke.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Well, people dying of cancer is unpleasant and sad to be sure, but is there a particular reason we should care about this Senator? Surely many people have been diagnosed with brain tumours in the past few days.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I think KoM is noticing the same thing I do sometimes... the fact that this board registers its sympathy for the hard times of others, and that this process is meaningless to those people.
Plus, it only takes about, oh, 14 posts before all that stops, and it either dies, or people start talking about the obvious fact that Kennedy is an alcoholic, and that alcoholism is the leading cause of seizures in people his age.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I am reminded of back in the seventies when Ted Kennedy Jr. (Senator Kennedy's son) had bone cancer. Kennedy's response was to work for Universal Health Care for all Americans. I remember him talking about how grateful he was that they were able to afford the best medical care for their son and how he wanted all Americans to be able to get the same kind of care whether rich or poor.
It over 30 years later and the US has made absolutely no progress in this area. If anything, things have gotten worse and fewer Americans have access to adequate health care. I think it will be a sad legacy if Kennedy dies before this country makes any progress in this area.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: I think KoM is noticing the same thing I do sometimes... the fact that this board registers its sympathy for the hard times of others, and that this process is meaningless to those people.
No, actually I was more noticing that Senator Kennedy gets the sympathy of the board, and Joe Schmoe from Blow, Kentucky doesn't. Sure, the national media aren't going to tell us about Joe, but none of us have a personal connection to the Senator, either. Why should we care more about him than all the other people who are dying of cancer today?
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:I think KoM is noticing the same thing I do sometimes...
Does that make it any less jerky?
It makes it relateable, at least to me- your feelings about either one of us aside.
I don't see any reason to post my sympathy for anybody I don't know or care about in particular. You don't strike me as being terribly different in that regard.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: I think KoM is noticing the same thing I do sometimes... the fact that this board registers its sympathy for the hard times of others, and that this process is meaningless to those people.
No, actually I was more noticing that Senator Kennedy gets the sympathy of the board, and Joe Schmoe from Blow, Kentucky doesn't. Sure, the national media aren't going to tell us about Joe, but none of us have a personal connection to the Senator, either. Why should we care more about him than all the other people who are dying of cancer today?
To segway: Having a high school acquaintance murdered last April at Virginia Tech, I can assure you that any death/disease that becomes subject to public discussion is AWFUL. It hurts every single person that has a legit real life connection with the party in question. I hadn't seen Dan in five years before his murder. I cried like a baby. His death still disturbs me, and I hate it when other people dissect the VA tech events like a hypothetical nightmare. I can't begin to imagine how devastated his good friends were, if I felt so awful, annoyed and upset when random people would talk about the incident.
The point I'm trying to make is, people feel sympathy for every sad story with a face, and some people will get their problems publicized. Honestly, it's not a good thing for the Kennedy family and their friends. Instead of telling the people they know that Ted is not okay, the ones they choose to share with, those people will come to them and ask.
Unlike Britney Spears, whose life I believe would not be nearly so messed up if the people with cameras stopped following her around, the people actually have a right to know about Ted Kennedy's health. Or at least the residents of MA, who chose him to represent them in government should be told of his poor health, and given the nature of the condition, be educated on what it is. I think the article was too long, but knowing someone who had a brain tumor removed within the past month, further education on the condition was quite welcome.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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[Total derail] This word, 'segway', I do not think it means what you think it means. A Segway is a moderately cool form of personal transport. A segue is a smooth transition from one topic to another. [/derail]
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:You don't strike me as being terribly different in that regard.
I'm not, which is why I almost never do. However, I don't post when other people are offering sympathy to belittle their decision(s) to do so. It is not necessary for an action to have positive value to me for it to have positive value to someone else.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Ted Kennedy is my senator, and he has done a lot for my state. I'm incredibly sad to hear about his diagnosis, and yes, his brain tumor does concern me, as he represents me. But I also think that, despite some of his personal habits, he is a great senator and has tried his best. While I feel that it is sad that Joe Schmoe doesn't get recognized, we can't identify and sympathize with every person out there. We wouldn't be able to live our lives. But when someone who has touched are lives is diagnosed with an illness or dies, then I don't think it's wrong to show a little sympathy, even if they may not directly see it.
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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Firstly, my grandma was diagnosed with almost the exact same brain tumor and died within three months. The type of tumor I have heard it is is an aggressively growing one, and is therefore very hard to treat. Also, its location in the brain near the motor and speech sections of the left side of his brain make surgery risky at best, and probably crippling were he to survive it. (again, this is what i've heard combined with my knowledge of the brain, cancer sources--parents, some books about the brain). Soo... He's in a bad way, is what I understand.
As for why he gets national recognition. In this case, it's because more people care if a contributing member of senate falls ill than if the local auto mechanic does. There is a greater public loss as his role of senator is more influential than that of a mechanic, not to say it is not also tragic when bad things happen to non-celebrity people.
Posts: 655 | Registered: May 2005
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slightly OT: I feel bad for the families of the people who die and get featured in the Darwin Awards.
Posts: 575 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Not to shed a bad light on a sad situation for him, but to be quite honest I'm amazed he's lived this long.
Not only do the Kennedy's have a history of dying young (I know most of the Kennedys did not have a say in the matter, so to speak, but still), but even though Ted Kennedy might be a good senator, at a personal level he seemed like a train wreck at times.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I think we, as a country, have always regretted the loss of a monarchy in some ways. The Kennedy family is as close as it gets for us. So, when a Kennedy falls, many people feel personally connected to it.
On another note, I took a class on treating abusive or addictive families, and I always remember the Kennedy genogram. It is quite fascinating. A genogram tracks a family as far back as they can. I don't know a heck of a lot about it, but I feel that the early deaths of many Kennedys is not necessarily general bad luck. I think the ancient Greeks would say it was "hubris." Others might say they have a fatal flaw in their gene pool. Anyway, here is their genogram:
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Considering I know of very few Kennedys that died of natural causes (to be honest, I can only think of one), compared to how many I can think of that died due to "external factors", I can't see how it could be a "fatal flaw in the gene pool".
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Well, genograms are usually done to study a pettern of abuse (physical, sexual, or substance) in a family, so that would make sense, Rivka. I would like to see the genogram cross-referenced(if that is the right term) with the presence of ADHD in the family.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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