Recently in Cancer Category

Sharon Tate's killer finally succumbs to brain cancer:

Susan Atkins, a leading member of Charles Manson's violent cult who carried out brutal murders at his behest in 1969, has died in a California prison, state corrections officials said on Friday. She was 61.

Atkins, imprisoned since 1971 for her part in eight Manson murders, had a brain tumor. State corrections officials this month rejected her request to be freed so she would not have to die in prison.

Atkins died at 11:46 p.m. on Thursday, the corrections department said.

"Susan passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones and the incredible staff at the Skilled Nursing Facility at the Central California Women's Facility," her husband, James Whitehouse, said by e-mail.

"Her last whispered word was 'Amen.' No one (on) the face of the Earth worked as hard as Susan did to right an unrightable wrong," Whitehouse said.

You really can't right a wrong when it involves murder. Nothing she did could make up for the fact that she showed no mercy to a pregnant woman. The only thing she could do was her time and even that wasn't an act of contrition. It was forced upon her.

Good news from the oncologist, my CA 125 is 7.5. Three months after chemo and the number continues to go down (at least a tiny bit, the last number was 8 :-) Thank you for your prayers and well-wishes. Praising God for getting me through this devastating disease. When I finished chemo and I started to recover from my last neulasta shot, the thought popped into my mind, "That's it? That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be or could have been." I feel like, what I suspect plane crash survivors feel, shocked that I didn't die and dazed by the brush with death. And a little guilty that I survived when many others like Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze and Ted Kennedy did not.

My kids appear to be over their fear of losing me and it's business as usual, taking it for granted that we've dodged a bullet and cancer is a thing of the past. They've moved on but I still feel shell-shocked about the whole thing. I told my husband, I think I have post traumatic distress disorder or something. I'll be cooking dinner or driving to pick up my kids and all of a sudden it hits me that I've survived cancer and I'm shocked by it. The speeding car swerved to miss me and I can go on with my life. How do you now live?

Well, one change is how I view aging. I just turned 49 and last year I thought I would be pretty bummed about it since it's on the cusp of the dreaded 50, but this year I was relieved to make it to 49. I was never so happy to celebrate a number as I was this one, it meant that I made it to the other side. Every year I add to that number is a thing of beauty no matter what I look like :-) It means I'm that much closer to seeing my daughters graduate from college and start families of their own. So, going through the aging process? Getting more wrinkly? Adding to my collection of gray hair? Praise be to God that I have the opportunity to do so.

I asked the oncologist, if the cancer returned, could it metastasize to my brain or other organs and I was relieved to find out that he had only heard of two cases (at his practice) of ovarian cancer metastasizing to the brain. So, thankfully it's pretty rare. Evidently, ovarian cancer likes to remain in the original region and attach itself to the lining of the abdominal cavity. On the one hand, it's great that I don't have to worry about brain surgery or losing part of my lungs or kidneys but the problem is that there is no way to know that there's a tumor apart from testing, there are no symptoms. Ovarian cancer is not called the silent killer for nothing!

But I will be tested for the next two years, so I live like I've dodged the bullet and not worry about dodging another. I'm learning that in God's grace it's not too hard to live in three month segments. It makes me appreciate the time that I can live cancer free.

Yeah, in theory he's right, they've been doing way too much for too long but now it's time for us to draw a line in the sand and say, no further. You can't control my health care. Government, keep your hands off my body (it's that the feminist rallying cry?). It's none of your business what type of health care I have or if I have a terminal disease but want to keep living. I don't want the federal government controlling my health care decisions and when we get to single payer (which is Obama's stated goal), that will be the only game in town.

(via)

She has terminal brain cancer:

Former Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer Susan Atkins, who has brain cancer and lost her bid last year for a "compassionate release" from prison, has been denied parole again.

[...]

Rackauckas wrote in his letter last year that "it would be a grave miscarriage of justice to burden the citizens of Orange County, where she can enjoy the comforts of her husband, home, and mercy she did not show Sharon Tate, her unborn baby and seven others."

Here's a report from last year when she tried for a compassionate release:

Thought I would note it in case I'm not the only one living in a bubble. Please join me in praying for him and his family during this time of struggle as they deal with it. Even though the cancer was caught early, it's never easy dealing with surgery and recovery.

While you're praying, don't forget Jolly Blogger, David Wayne. He switched to John Hopkins hospital for his treatment in July, which should improve the care he's getting since, according to him, Hopkins ranks third in cancer in the nation. It appears that he'll be on and off chemo the rest of his life -- the most he can hope for with treatment appears to be 5 years, but my brother-in-law was given 5 years and he's on his way to 10! So, with God, all things are possible :-)

The good news is that he must be feeling well enough to blog since he has a number of posts up including this one with a great quote on suffering from Geerhardus Vos:

"What the Lord expects from us at such seasons is not to abandon ourselves to unreasoning sorrow, but trustingly to look sorrow in the face, to scan its features, to search for the help and hope, which, as surely as God is our Father, must be there. In such trials there can be no comfort for us so long as we stand outside weeping.

If only we will take the courage to fix our gaze deliberately upon the stern countenance of grief, and enter unafraid into the darkest recesses of our trouble, we shall find the terror gone, because the Lord has been there before us, and, coming out again, has left the place transfigured, making of it by the grace of his resurrection a house of life, the very gate of heaven."

BTW, for those of you wondering where I am in my fight with cancer, I go back again in September to see my oncologist. My last CA 125 number was 8, so I am in remission. I have to see my surgeon before that but have been procrastinating making the appointment. I guess I just wanted more time off before I have to start the next round of doctor visits, MRIs, CAT Scans and colonoscopies (yech! I'm really procrastinating on that one).

I'm no longer bald, I look like I have a crew cut. You can see a recent picture of me on vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Twitter, my hair had just started to grow in again. I stopped wearing wigs after the chemo and it's been quite an experience walking around bald and with a crew cut. Kids look at me like I've got a mental defect, they can't understand why I'd do this to myself. I'm not sure they understand the whole cancer thing.

Adults stare and then when I notice them staring they look away. I've only been asked about it once. A woman came up to me in a bookstore and asked if I was a cancer survivor and I when I said yes, she hugged and kissed me. It freaked me out! I'm not used to being hugged by strangers, let alone kissed. This is NJ after all, we don't even say, "hi" to each other. She told me her aunt was a cancer survivor and I was kind of touched when I heard that (though, still freaked about the kiss).

Update: Fixed for typo that the spellchecker didn't catch. Calm down nameless commenters, it's a minor issue at best.

They announce on this YouTube video that they'll have to cancel their concert dates and push back their album because Adam Yauch discovered cancer in his parotid gland and lymph node. He says that it's "very treatable" and localized but...

She was 62. She died with Alana Stewart and Ryan O'Neal by her bedside (her son was not present since he's in jail on drug charges). She was given last rites before she died (I didn't know she was Catholic)....

She is the doctor who discovered she had breast cancer in Antarctica and operated on herself to biopsy the tumor. The cancer metastasized five years later to her liver, bones and brain:Nearly a decade after she was rescued from a...