Christopher Reeve's Wife Has Lung Cancer

[SW FL Dem]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050809/ap_en_mo/dana_reeve_3

Too much tragedy for one family

Edited to add link and change headline to match story

[PunkPop]

1. You mean Reeves?

Christopher Reeves wife?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. relax, grammar police.

you know what she meant.

[PunkPop]

14. Actually I thought the name was 'Reeves'

not Reeve.

But I was wrong.

I wasn't making a grammatical correction.

[madrchsod]

2. jesus i thought i had problems

[meegbear]

3. Who?

Should I know this person?

[TroglodyteScholar]

4. She's only Mrs. Superman....... n/t

[DrDan]

6. "loyal, loving wife of actor, Christopher Reeve"

http://abilitymagazine.com/dana_interview.html

[Daphne08]

11. Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation

She's the chairman of that organization, and she's worked tirelessly for stem cell research. She also took care of Christopher until the day he passed away.

I'm so sorry to hear of this.

[elehhhhna]

5. You mean tragedy.

God help her.

[SW FL Dem]

9. You are correct

Thanks for the catch.

[elehhhhna]

16. Cool. Go here for super cool Superman Dogtags from the CR Foundation

http://www.christopherreeve.org/

[madmax]

33. I ordered 2 in honor of Chris and Dana

Hope when I wear it people will ask me what it means. Let's raise the awareness of stem cell research to save others. :cry:

Best wishes, Dana. Our thoughts, good vibes and prayers are with you and your family during this trying time.

[Dulcinea]

46. Hasn't she suffered enough?

Poor woman.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Oh, damn it. She helped us last election, remember? A perfect example...

of life's unfairness.

[YOY]

35. She is hardly poor financially...as was he when he was alive

Life wasn't unfair to them in some ways...not that it isn't a sad story.

Tragady is tragedy and strikes everyone.

[Pithy Cherub]

10. Wishing her only the best!

The article declines to state whether she had early detection or smoked. It is so sad that the Reeve's son is no stranger to tragedy.

[OzarkDem]

29. She wasn't a smoker

13% of lung cancer cases are not linked to cigarette smoking, second or firsthand. As for "early detection", whatever that is, there is no safe or affordable screening test for lung cancer. Standard screening for lung cancer is a chest xray - which is, in itself, carcinogenic and not recommended for routine use.

There's no "magic pill" out there for cancer folks - no magic diet, exercise regimen or screening protocol that is going to end it.

We don't know how much we don't know about cancer. We have to keep trying to find answers and avoid blaming the victims.

[peacebaby3]

38. Actually, a chest x-ray for anyone that smokes or has ever smoked

should be done once a year. And everyone should request one every so often. My sister just passed away from lung cancer at the age of 45 less than a year ago. They think she probably had the tumor for 3-5 years and if she had had a chest x-ray, they may have caught it when it was operable.

All of the Drs. we dealt with said that a chest x-ray is not done during a physical, but that it should be, particularly if the person smokes or has ever smoked. You will have to request it and probably pay for it out of pocket because the insurance companies will call it unnecessary. As we all know, the insurance companies do not believe in much preventive care.

While I certainly agree that x-rays shouldn't be done for just any reason, I think the good that can come from this once a year outweigh the bad. Most lung cancer patients are diagnosed in the later stages (stages 3/4) because there are very few or no symptoms until it reaches that point.

I am concerned by what seems to be an increase in lung cancer (even among ppl. that don't smoke or ar around smokers) and there is also a huge increase in adult asthma (particularly among women) and other respiratory illnesses. I think it is environmental. The pollution is killing us and it is getting worse and worse.

[OzarkDem]

41. No scientific evidence

that regular screening for lung cancer improves mortality

http://www.nci.nih.gov/nlst

[peacebaby3]

62. Not what the Drs. told us.

When my sister was first diagnosed, they said she had stage 1 which means the cancer has not spread and the tumor is small enough to be operable. She had a 90% survival rate at that time. Then about a month later they did a PET scan and found out it was in the shin bones of her legs. This now put her in stage 4 which meant that her chance of survival went to 1%. They later found it had gone to her brain as well. The Oncologist and Radiologist told us that they wish the tumor had been found sooner because her chance of survival would have been much greater.

I agree that you should not needlessly use x-rays, but over the last few years they have improved the levels of radiation a good bit. Mammograms are x-rays and they are recommended for women 40 and over each year. I am just in my 30s but with cancer history in my family, my GYN has recommended that I consider starting mammograms early.

I also did a fundraiser for my sister to help raise money for treatment since she had no insurance and did live news spots to promote it along with the local office of the American Cancer Society and we discussed the x-ray once a year fairly extensively and they agreed also.

I just read your link as well and it said that the study is actually going on right now. Sounds like they are checking into chest x-rays and spiral CT scans further for preventive care based on the statement.

To each his own, but I will take my chances with a chest x-ray once a year. I saw up close how horrible this is and I quit smoking about 6 yrs. ago so I want to stay on top of it.

[FreedomAngel82]

51. My grandfather did too

He smoked when he was younger (pipes and cigar's) and he died a few weeks ago from lung cancer. :(

[dhinojosa]

57. Sorry to hear that.....some questions though

So he hadn't smoked in how long?

[peacebaby3]

65. I'm very sorry.

I know how hard it is to watch a loved one die from lung cancer. My thoughts are with you and your family.

[Ladyhawk]

43. But, but, but, America is all about blaming the victims.

At least that's how it seems to me lately. :(

[Talismom]

44. I agree with you Ladyhawk! On another post I described how hard

it is for cancer researchers like me, who work on lung cancer, to fund their research! The funding for breast, ovarian, prostate cancers, to name a few, is much more plentiful. Part of it seems to be from this puritanical perception that if you've got lung cancer, you brought it on yourself! It's really a problem.

[Ladyhawk]

49. It's all so hypocritical. People who have heart attacks aren't

stigmatized, even though eating too many fatty foods may have caused their heart attack.

The lady who was supposed to be helping me through post-surgery tried to give me a lecture on governmental waste, saying it was a waste of money to help people with drug addictions because they had brought it on themselves. Yeah, maybe, but so many of our afflictions are brought on by not living a healthy lifestyle. But many of those same afflictions can't be prevented no matter what. I've also learned that many of those who develop drug habits are self-medicating because something else is wrong. They deserve health care, too, and perhaps should attend some kind of mandatory therapy. Sorry, I'm not willing to say someone is "human refuse" simply because he or she may have acted in such a way to bring on an illness.

Sigh. My diabetes? Hell, I ate too much sugar as a kid and I gained a lot of weight because I was depressed. Did I cause my own diabetes? Maybe. I also was predisposed because of family history. Does that mean I should not be treated or helped?????

Sorry, this pisses me off. It reminds me too much of the AIDS stigma. "People brought it on themselves." Yeah, maybe, but the bible belt that points fingers is full of people who eat too many fatty foods. Look at Jerry Falwell. He's a heart attack waiting to happen. Shame on him for not eating right! Let's deny him health care!...NOT! Jerry Falwell deserves health care, too, even though he's a bigoted hypocrite.

Health care cannot be reserved for those who have lived completely healthy lives because there is no such person. We've all done things to destroy our bodies in one way or another.

[Talismom]

52. I don't blame you a bit for being angry! It's more than enough to deal

with illness, without being stigmatized! The reality is that such distancing is a very infantile defense mechanism that allows the person to soothe him/herself and feel less frightened about ever having to deal with such illness. The effect is, at best,unkind. At worst it's cruel in that it makes an already hurting human being feel isolated and lonely in his/her suffering.

Feel better.:hug:

[peacebaby3]

64. I just heard some stats on funding tonight.

They say that for every breast cancer patient it is $14,000 compared to only $1600 for every lung cancer patient, yet lung cancer kills more ppl. each year than breast, prostate, colon and pancreas cancers combined. That's just horrible.

Thank you for the work you do!!!

[Talismom]

68. Thank you! I feel honored to be able to do it! n/t

[burrowowl]

58. Yes, RADON!

is the 2nd cause of lung cancer. Get your homes checked if you live on a granite sheild.

[OhioChick]

12. My thoughts

are with her and the rest of the family. I wish a full recovery for her. It seems that this family has seen tragedy all too often......

[Cha]

13. I hope Dana Reeves beats

this! Poor thing, I wonder how she could get lung cancer?

[Dora]

17. Lung cancer afflicts even the unsuspecting

I lost an aunt to lung cancer that came on swiftly. She died only ten months after diagnosis, and it was a diagnosis that could have been caught four months earlier. She was in her fifties, a non-smoker her entire life, and a diet-conscious vegetarian and whole-foods devotee for many many years.

One of the most horrible things is that nearly everyone assumes that smoking is to blame, and therefore, the cancer could have been prevented somehow...

I wish for the best for this family.

[Cha]

18. That's what I don't understand..

cases like your Aunt's..may she be resting in Peace.

Could it be pre-dispostion? It's unfathomable.

Peter Jennings passing on from Lung Cancer is easier to understand..he smoked for 30 years and then quit. But, when 9/11 happened he said he started up again.

[pitohui]

20. probably environmental

could she have taught school in an older bldg w. asbestos

could she have lived in a valley near coal-fired power plants, all of the cities of the appalachian region, such as knoxville and charlotte, are at elevated risk of disease even if you don't smoke, the air itself is the equivalent of being a smoker

lots of causes outside an individual's control

power plants w. grandfather clauses to avoid compliance w. clean air standards love it how we blame the smoker for all ills and disease

genetics is another cheap fallback since after all there is nothing to be done abt genetics except not breed and pass it on to anyone else

[etherealtruth]

48. Don't forget "good old" radon

[Norquist Nemesis]

30. And to your original point though

it's not absolutely certain that Jennings' return to smoking was the cause. It is however the easiest answer in a world where we have to make sure everything fits nicely into a little pocket so we can make sense of things. I wondered if it wasn't so much the restart of the smoking as it was the toxic soup he was reporting from. Or maybe a combination of both.

[Sacajawea]

63. NN....FWIW...I doubt that it was the re-start of the smoking that was...

responsible. The damage to Peter Jennings's lung tissues began long, long ago when he took his first hit off a cig. There are hundreds (thousands?) of nasty chemicals in cigarette smoke and some of them probably attacked the DNA of the cells lining his respiratory tract. That's when the damage started. Day one. And then it's repeated over and over and over and over again, hundreds of thousands of times over the course of, say, 30 years. The damage has been done. And sometimes this repeated attacking of DNA causes its "structure" to be changed so that it no longer controls cells normally, but rather abnormally, causing them to become what we call "cancerous" and to grow in a wild and unrestrained manner. I don't know how long a time he went without smoking before resuming after 9/11, but I'd say that it's likely his cancer was lurking quietly long before 9/11, just waiting until it reached a critical mass (size) at which point some symptoms were manifested.

This is not gospel. It's just my recollection of what I learned long ago in college biology classes and my work in (recombinant DNA) research laboratories. I think the gist of what I said is correct.

[Individualist]

32. The air we breathe is full of all kinds of crap

Industrial pollution counts for much of it, but the next time you're in traffic behind a vehicle that runs on diesel fuel, think about this:

"Americans in every state and county in the continental U.S. and the District of Columbia were exposed to diesel soot at levels that exceeded the California EPA’s cancer benchmark concentration in 1996. In New York, the statewide average human exposure concentration for diesel particulate exceeded the cancer benchmark concentration by 1,200 times, meaning that residents of New York face a one-in-850 chance of developing cancer in their lifetimes simply as a result of breathing diesel soot in the outdoor air. Non-road engines released from 41-88 percent of total diesel emissions by state."


http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=8122&id3=USPIRG&

In 1988, my mother, who had smoked for years, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Fortunately it was diagnosed early, and following surgery and radiation therapy she survived. She quit smoking as soon as she was diagnosed, but one day after she had completely recovered, we were behind an 18 wheeler belching black smoke. She commented that she believed it was pollution like that which was just as responsible for causing cancer as smoking, if not more so. My mother survived another eight years, but even though she had stopped smoking, she died of cancer - a cancerous tumor that had formed over her right carotid artery.

[Patchuli]

34. The very air we are breathing

with all the gunk being pumped into by companies and even worse now with Bush's attacks on the environment can give one lung cancer.

On the other hand? You can get cancer anywhere in your body from smoking, not just in the lungs. I agree that people should be concerned about finding cures, not blaming the afflicted.

[Lindacooks]

67. Secondhand smoke may have played a part.

She was a nightclub singer for years, and we all know nightclubs are filled with smoke.

[qanda]

15. That's just terrible

I pray she will beat the odds on this one and come out okay. Hopefully she will have someone be there for her the same way she was there for Christopher.

[pitohui]

19. ain't no justice in this world

i hope she enjoys a full recovery

[wicket]

21. I wish her the best in fighting this disease

n/t

[Wetzelbill]

22. wow, that is sad nt

[heidiho]

23. Wow - She's So Young -

Having lost my own mother to lung cancer 7 years ago, I can sympathize. With Peter Jennings' death and now this, our awareness of lung cancer will be raised tremendously.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. Meanwhile pResident Not Worth A Damn is supposedly

in "excellent" health. No justice in this World, is there?

[Griffy]

25. LOOK here.. pay no attention to Cindy Sheehan....

no offense, but how many people got cancer yesterday? I think she is a wonderful woman, and I wish the best for her, but I heard this as news... taking up space from real news...

the truth is that there are only so many minutes in a day, and how many are spent reporting on real news is part of the problem... Im sure you all know this but we are in a critical time with traitorgate still boiling and Sheehan trying to do what we all need... AWAKENING THE REST OF AMERICA... the 1 fact that is finally spreading is the the war is a LIE.. based on LIES... and the public is learning this... and THAT is why Cindy will get support! This will all come together with the testimony Conyers has been gathering to hold a real case for impeachment up as the main subject of the 06 election.

[Enraged_Ape]

26. Oh, give me a freaking break

Most of our minds (unlike yours, I guess, based on the desperation in your post) are somewhat multitasking. We CAN hold two or more news stories in our heads at the same time. Imagine that.

Dana Reeve has been a tireless, visible, vocal champion of stem cell research for years, and like her husband, she has always been an advocate and ally of progressive causes. This news just plain sucks.

Please allow those of us who care to express our misery over this terrible news. Cindy Sheehan isn't going anywhere.

[DeepModem Mom]

27. I agree. How is Peter Jennings death LBN, but not this woman's illness?

She is a very prominent advocate for stem cell, and was active in Kerry's campaign. She is not Britney Spears, or one of the Hiltons.

[SW FL Dem]

39. Thank you

I originally posted in LBN but it was moved to GD. I thought it was news too.

[DeepModem Mom]

40. I think they may have reconsidered -- another post...

has been allowed to stay in LBN. Meanwhile, yours is giving GD folks a chance to comment.

Thanks for posting this sad news right away --

[Bunny]

42. Lighten up, Francis.

Honest to Christ, I AM able to think of two things at once! :mad:

[kestrel91316]

61. If you disapprove of this thread ..................

then leave it. Go to another more worthy thread.

[marions ghost]

28. too hard

:cry:

I followed Chris Reeve's story mainly because of my quadriplegic nephew (who died a few months after Chris). So I know how much Dana Reeve did for her husband. Their foundation is excellent and sorely needed. People don't realize how much this has made a difference in the world of the severely disabled. The difference is huge.

This is sad news. Send positive wishes. I know of people who have beat lung cancer.

[DeepModem Mom]

31. sad kick

[earth mom]

36. This is SO sad!

Dana Reeve is a wonderful person! Life can be so unfair! :cry:

Sending good vibes and prayers her way...

[readermostly]

53. I absolutely agree. I've been thinking about Dana Reeve all day. She

was so strong for Christopher throughout his devastating injury. I remember reading his book a few years ago, and he mentioned often that she was his inspiration and gave him the strength to fight. Such a remarkable woman in every way. My prayers are with her for a full recovery.

[Akoto]

55. Gosh, I'm so sorry for her.

I can't begin to imagine how she must feel. After so long, Christopher passes away and she's allowed to rest, only for this to happen. I hope she can beat the disease, as she surely deserves it after so devotedly sticking with her love.

[roguevalley]

37. my dad had this. tough treatment ahead for her. my prayers for her

and her family. My dad survived because of early detection. anyone who smokes, go and get a chest x-ray even if you feel nothing. If its clear, quit. If it isn't, then you have a jump on it.

[Talismom]

45. She has been so brave and faced such pain...it's so sad! Wishing

her a quick and long-lasting remission!

[all.of.me]

47. how very very sad.

i hope she pulls through it.

[FreedomAngel82]

50. Oh no

:( Is it just me or are a lot of people getting cancer now?

[checks-n-balances]

54. She's a saintly person & they both spoke publicly for stem cell research

despite pushback from this pathetic administration. I also was thinking about the rest of their family as I heard this news - I hope it's early enough to be caught and conquered.

Who knows how she got lung cancer, but it's my anecdotal experience that many people seem to be diagnosed with it after very stressful times or after a period of grieving. What a person goes through psychologically during those times seems to wear down a person's immune system. It happened to several of my relatives that way.

BTW, my suggestion is for the people who feel like letting their snarky side (that's putting it nicely) show through at news like this, maybe you should think about refraining from joining these kinds of threads. Can't speak for anyone else, but being confronted with your insensitivity in these kinds of contexts makes me feel like I'm on freeper-type websites. You're entitled to your opinions, but mine is that you're just making DU look bad - and yourself look very superficial.

As a whole, I think we're much better than that.

Anyway, hoping and praying for the best for this family and all those who suffer in tragic circumstances.

[Blue_Roses]

56. this is so sad

my first thoughts when I heard this was how much more for her...so sad. She's a remarkable woman and this just plain sucks...not fair at allx(

My thoughts and prayers are with her. What a beautiful person.

[DanCa]

59. This is heart breaking (nt)

[Maat]

60. She has a 13-year-old son, who just lost his dad ..

and now he's faced with losing his mom.

Cases like this just break my heart.

Sending healing energy to her!

[Fleshdancer]

66. My heart goes out to her and her family

She's a strong woman who knows how to endure the worst of pain. Because of that, it's not her that I'm most worried about now, it's her son, Will.