Barbara Ehrenreich's Salon blog: Catty About Cancer

[flpoljunkie]

Catty About Cancer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-ehrenreich/catty-about-cancer-_b_44340.html

Ever since John and Elizabeth Edwards revealed that her cancer is back and has taken up residence in her bones I've lived in fear of what Ann Coulter might have to say about this grim situation. It's bad enough, for someone like me, who's been treated for breast cancer, to hear about anyone else's recurrence, but it's worse when you're worried about a recurrence of Coulter's hoof-in-mouth disease, which led her to suggest, on March 2, that John Edwards is a "faggot." Will she now charge that the Edwards are faking the whole thing - or that Elizabeth is actually a male transvestite, who will be using the alleged cancer as a cover-up for his sex-change operation?

<>Strangely, it's not Coulter, but girl-next-door Katie Couric who's hinted, in a 60 Minutes interview with Elizabeth Edwards, that the couple might be "capitalizing" on the disease. Can't you just see them cackling over the bone scans, eagerly calculating what the results would do for them in the polls? Convening their children for the good news that, although Daddy's been almost eclipsed by Obama, Mommy has a potentially fatal disease?

Couric also told John Edwards that some people might judge him "callous" for campaigning through what might be his wife's last months. Is Couric forgetting that she was working as a $7 million a year NBC anchor while her own husband was dying of colon cancer? And just in case we do get a Gingrich candidacy: Recall that he had his first wife served with divorce papers while she was in the hospital with cancer. In contrast, campaigning with your spouse, for as much time as she will be able to spend on the trail, seems downright romantic.

All right, I have a stake in all this. For my money, John Edwards is the best candidate out there. Clinton has Iraqi and American blood on her hands; Obama has yet to lay out clear economic alternatives; and, although they might once have been Republican moderates, McCain and Giuliani are shamelessly snuggling up to the Christianist Right. I like Edwards because he's taken up the banner of the little guy and gal in America's grossly one-sided class war. He's laid out a plan for universal health insurance; he wants to repeal Bush's tax cuts for the rich; he shows up at workers' picket lines.

<>As for Elizabeth Edwards, all I know is this: When I was being subjected to chemotherapy six years ago, the one thing that kept me going was work. Every morning I would go down to my desk in the basement to confront the computer screen and the stacks of books and papers around it. I ended up not using the chapter - on ancient Roman games - I was writing at the time (for the book just published as Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy), but I desperately needed to be at least 2000 miles and 2000 years away from my affliction. So I say to Elizabeth, if I may call her that: Get out there, girl, and campaign like hell!

[snappyturtle]

1. Sounds like very good advice to me. n/t

[Bobbieo]

2. Why would anyone in their right mind care what Coulter has to say.

about anything???If enough people ignore her, she will go away!!! The only reason she stays in the limelight is because people put here there!!!! I had no idea who she was until I came on DU.

[Hekate]

3. Katy C will live to regret her shameless RW talking points interview

Elizabeth E, whatever happens, lives knowing she's fighting the good fight.
:kick:

Hekate

[waiting for hope]

4. When Elizabeth is First Lady -

I'm sure Katie will be all cuddly again. Acck.

[Kber]

5. How my aunt and uncle spent my uncle's last year...

36 months ago my uncle's colon cancer returned. Six months ago, he passed away. For the first 18 months after his diagnosis, he responded unusually well to standard treatments. After that, the chemo and radiation stopped being effective and the cancer spread to his spine, several bones in his legs, and the tumors in his lungs started growing again. He was enrolled in several clinical trials, mostly having to do with pain control.

In the final 12 months they

Took a trip to Costa Rico and stayed in a "resort" in the deep jungle with no electricity but lots of wildlife.
Went to 7-9 art fairs and shows where my aunt displayed and sold her pictures (she is a professional photographer)
Took a cruise to Alaska
My aunt learned how to make coffee and how to take care of the fish pond (which is a self sustaining artificial system bigger than two typical backyard pools.)
They took one ski trip to Utah and skied locally 10 to 12 times.
Had a wonderful Christmas where my uncle and my cousin finally really made peace with each other.
Attended a couple of weddings and a few funerals
Spent their 22nd anniversary in the chemo delivery clinic where they learned that the treatment he was undergoing could be hazardous to his wife if they engaged in, um, marital relations in the next few days.
Celebrated their 22nd anniversary about 1 week after his chemo session
Fought like an old married couple
Loved like newlyweds.
Finalized their finances and planned a funeral. (Funny story - my uncle didn't want one cause he didn't think anyone would come, to which my aunt replied that maybe HE didn't have any friends, but she did and thought she would like them to see her through this. anyway, the funeral home may have broken their fire code since so many people showed up.)

The only day my uncle didn't get out of bed, get washed up and get dressed was the day he died. He died at home with his wife, his son and the hospice workers with him (God Bless Hospice!)

My point is that there is a lot of living you can do in a year (or however much time you have. He spent his last year doing what he loved and with the people he loved.

It seems like Mrs. Edwards is planning on doing the same thing.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Thank you for your post. A wonderful recounting and tribute to your aunt and uncle.