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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 18, 2010 - 11:45am PT
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Yeah, Jay - That's the way it usually goes. By the time you have symptoms it's really too late. That is why my focus was specifically on awareness of family history and the current desire by the medical community to understand if early screening for a special high risk group will make a difference for outcome. I'd be happy to expand on this offline with you sometime if you're interested. PM me or get my number from Daph.
"I hate to be negative but pancreatic cancer is rarely curable and highly agressive, and rarely with specific symptoms!"
Ezra, you are not being negative, that is a statement of current reality. But 50 yrs ago, I don't think mammograms or colonoscopies even existed. People just died. 200 years ago, no vaccines or antibiotics existed. People just died. Before they invented how to stitch people up, if you got a bad slice - you just died.
For better or worse, our Western society has evolved to value each life and solve these medical challenges through research and invention. That is what is happening now with pancreatic cancer research - it is in it's early stages. Whether the research should even be done is a point for debate. But it probably will get done, because scientists love a puzzle. That's what drives research - it's playtime for scientists.
I don't want to speak for him, but I think the point Dr. Sprock is making with his jolly jibes is that as a society we have become too focused on personal longevity. It's a great point. The monetary cost to society is enormous. But where do we draw the line and who draws it? 80% of health care dollars are spent in the patient's last year of life. That is why we have a health care crisis in this country, not dollars spent on prevention.
Phyl P. (aka polyp)
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
WA, & NC & Idaho
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Nov 18, 2010 - 11:57am PT
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Phylip,
Thanks for raising awareness of an important issue. You are dead on about our need to focus on PREVENTION, which is why I wrote my post.
Thank you for your research contributions to medicine!
best
-e
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#310
Social climber
Telluride, CO
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Nov 18, 2010 - 11:22pm PT
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Thank you for raising awareness about Pancreatic Cancer. I lost my husband, Chuck Kroger, to pancreatic cancer almost 3 years ago. He was 61 years old. There is no history of any cancer in his family, he was thin and very fit and never smoked tobacco, always ate healthy foods. Chuck lived 5 months after his diagnosis. He ran 28 miles on the Hardrock 100 trail run a week before his diagnosis and surprisingly dropped out - too tired to finish. I hope that some day soon both prevention and effective treatment will be possible.
It is a horrible disease.
Kathy
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Nov 19, 2010 - 12:08am PT
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Bump, just came back to read this, thanks Phyl.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 19, 2010 - 12:53am PT
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hey there say, phylp.... thanks for the awareness post...
right now, my friend in calif, has a friend of hers that is dying
from panceatic cancer.. and another friend of mine, her mom died from it...
i had never heard of it connected to folks i knew, until their stories...
though i had read of it...
also, say, time is flying by:
i will bump my november seizure awareness post, soon, again...
god bless, thanks for the share...
:)
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Daphne
Trad climber
Mill Valley, CA
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Nov 19, 2010 - 01:55am PT
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Damn, Phyl! Signing yourself off polyp (above) made me spray mouthwash all over my mac screen (I was multi-tasking).
Thanks for getting the word out on this scary cancer. I hope your thread is read by all and the information provided gets to those who need it.
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