Posted on 08/10/2005 6:45:51 AM PDT by Mike Bates
She smoked until her heart attack at 62..didn't make it any easier. I had a 44 year old girlfriend taken in 6 months from diagnosis. I think she gave up.
My grandfather also smoked unfiltered Camels for over 50 years until he finally quit. He would smoke them down until he was about to burn his fingers; I used to joke that I was going to buy him a roach clip so that he could smoke the ENTIRE cigarette. Amazingly, he never developed lung cancer (that we know of), and lived to the age of 86, before dying from complications of emphysema and multiple myeloma.
"""My grandfather. WWII Navy Veteran.
As a Navy man and an Power & Light employee he was exposed to asbestos.
He was exposed to radiation in Nagasaki 15 day after we nuked it, when he picked up the POW's to bring them home.
He also smoked for years in his younger days. Although he did quit 30 or so years before his death.
All could be contributing factors to his cancer."""
Steve McQueen also smoked for years, yet the good doctors blamed his lung cancer on asbestos exposure.
I bet you that that today no doctor would blame lung cancer on anything BUT smoking if the patient ever lit up a cigarette or was exposed to second hand smoke for longer then two weeks during his lifetime.
Actually asbestos exposure trumps smoking. I worked in a law firm that defended an asbestos company, I know.
"""Actually asbestos exposure trumps smoking."""
So does car exhaust, but will any politician stand up and say what my pulmonary specialist told me, namely that being stuck in a car in heavy trafic for two hours is worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes?
YOu will never hear that from anyone but your doctor.
"""YOu will never hear that from anyone but your doctor."""
He's the greatest!
Not like those assholes at Vancouver's Cambie Clinic who took my $700 for CT scanning my lungs, and when they found two lesions (one of them measuring 3 millimeters) told me (to protect Canadian Medicare I'm sure) that there's nothing to worry about.
When I later found out that after Canada's ex-prime minister's, Brian Mulroney's, CT scan showed two small lesions like mine they immediately hooked him up to a PET scan machine to make sure those suckers weren't cancerous, I was angry. Very angry. But, realizing he IS a somebody and that his nodules/lesions might have been larger I cooled down a bit.
BUT, listening to Tammy Faye Baker the other day telling Larry King about how when her doctors found a lesion on her lung that measured only two thirds of what mine was (2 millimeters) they immediately attached her to a PET scanner to find out if her sucker was cancerous, I was fuming. And I still am!
Ms Bel Geddes, I believe, made at least one appearance before HUAC. She did not name names.
There are things worse than cigarettes I'm sure but they are pretty bad. They don't cause every smoker to have lung cancer but there are other health problems that they contribute to. Emphysema is a horrible disease and if you have ever watched someone slowly choke to death you know that. Smoking raises some peoples blood pressure and contributes to strokes and heart attacks. Smoking made my parents final years a nightmare for them and us. I would rather be run over by a truck than die the slow terrible way my parents did.
My father also, only two weeks from diagnosis to death. I was just a kid at the time, and one of the few things I remember about him was that he smoked Camels.
"""BUT, listening to Tammy Faye Baker the other day telling Larry King about how when her doctors found a lesion on her lung that measured only two thirds of what mine was (2 millimeters) they immediately attached her to a PET scanner to find out if her sucker was cancerous, I was fuming. And I still am!"""
I lied.
Rereading the CT report I got from the Cambie Clinic I have found that it was only my SMALL lesion that measured a measilly 3 millimeters. The big one was 4 millimeters. That's DOUBLE Of Tammy Faye's! DAMNIT!!!
Dr. B**s F**k's impression of my test was, and I quote:
"Two small and peripheral noncalcified lesions are identified. These are very likely to be benign with an extremely low risk of malignancy but a repeat chest screening study in one years time for follow-up purposes is recomended."
My interpretation of this crap?:
"Look, RedwineisJesus, let just wait a year or so and if those damn things grow that would mean that it was cancer to begin with and we'll deal with it then."
Is that fair?
It is not fair. You should by all means have the tests done to determine if it is cancer before it spreads.
"""It is not fair."""
Tell that to Dr. F**k! (no, the two stars don't stand for "uc".)
And no I don't blame Dr. F**k because I'm reasonably certain that it's our criminally insane Liberal government that dictates to these private medical clinics not to let Canadian Medicare get stuck with any pricey follow up procedures. Unless the patient is already half dead, of course.
So until the Liberals are out of power and Stephen Harper takes over the helm I recommend to my fellow Canadians that they have their initial diagnostic tests done in the U.S. where doctors are not forced to break their oaths to always act in the best interest of the patient just to save Canadian Medicare a few bucks.
"""You should by all means have the tests done to determine if it is cancer before it spreads."""
I did. And I'm fine. But I DO worry about all the people who always trust their doctors.
The things you have said here make me happy that we do not have socialized medicine. I suppose that no system is perfect.
"""I suppose that no system is perfect."""
I'm not looking for "perfect". I'm just looking for "above average".
I suppose.
I'm getting a PET scan tomorrow. Hope I don't get on the list.
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