Devastating News!

[Kathy_Baratta]

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I am typing through tears. The Lion of the Senate has been diagnosed with one of the most devastating conditions known to medical science.

Ted Kennedy has a malignant Glioma. This is an insidious brain tumor. I watched my husband die of it and it is one of the most horrible things you will ever witness. In fact, except for Lou Gehrig's disease, I can't think of a more devastating, wasting disease. They are not saying what stage it is in and that in and of itself tells me it is not good. John's was stage four which means you have months to live or more accurately, months for your family to watch you waste away to nothing until death comes. They will do chemo and radiation but any doctor will tell you even if surgery is performed, Glioma's (especially Glioblastoma which is the worst) are insidious and will likely grow (and at a rapid rate if it's a stage three or more.) The prognosis is not good, not good at all.

If you pray, do so. Some people survive brain tumors but usually not this kind. This does not look good and no matter what your politics, this is one of the most horrific diagnoses you can receive so pray for him but even more so, pray for his family who are likely to endure a horror no one should have to witness. No one should have to die like this. His family is likely in for a horror of deterioration that will be even harder to take because he was such a vigorous, proud individual.

I know it was for us.

KB[/size]

[Maria_Lynn_Lamb]

i just logged on and saw this, its all over the aol welcome page, how very sad. of course i just turned on the tv and its all over the news as well.

(((kathy))) i did not know this about you and your husband John. this must be very painful to share with those of us that dont know you IRL. what a horrible thing to go through, please accept my deepest sympathy for you and your family  

[Kathy_Baratta]

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Actually Maria, it was five years this May 17 that he died. We had been divorced just about four years (massive mid-life crisis but that's for another day) when he was diagnosed but when you start out as high school sweethearts you'd be amazed at what you can forgive and forget  at a time like that.

The important thing is we were together at the end as we should have been. A lesser man than Leon may not have been able to put up with my going back and forth so many times to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore so John could die with his "family" around him when family meant the most.

Thank you for your kind words.

KB[/size]

[Laura_Kurtz]

Kathy, sorry to hear that you and your husband went through this.  My father had a tumor in the brain stem 17 years ago which caused him to stroke and be partially paralyzed.  Not to mention what it eventually did to his personality.  He didn't want any treatment, it spread and he died almost 5 years later.  I was there the last week before he passed.  It was very hard because he was a very active person before the tumor but I cannot imagine the difficulty you went through with your husband.  No matter who it is, prayers should be said.  Cancer is a horrific disease. I've known too many people die from it.

Such a shame.

[Kathy_Baratta]

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Kathy, sorry to hear that you and your husband went through this.  My father had a tumor in the brain stem 17 years ago which caused him to stroke and be partially paralyzed.  Not to mention what it eventually did to his personality.  He didn't want any treatment, it spread and he died almost 5 years later.  

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A kindred spirit. John's was in the right frontal lobe. It's a horror show from start to finish. They paralyzed him on the left side performing the biopsy. Add to that they didn't take more than what they needed for the biopsy sample when they should have removed as much as they could at that given opportunity. Turns out you only have two, maybe three times to go into the brain and perform surgery. After that they won't do anymore surgeries because your body and brain just can't take it.) This was in Fairfax, VA.

Anyway, John's Hopkins surgeons then went in for the second surgery and took out what they could but they were honest from the start and gave him till the end of the year. (Did I mention that if my dog got hit by a car I wouldn't take him into an operating room at John's Hopkins unless I knew for sure he didn't have to do his post-operative recovery there).

That was what killed him. A post-op infection set in within a week of the surgery that never relented and brought with it a whole host of tangential pain and suffering. The hospital was a filthy, sh*thole. My hand-to-God, I was swatting away GNATS in the NICU unit the same day they were doing bedside procedures on him IN THE SAME ROOM wherein they were actually boring into his skull to implant shunts. Anyway, the gurneys they would use to transport him from his room to the different testings were so filthy that if they were food carts in a restaurant, you would refuse to eat anything that came off it if you saw it go by the table. The floors looked like crack houses with the needle caps and alcohol preps (ok, I know, junkies don't use alcohol preps but they were part of the hospital debris that littered the floor) and the dust and debris behind the open hall doors would have made you insane. I am exaggerating nothing here when I tell you I have been in gas stations bathrooms that were cleaner than the one in his room and can tell you I learned first-hand what it means when people say, 'sometimes the cure is worse than the disease!"

Anyway, he was diagnosed in September 2002 and dead in May 2003 with the between months being a horror show I hope no one I know (here or in "real life") ever has to endure.

I am sorry about your father Laura Lou.

You know, it is interesting though. One of the nurses in the Virginia hospital told me, "there was a time when we saw maybe one or two brain tumors a year. Now, everyone on this floor is here because of a brain tumor." Her theory was it was due to the proliferation of cell phones. More interestingly, John didn't own a cell phone, probably had never even used one. She posited that she thought it could have to do with the increased "waves" that are now shooting through the air at all of us so it doesn't matter whether you "use" one or not.

KB

P.S. Make sure someone takes the time to tell me how lucky we are to have the best medical care available known to man. (Sorry. I know that was snarky but it does come up for me when people start criticizing people like Michael Moore. People who are doing their small part to deal with a larger problem that only becomes "my" problem when it hits someone they love or care about)[/size][/font]

[Sue_Veitengruber]

Kathy, as log as I have known you, I did not know about your ex-husband! My sympathies to you and Laura Lou. Both George and I both had first cousins who both died at the age of 32 of brain cancer. Both had operations  to remove the tumors, but the tumors grew back larger and faster than they originally were. Brain cancer is one of the most difficult things to watch because slowly a person loses their abilities.

Whule I have great admiration for JFK and Bobby Kennedy, Ted Kennedy was never my cup of tea as a politician, but no one should have to endure the  disease. Our prayers are with him.

[Kathy_Baratta]

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Kathy, as log as I have known you, I did not know about your ex-husband!

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I know, given what I do for a living, right?. Those that know me best will tell you I have always kept things close to the vest, as they say. It's a defense mechanism I suppose. Like Bob Dylan sang in my favorite of his. It's recent and from a movie (whose name escapes me). The line in the song is, "I hurt easy, I just don't show it.". Anyway, the song is, I used to care (but things have changed. The line, I think, defines me in many ways.

KB
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[Barry_Jacobson]

If it is Glioblastoma Multiforme the prognosis is very poor.  When my mother in law had it in 1991 2% lived for 5 years, and the average lifespan after diagnosis was 11 months.  She lived for about 8 months.  

I do not know if the prognosis has changed since 1992

[Kathy_Baratta]

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Barry,

Then you know of whence I speak.

Due to the fact Kennedy's brain tumor was capable of causing his body to go into seizure, my gut intuition tells me it's likely at least a stage three if not four. Well, my gut intuition plus the fact that I know the doctors already know the stage and yet have chosen to not disclose it to the press as yet.

That tells me his "people" are huddling right now working on what would be the most dignified way to proceed in dealing with making the announcement.

KB

P.S. As of five years ago, the prognosis had not changed.[/size]

[Eileen_Davis]

Kathy's sister here
I have an oncology background and want to avoid getting too medical as its veeery complicated-suffice to say Glial cell caricinomas are monsters
my thoughts are at
www.eileendavis.com
THE DAVIS REPORT
kath
love you
lol

[Kathy_Baratta]

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Kathy's sister here
I have an oncology background and want to avoid getting too medical as its veeery complicated-suffice to say Glial cell caricinomas are monsters
my thoughts are at
www.eileendavis.com
THE DAVIS REPORT
kath
love you
lol

============================================

As my sister's post attests, we are both very opinionated and informed on the things which we scruple to share with others. (How do the men in their lives put up with them you might ask? - We're worth it!  8-) )

I knew when I heard about Ted she would also think about John. He was like her big brother since she was a kid.

Lol,*

Love you too, talk to you later -

Me

*Lol stands for "Lolly" which for reasons not needed here, was a family nickname and does not have anything to do with today's computer-speak.[/size][/font]

[Laura_Kurtz]

Sue, you are so right about tumors growing bigger and faster.  My Aunt had a brain tumor around the same time as my Dad.  She had the operation to remove it.  They got 95% of it.  Months later, she was worse off, going downhill quickly as the tumor that was left grew quickly and she ended up in a nursing home, not knowing any of her loved ones.  A short time later, she passed away at a young age before my Dad did.  My Uncle, her husband, told my Dad that he had wished she did what my Dad had done with his tumor.  Nothing!  Then she would have had some quality time with her family before she died.  

Kathy, thank you for your kind words.  I am sorry to read how terrible the hosptial was.  It is shocking to know how dirty the hospital was!

{{{{HUGS}}}}

[Paul_Schneider]

Kathy
You never know what your friends and neighbors have gone through. I am sorry to hear what you
went though.
Frieda and I are now watching Frieda's mother suffering.
Although Mary is 87 last Christmas she was driving and taking care of her fastious self.
She was cured of Non Hogkins Lymphoma (same at Jackie Kennedy) 15 years ago.
In Jan she went to the hospital and was treated until last month for Arthritis of the spine.
It was the cancer that is spread throughout. She is the Manor and under hospice.
This is one of the reasons that I cannot be involved much as Frieda is a only child and is
very devistated.
I know that we will be in Leon and your thoughts.
God Bless
Paul

[Kathy_Baratta]

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I know that we will be in Leon and your thoughts.
God Bless
Paul

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Paul,

You know you can count on it.

KB[/size][/font]

[leon_bruno]

My heartfelt feelings to you, Paul, and to everyone who has posted about their grief here.

My Mom died of breast cancer that had metastasized to bone cancer & I'll never be the same after watching

that good woman suffer bones cracking & the spread of the cancer to her brain. The day she died, I was grateful it

was over for her, but it was the worst day of my life!!