Posted on 11/04/2004 11:45:38 AM PST by Justaham
Now that election is over, can we unit to pray for Elizabeth Edwards, diagnosed with breast cancer. What she has is an invasive type of cancer, which means that it could spread throughout her body in 3-6 months. ---------------- By RON FOURNIER and RANDOLPH SCHMID, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON - Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites), was diagnosed with breast cancer the day her husband and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) conceded the presidential race.
AP Photo
AP Photo Slideshow: Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards Diagnosed with Breast Cancer (AP Video)
Related Links • Elizabeth Edwards Profile (JohnEdwards2004.com)
Spokesman David Ginsberg said Mrs. Edwards, 55, discovered a lump in her right breast while on a campaign trip last week. Her family doctor told her Friday that it appeared to be cancerous and advised her to see a specialist when she could.
She put off the appointment until Wednesday so as not to miss campaign time.
The Edwards family went straight to Massachusetts General Hospital from Boston's Faneuil Hall after Kerry and Edwards conceded on Wednesday.
Mrs. Edwards had a needle biopsy performed at the hospital, where Dr. Barbara Smith confirmed the cancer, Ginsberg said.
He said the cancer was diagnosed as invasive ductal cancer. That is the most common type of breast cancer, and can spread from the milk ducts to other parts of the breast or beyond.
More tests were being done to determine how far the cancer has advanced and how to treat it, he said.
Ginsberg said spirits are high at the Edwards household. "Everybody feels good about it, that this is beatable," he said.
Edwards, who leaves his North Carolina Senate seat in January, said in a statement, "Elizabeth is as strong a person as I've ever known. Together, our family will beat this."
The American Cancer Society (news - web sites) estimated that nearly 216,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
Treatments have been getting better. The current five-year survival rate for breast cancer is 87 percent, up from 78 percent in the mid-1980s. About 40,000 women die of breast cancer annually.
Overall, the society says about one in seven women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
Invasive ductal cancer accounts for 65 percent to 80 percent of all breast cancers, according to the Merck Manual of Medical Information.
Treatment usually begins with surgery, according to the National Cancer Institute (news - web sites). This could involve removal of the cancer itself and usually nearby lymph nodes. Lumpectomy, just removing the cancerous mass, is becoming more common, though sometimes removal of the whole breast is done.
Surgery can be followed by chemotherapy, radiation or hormone therapy.
Radiation can focus on a cancer site from a machine outside the body or use a radioactive substance placed near the cancer in "seeds" or via needle.
Chemotherapy uses drugs that can stop or slow the growth of cancer that may have spread.
Hormone therapy removes or blocks hormones that can encourage growth of cancer cells.
In early stages of cancer a combination of the drug tamoxifen and hormone therapy is commonly used, the Cancer Institute reports.
The Edwardses married in 1977. They have two daughters, Cate and Emma Claire and a son, Jack. Son Wade died in a 1996 traffic accident.
Mrs. Edwards, born in Jacksonville, Fla., grew up hopscotching between the United States and Japan. She met her future husband at University of North Carolina law school.
She juggled a successful legal career and family for 19 years. Then — stunned by Wade's death — she quit work to have more children at an age when many contemporaries were easing toward grandmotherhood.
On the campaign, she dubbed herself the "anti-Barbie," a quick-witted, down-to-earth political wife who connected particularly well with mothers and fathers.
Oooops! "Your",not "you're" in previous post
Prayers up. We made a lot of jokes about her and stuff during the campaign, but I hope she gets through this.
In my opinion this woman has been horribly used by Johnny-Boy. If my first paragraph failed to convey that, my apologies.
I think if you read my post more carefully you would find that I am suggesting that a person with a conscience who behaves contrary to it experiences anxiety that increases the likelihood of disease. It is my more amiable way of saying that I think the cancer has something to do with her willingness to malign the character of Cheney's wife as well as perhaps those other things that you listed. When I alluded to this connection between cancer and her behavior before my post was deleted by the moderator. Hope this clears things up a little.
It was the wording. Calling those two little children "photo ops" made this grandmother's stomach turn.
That said,I've posted some poorly worded stuff myself.
She put off the appointment until Wednesday so as not to miss campaign time."
I'm sure her husband knew what her family doctor said, so I find the fact that he basically agreed to have her delay seeing a specialist is, well, "a very sad state of affairs."
Frankly, I think it shows, "a certain degree of" carelessness "with respect to" his wife's health and well being.
"It really makes me sad that that's" John's "response".
Regardless of how I feel about her politics, I hope all turns out well. I think of her children. It would be devestating for any of them to lose their mother.
No matter how we feel about someone's political views, we must compassionately see each and every person on this planet as a thinking, feeling human being. What would Christ do? Elizabeth Edwards, my prayers are certainly with you.
Praying for Mrs. Edwards! Best wishes to the family.
OK, never mind.
Intraductal carcinoma of the breast is probably treatable. I believe she is premenopausal and therefore these tend to be more aggressive cancers. However the term "invasive" offers little clarity to this thread. It simply refers to the fact that the "basement membrane" of the duct has been pentrated. She will need at least a quadrantectomy with an axillary lymph node dissection to determine the stage of the disease. If axillary nodes are substantially involved then she will go through chemotherapy. If there is no metastasis to the axilla she will probably go on hormonal therapy (tamoxiphen). I worry mostly about the fact that she is premenopausal and the fact that these tend toward the more aggressive, dysplastic cell type and this is not good. We republicans should wish her the best in her future , but as a surgeon I would hate to be operating on the wife of John,the spirit channler,Edwards. It really does make you worry to operate on a personal injury trial lawyer... I have done it many times and you always worry about adverse outcomes.
Thank you for the thorough explanation. Actually, this is good information and knowledge for us (we, women) to have.
My wife has been struggling with this same type of cancer for a year, now. Early detection and agressive treatment is the key to winning. Mrs. Edwards has a tough row to hoe but it will make her and her family stronger. My prayers go out for the whole family.
My prayers for Mrs. Edwards. My sister had breast cancer; and my cousin has a metastic breast cancer.
Echo that!
Nevertheless, if I were her doc I'd get a liability waiver signed by Breck boy before I lifted a scalpel to save her.
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