[Jimmi T]

I love JimmyT playing all coy, acting like he doesn't know.

I don't know anything for sure. My contacts probably do but haven't shared it with me--they only drop hints.

 

[kbdid]

From what I've heard since his case is advanced it is terminal. He likely has five to 10 years tops by the sound of it.

From the Star article, this seems about right:

The five-year survival rate for pleomorphic liposarcoma is 56 per cent, according to the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative based in Ossining, N.Y. This drops to 39 per cent at the 10-year mark.
“If they can get all the disease out surgically . . . he’ll have about a 50/50 chance of beating it,” said Dr. Walter Longo, chief of gastrointestinal surgery at Yale University.
However, Bailey stressed that the likelihood for a cure is lower for advanced liposarcomas that have spread to different areas. The longest he’s seen a patient live with advanced pleomorphic liposarcomas is five to 10 years.

 

[pattycakes]

From what I've heard since his case is advanced it is terminal. He likely has five to 10 years tops by the sound of it.

If the secondary tumour on his butt is a met, then 5 to 10 years is extremely optimistic IMO. Both of the tumours are quite large and they're probably hoping chemo will help shrink the largest to an operable stage. Hopefully the tumours shrink with chemo, some don't. No point in removing the tumours but leaving residual cancer floating around that isn't responding to chemo. The doctor didn't mention node involvement, but the 2nd tumour isn't good news.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Good article by Ed Keenan:
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...tical_the_fords_continue_to_hurt_toronto.html

I totally agree with him that the Fords are the ones who have muddied the waters by mixing a political fight with their real personal one. If they'd pulled out of the races last week it would be easier to sympathize than it is now. The fact is they had a cancer scare and decided, with their backs against the wall, it was important for Mike, Doug and Rob to all be on the ballot somewhere. I read a quote somewhere else that, not surprisingly, the Ward 2 thing was to give Rob something to fight for etc. That's just BS. The city council does not exist to act as a Make-a-Wish Foundation for Rob Ford. If he's well enough to be councillor (and he just might be, after all this) that's one thing. But for him to campaign for his bed over a legit candidate is an insult to the process. The only saving grace is, ironically, he'll probably be a better councillor than Mikey would have. In a weird way, it's the best place to stick him now that he can't coach high school football for a living...

 

[kbdid]

About this second tumour/nodule; the doctor described it as being part of the first tumour and being contiguous. I thought that meant he was being careful not to describe it as mets (?)

 

[animatronic]

From what I've heard since his case is advanced it is terminal. He likely has five to 10 years tops by the sound of it.

You don't beat cancer - you just hold it off long enough to die of something else.

 

[Scarberian]

What is Doug then?

The greatest councilor ever? To be "Ford Fair", Thug did thought it was a part time position and treated it as such. He didn't know all the biased, stupid, inefficient and pointless red tape though. Like, being a brother to the mayor apparently does -not- make one a co-mayor. Whodathunkit?!

 

[Jimmi T]

About this second tumour/nodule; the doctor described it as being part of the first tumour and being contiguous. I thought that meant he was being careful not to describe it as mets (?)

Sounds like it's an important point that the papers have interpreted differently. Some say it's a completely separate tumour, while others say it's part of the first.

 

[rutefoot]

On a side note: http://www.apple.com/privacy/government-information-requests/

Apple is no longer going to to able to hand over photos and other data to police in iOS8

On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode. Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it's not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.

 

[sno man]

I don't know anything for sure. My contacts probably do but haven't shared it with me--they only drop hints.

Since it's supposed to be based on Kathy's testimony, is there anything on Scotty Mac's beating/Ford money owed for drugs story?

 

[Jimmi T]

You don't beat cancer - you just hold it off long enough to die of something else.

Well before this I gave him another five to 10 years anyhow. I thought if he lost the mayor's race he'd fall off the wagon and die from substance abuse issues. But maybe he'll avoid that stuff now so that it doesn't hamper his cancer treatment.

 

[kbdid]

Well before this I gave him another five to 10 years anyhow. I thought if he lost the mayor's race he'd fall off the wagon and die from substance abuse issues. But maybe he'll avoid that stuff now so that it doesn't hamper his cancer treatment.

That was my thought. On the other hand, I can imagine (addict thinking here) that he may also be the type, a few drinks in, to get all maudlin and "oh, well, I'm going to die anyway..." That said, if he stays clean (big if) he probably has a better chance at a longer life than he had before developing cancer. God I feel terrible thinking that.

 

[TinyTiny]

Actually, I think that the state of play is 'no known factors' of that type. Science is like that.

Last night I talked to a friend who is an oncologist in Arizona. He interpreted Cohen's wording (no known factors) as a sort of CYA but basically said that there is simply not enough data on this type of cancer to make a definitive correlation - so the statement was along the lines of "factually true by virtue of limited analysis".

He said that if he were 'on the record', he would have said the same thing as Cohen, but he went on to say that apparent Ford's lifestyle choices are a trigger for any number of health risks and that if he were talking 'off the record' to the family his gut feeling is that being a drunken crackhead opiate addict definitely would compromise the immune system and could possibly be a factor.

so yeah, "no known factors" = literal interpretation of little to no available data.

 

[sno man]

Well before this I gave him another five to 10 years anyhow. I thought if he lost the mayor's race he'd fall off the wagon and die from substance abuse issues. But maybe he'll avoid that stuff now so that it doesn't hamper his cancer treatment.

Somebody mentioned the tale of the scorpion and the frog, up thread, this reminds me of the last line of that story, when the scorpion stings the frog, the frog asks why, the scorpion says basically "I gotta to be me." Rob will use again.

 

[sweetlou]

When I worked in hospital PR, we frequently ran up against conflicting (and inaccurate) medical information being given out people who had attended medical school for zero days. Often by family members and even the police. For example, police telling media that a traffic accident victim had "severe head injuries and probably a lot of internal damage", while we were looking at a patient with a broken leg. At times, families would make it sound worse than it was and sometimes this was because fundraising was going on. It was always difficult to manage within the confidentiality laws and what the patient/family wanted to say and what the medical staff said.

My guess is Mt Sinai was not at all pleased with Joe's lung biopsy story and would have discussed it with the Fofam. It doesn't help the medical staff - nor does it in the long run help the patient - to have misinformation out there on top of what it already a difficult diagnosis. (Note I'm being v charitable towards Warmington and his journalistic cred.) On top of that, the docs will have read the riot act to Rob about his overall health status (obesity, presumed high blood pressure, stage 4 sweatiness) and recreational habits. So I'm not surprised that Zane Cohen nixed the lung biopsy fallacy head on. Doctors are precise people and this would have annoyed them.

As for the tumour-on-the-appendix: rob is a doofus. He's a low IQ, undereducated nitwit with a demonstrated tendency not to properly inform himself of anything. Smarter people than Rob frequently get their medical information mixed up, hear what they want to hear, take a guess at long words, and embellish unconsciously for effect. I have a friend whose father died from myeloma. My friend keeps saying he died from melanoma. Somehow the words got switched in her mind during an extremely emotional event and she's come to believe her version. Back to Rob's cancerous appendix: it sounds like Mount Sinai doctors have also set him straight on that.

There will have been some very interesting conversations in Rob's room. And I wonder how Rob is responding - he's not a man who has time for expertise in any form except maybe football.