Frank

Last night about 10:30 Spouse's eldest brother Frank passed away after a 3-year bout with cancer.

Spouse, his siblings, and his mother were all able to spend time with Frank earlier this week, although no one is sure if he was actually aware of this or not.  There was nothing more that could be done to manage his pain, so to be 'kind' to him Frank was heavily sedated.  He would awaken now and then, look at his family in the room, and attempt to speak but it made no sense and he drifted back to sleep.

During my 20+ year relationship with Spouse we were never what you'd call "close" with Frank.  His lifestyle was very different from ours (heavy smoker, heavy drinker, recreational drug user, etc.) so we didn't have much in common with him.  Yet, the death of a sibling is still difficult, even if you aren't close.  It reminds one of their own mortality, and sometimes makes one question if there were something they could have/should have done differently.

Despite our differences, Frank shared our feeling that Family was very important.  He always made an effort to be with his family for all the holidays, birthday parties, baptisms, first communions, and any other special event. 

Frank was divorced for many years and had no children so the family made the decision to have his body cremated.  A memorial service will be held in the near future.

Breakthrough

At first I thought this was one of those sensational headlines geared to alarm you but ultimately has no proof or science.  But as I read through it I realized this truly is an amazing breakthrough.

Terminally ill patients are left symptom free after treatment with modified cells - described as a "potential paradigm shift".

Check out the story and video HERE.

I sure wish this would have happened 17 years ago when Spouse's father was diagnosed with leukemia.  He passed away less than 2 months after his diagnosis.

 

Frank's visit

Fri night Spouse's eldest brother Frank arrived with his girlfriend-du-jour, Anya.

I've mentioned Frank many times here, and usually not in a flattering way.  (Click on the 'Frank' tag at the bottom of this post to see some of the posts.)  I don't dislike Frank as a person; I just dislike the results of his lifetime of bad choices.  Years of chain-smoking, abuse of alcohol, lying, borrowing money without repaying, just to name a few.  To my knowledge Frank has never had a checking account.  For the last 10+ years he's not been able to keep a job for more than a few months at a time.  He would have been homeless on several occasions if not for his mother allowing him to move back in.  Everyone in the family has tried on multiple occasions to reason with him and try to get him to behave differently, but in 60 years none have been successful.

You may be wondering why on earth we invited him to stay at our home.  Well, we didn't.  He invited himself, and his current girlfriend.  But we agreed to the visit because we feel bad for him.  Frank is dying of cancer.

His symptoms began a few years ago but because he's Frank, he didn't go to the doctor.  Instead he would drink the pain away.  Eventually that no longer worked, and thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Frank finally had insurance and went to the doctor.  Over the last year he's had chemotherapy and radiation and surprisingly didn't loose his beautiful, wavy, salt and pepper hair.  But he's lost a lot of weight and can't escape the pain, despite all known measures. 

He's already outlived his original prognosis but no one is foolish enough to think he's okay.  When pressed he told Spouse he's "on borrowed time", yet he still smokes cigarettes and still drinks alcohol even though his doctors directed him to discontinue both.

So when Frank and Anya arrived at 9pm (their original ETA was 6pm but Spouse & I knew better than to wait for him for dinner) we accompanied them to a cute little pub where they both really enjoyed their meals and we had polite conversation.  Sat they visited an arts and crafts show nearby, had brunch, and went to the beach for a few hours on their own.  That night Spouse brought them to see me perform as Elton John in the LEGENDS show, which they both really seemed to enjoy.  They picked up a pizza to enjoy at home for a late night snack.  Sun morning we all had coffee and said our goodbyes.  I had to go to work and they wanted to head back home before the traffic got too heavy.

Their visit was actually more pleasant and less dramatic than I expected.  We had lots of short, topical but not controversial conversations here and there, and of course memories of funny family situations are always good for a few laughs.  But I feel bad mostly for Spouse because I know he is conflicted.  He's mad at Frank for causing so much grief and emotional pain for himself and his family for so many years, including their 85-year old mother.  But Frank is also his brother, his family, and he's dying.  Its a tough spot to be in.

Wank for health

Did you hear that a seminal study found that the more often men ejaculated, the less likely they were to get prostate cancer?  The original study done in 2004 was confirmed by a recent study with the same findings.  And it doesn't matter if you're accompanied or solo, the more ejaculations the better for your health! Check out the complete article HERE.

I don't know about you, but I do NOT want prostate cancer.  Fortunately now I know what to do to reduce my risk!

Promising advancement

'Landmark' cancer vaccine gets FDA approval
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
April 29, 2010

A vaccine treatment for prostate cancer has become the first therapy of its kind to win approval for use in U.S. patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Provenge, a novel technique for fighting prostate cancer, on Thursday. The treatment involves taking a patient's own white blood cells and using a drug that trains them to more actively attack cancer cells.

"It's a landmark in the sense that it would be the first approved cell-based immune therapy," said Dr. Nina Bhardwaj, director of the tumor vaccine program at New York University Langone Medical Center, who is not involved with Provenge or its maker, Dendreon Corp.

"It's a major conceptual advance; it's a modest therapeutic advance," said Dr. Christopher Logothetis, prostate cancer researcher at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Logothetis testified to an FDA panel in 2007 about the drug, but has no financial ties to Dendreon.

"This is a significant improvement in survival, and is more significant in that it is a new way of treating prostate cancer," said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, in an e-mail.

Because the treatment makes use of the patient's own cells, it does not cause the severe side effects seen in chemotherapy, Penson said. The main side effects seen for Provenge were flu-like symptoms, such as chills and fever, lasting one to two days.

For the entire article, click here.

Crush du Jour: Albero Ochoa