Thats tough...for Swayze...good looking guy who always was sympathetic in his roles because he didnt exploit his looks too much and take himself too seriously...good actor. Having been told 5 weeks to live would be very very difficult under any circumstances. My father went 16 months after being diagnosed with esophagal cancer and it was very tough for him in the end physically. I didnt know about Jeff Healey...that sux too.

thats Kurt Russell

(doh...you already said that)

Rough cancer to get. I had a family friend who died last year. They gave her 6 months to live, she made it 2 years. She went thru heavy kemo and was totally cleared for almost 6 months but as with all panc. cancer it came back like wild fire.

The mortality rate is 100%.

So sad for him. In my prayers.

http://www.ucsfhealth.org/adult/medical_services/cancer/pancreatic/conditions/pancreas/diagnosis.html

My understanding is that they figure that they've caught this cancer early. Usually, if you are diagnosed with this, you quit your job and spend the 6 weeks or so of life that you have left with your relatives. Since he caught it early, there is still a decent chance that with aggressive treatment, he might live through it. We can only hope.

N!

A friend of mine, who isn't much older than I, has it too:((I bought my first 911 from him) Last year his sister died of brain cancer.

Cancer really sucks, aS many of you know, I lost my two best friends with in months to cancer, my Grandmother died of lung cancer 5 years ago (we were very close) and now I just found out last Fri that my uncle has cancer and a very good friend's mother now has liver & lung cancer. Now you know why I haven't been very chipper lately.

Damn. Very tough to hear about this. I admit I think I would have the immediate fear of the unknown and the pain. But quickly, I would be thinking about losing my dignity at the end. I'd just as soon not have to go through that but that's not the important part. I'd especially not want to make my children or loved ones endure that. Not have lasting memories of me in those last stages.

My understanding is that with pancreatic, there are no symptoms until the disease has become advanced. Anyone (livi? other Dr. here) know exactly how a person would know if they have it? I understand liver cancer is also a fast killer (not that the others are a walk in the park by any means).

I had to lift one Friend from his bed and put him on the toilet then pull his pants back up and lift him back into the bed. I pray that I never have to go through what he did. I don't have a wife or kids, so if it happens to me, I'll be on my own. :(

Sad to hear. I wonder why there isn't a pancreatic transplant procedure.

I just had a kidney transplant at UPMC on Feb 4 (Polycystic Kidney Disease), and there were people in the transplant clinic who had pancreatic transplants. It can be done, but I suppose it depends on how widespread the cancer has become. There were people getting double lung transplants, lower bowel transplants, livers, you name it. UPMC will do anything, it seems.


I just saw this report about Swayze and they seem a bit more optimistic.

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=304120&GT1=7701

Byron, Very sorry to read this. Very, VERY tough to go through that but big kudos to you for having the stones to do the right thing and help a friend in a true time of need.

I've posted before that my opinion is if you live long enough you will begin to lose your independence and your dignity (to a degree). I suppose if I live long enough for that to happen it PROBABLY means I've lived a long time and am paying the "dues".

I want to live a long time but emphasis on the "live" - meaning not just exist. If I'm pretty clear headed and not a world weary, cranky old.."F", then I think living long would be fine. But if I've got to live in that negative frame of mind, I'd just as soon pass and not burden my loved ones with a nasty old coot.

I think about this stuff all the time, more than I should. It's one of those reason why I make sure I tell my wife I love her every time I hang up the phone or walk out the door. No matter how bad a fight we may have had (very rare), I never want to part ways, even for an hour or so, without "I love you" being the last words she hears from me. You never know if you're coming back.

Rick, Friendly (unsolicited, sorry ) advice - think of it less. Sure, say you love her, do the right stuff, etc but don't forget to live today is my point. Don't worry your life away thinking or worrying about something you can't control.

Kinda related but unrelated; I have a "thing" about my loved ones NOT seeing my body after I'm dead. My feeling? THAT is not me. I don't want any of them remembering THAT as their last memory of me. I had that image of my Dad stuck in my head for a LONG time. I saw him at the hospital after they took out the tubes, etc. I would not wish that on anyone.

I concur. Friday it's gonna rain all over the east coast and I have to ride my bike to Jacksonville, FL. I'm a little nervous. I always think, "I'm happy to be alive when I'm on my motorcycle and I'm happy to be alive when I get off my motorcycle."

It's not like blood cancers where transplants are used to support the body after chemo or radiation wipe out the blood producing cells. It is a solid tumor in a part of the anatomy where things can get advanced without obvious deformity (vs a skin cancer). Therefore, the first symptoms occur when the tumor is advanced much like ovarian cancer or colon cancer (not screened). Local extension and recurrence is the big problem.

Good fam friend just died last yr from this too.:( They just waste away.

They are now saying that the 5 week estimate is not accurate. Hope he makes it out of this in good shape.

~~~~~~~~


Swayze Battling Cancer
By Joal Ryan
Wed, 5 Mar 2008 02:34:08 PM PST
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Patrick Swayze is undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer but does not have just weeks to live, the actor's reps and doctor said Wednesday.

"Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment so far," Dr. George Fisher, Swayze's personal physician, said in a statement. "All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue."

Fisher's remarks were in rebuttal to the National Enquirer, which broke the news of Swayze's illness on its website and said the Dirty Dancing star had recently dropped 20 pounds and been given only five weeks to live.

"Patrick is continuing his normal schedule during this time," the actor's reps said, "which includes working on upcoming projects."

Speaking to E! News, Swayze's mother, dancer and choreographer Patsy Swayze, echoed the optimism of the star's doctor.

"I don't really want to talk about it, but I know he's sick," Patsy Swayze said. "But he has great doctors and a great prognosis, and that's all I can say."

According to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, pancreatic cancer is the deadliest of the leading cancers. Fewer than 5 percent of patients live more than five years after diagnosis.

Swayze, 55, was recently cast as a gay cheerleading instructor in Fired Up, a big-screen comedy that began shooting last month.

As recently as Monday, Swayze was spotted running an errand at a Simi Valley, California, dance studio. An employee there told E! News the actor "looked good" and not at all as if he'd lost a lot of weight.

Producer Bobby Schwartz, who worked with Swayze last summer on the as yet unreleased indie drama Powder Blue, likewise vouched for the star's fitness on that set.

"When we were shooting, the guy looked very young, very healthy, very energetic," Schwartz told E! News.

He also filmed an A&E pilot in December called The Beast, in which he stars as an unconventional, undercover FBI agent. The network said Wednesday it was still considering the show for pickup next season.

Swayze is best known for a string of hits in the 1980s and 1990s that included Ghost, Point Break, Road House and the career-changer, Dirty Dancing, in which he played Catskills bad boy Johnny Castle.

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=95c876d8-ec3c-4835-92fa-31f160865351

On a slightly related note, he's not a bad pilot either. A few years ago he was flying a twin Cessna and had some sort of an emergency while over Prescott Valley, Arizona. He made a forced landing on a small road outside of town. Some damage to one wing tip when it hit a light pole but otherwise not bad...Why he was unable to make the airport in Prescott I can't say.

It pissed me off that the news was all over it as "Patrick Swayze Crashes Airplane". Not exactly correct!

Kurt,

He is not a bad pilot but his judgement is a bit poor. It later came out that he was drunk while flying and after landing paid some locals to stash the empty bottles of hootch from the plane in a ditch nearby.

He survived but flying sober sure helps in something like this...

Uh... didn't hear that part.