Doctors say Rehnquist treatment protocol may be sign of serious cancer

[leftchick]

http://www.wokr13.tv/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=CF6D9817-BA12-413B-AF8F-713BBDB90887

<snip>

Rehnquist is absent from the Supreme Court today, and released a statement revealing that he's receiving radiation and chemotherapy for thyroid cancer.

Doctors familiar with the disease say that combined therapy suggests that Rehnquist's cancer is not a kind easily treated.

One expert at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, says the most common types of thyroid cancer can be responsive to radioactive iodine. He says chemotherapy would be used against a more aggressive form.

He adds that the need for a tracheotomy to ease Rehnquist's breathing also might indicate the more serious type of cancer.

[Sandpiper]

1. Getting ready for his seat in hell

Between Richard Nixon and Strom Thurmond.

[Kolesar]

2. You don't have to die, just quit now

Then we will have only 4 right wing votes on SCOTUS going into the election. Not enough to steal it.

[d_b]

3. While I don't wish any ill on him or his family..

He won't be missed by me.

[gratuitous]

4. Gee, you'd think the American people deserve to know about this

One of nine justices on the highest court in the land, under doctors' care for a serious medical condition, you'd think that the people of the country deserved some firsthand news about that condition, wouldn't you?

[lovuian]

5. This is not good!!! So we are short a Chief Justice!!!

Very sad news for him!!!

[PurityOfEssence]

6. So if he dies now, and '00 repeats, it gets thrown back to the Florida SC

4-4

Bummer.

[Tamyrlin79]

7. You can bet your sweet bippy that he'll be back...

...just in time to decide any election litigation in Bush's favor. Count on it.

he has until Dec. 12, really... that's a month and a half....

[LiberalFighter]

9. All they have to do is...

have his clerks do the work
he signs off on it
he shows up for 5 minutes
he goes back to the hospital

[SeattleDem]

10. yup, that's how Thurmond managed for so long

Strom Thurmond essentially lived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center the last few years of his life, according to a friend of mine who works in Congress, so it is entirely possible to be on your deathbed, yet fulfilling your obligations in DC.

[Jack from Charlotte]

13. I wonder if he can send in an absentee ballot......

hence voting against any and all recounts. But, for that matter maybe the Supreme Court could just vote to cancel the original vote counting by the states and save all the trouble.

[realcountrymusic]

8. good EOM

[Ramsey]

11. Probably an aggressive thyroid cancer

Most thyroid cancers are slow growing and easily treated with surgery. The fact that Rehnquist needed a tracheotomy points to a quickly growing mass (as I cannot believe he neglected a symptomatic thyroid mass until he needed an emergent trach!).

The fact that he is getting radiation and chemotherapy signals that he probably has an anaplastic thyroid cancer, which is essentially not curable. Those treatments are basically palliative.

Anaplastic thyroid cancer is seen in older people, typically progresses rapidly and the survival is only about 6 months.

[Ilsa]

12. Looks like Pat Robertson's prayers

may have backfired on himm.

[Piperay]

14. If he dies before Inaugural Day

I wonder if chimpy would get to pick someone instead of President Kerry. :scared: :puke:

[MADem]

15. I mentioned this when he first went in

I read that some reputable doctor (sorry, no link, was a while ago) said that when they do a tracheotomy in concert with thyroid cancer treatment, that it is done in less than one percent of cases, and indicates a very, very serious condition.

I don't want the guy to die. He obviously has family that loves him. I want him to stay on the court, intending to stay for as long as he can, and then, because he is weakened and tires easily, that he decides, once we have a DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY SENATE, to step down and "spend more time with his loved ones." I want him to continue to wander around the Hill like an eccentric old fellow who looks two steps shy of a homeless guy (he does that, he likes to go walking around in really schlumpy looking clothes--it's funny to watch tourists asking him for directions not knowing who the fuck he is). I'd like him to live long, and write a book in which he acknowledges the many errors of his ways. That would not just be justice, it would be CHIEF justice!!

[Ernesto]

16. The chief "justice" is toast

I live in a medical industery oriented family. Just glad the old facist has hung on long enough for JK to name his replacement.