Comments on: Is This What They Mean by a “Pyrrhic Victory”? http://thecheerfuloncologist.blogsome.com/2006/04/05/is-this-what-they-mean-by-a-pyrrhic-victory/ This blog has moved on to ScienceBlogs - come and check it out! Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:33:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha by: Kim http://thecheerfuloncologist.blogsome.com/2006/04/05/is-this-what-they-mean-by-a-pyrrhic-victory/#comment-1799 Sun, 09 Apr 2006 08:01:40 +0100 http://thecheerfuloncologist.blogsome.com/2006/04/05/is-this-what-they-mean-by-a-pyrrhic-victory/#comment-1799 My mother-in-law responded unbelievably well to chemotherapy and lived 2 1/2 years following her initial diagnosis of oat-cell carcinoma of the lungs. She said, "When the doc says I'm down to two months to go, I'm smoking again". Well, one day her kidney and liver functions would allow no more chemotherapy and after sitting in front of a tumor board, she was told there was nothing more that could be done. She began smoking and enjoyed every minute of it and was never on a bit of oxygen until two weeks before she died six months later. She was 59 years old. My mother-in-law responded unbelievably well to chemotherapy and lived 2 1/2 years following her initial diagnosis of oat-cell carcinoma of the lungs. She said, “When the doc says I’m down to two months to go, I’m smoking again”. Well, one day her kidney and liver functions would allow no more chemotherapy and after sitting in front of a tumor board, she was told there was nothing more that could be done. She began smoking and enjoyed every minute of it and was never on a bit of oxygen until two weeks before she died six months later. She was 59 years old.

]]> by: Maureen McHugh http://thecheerfuloncologist.blogsome.com/2006/04/05/is-this-what-they-mean-by-a-pyrrhic-victory/#comment-1740 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:48:36 +0100 http://thecheerfuloncologist.blogsome.com/2006/04/05/is-this-what-they-mean-by-a-pyrrhic-victory/#comment-1740 Thank you for treating the patient, not the disease. You know, my mother is 91 and has dementia. Her doctor noticed that at 91, her cholesterol was hovering around 300 and put her on lipitor and referred her to a cardiologist. What this meant in real life was that he put her on a drug that would cost her a $1,000 a year and that I took her to a place she had never been, for reasons she couldn't understand, to have an exam she didn't understand. The cardiologist found out that she had no symptoms of heart disease, no shortness of breath, no pain, nothing. He was furious and he said take her off the lipitor, have her take a baby aspirin every day, and if she has any symptoms of heart related problems, call him. I thanked him for treating my mother instead of her cholesterol test numbers. Telling people who are going to die not to smoke seems to me to miss the point. Thank you for treating your patients. Thank you for treating the patient, not the disease.

You know, my mother is 91 and has dementia. Her doctor noticed that at 91, her cholesterol was hovering around 300 and put her on lipitor and referred her to a cardiologist. What this meant in real life was that he put her on a drug that would cost her a $1,000 a year and that I took her to a place she had never been, for reasons she couldn’t understand, to have an exam she didn’t understand. The cardiologist found out that she had no symptoms of heart disease, no shortness of breath, no pain, nothing. He was furious and he said take her off the lipitor, have her take a baby aspirin every day, and if she has any symptoms of heart related problems, call him.

I thanked him for treating my mother instead of her cholesterol test numbers.

Telling people who are going to die not to smoke seems to me to miss the point. Thank you for treating your patients.

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