Arkansas Blog

For all who want to know about Frenchie............cancer
going to try drug CASODEX...........more x-rays monday............
I am numb

jazzy, I am so sorry. They have done a lot of work in the past few years on cancer-specific drugs that greatly improve the chances of someone with cancer to survive for years.

It will be a long battle jazzy, you have my sympathies, best hopes. Never give up. I've done two of them with others. Let us hear from you whenever possible.
Find any and every comedy DVD you can get and have him watch them often.

Jazzy, I am so sorry that you and Frenchie have this trial. You have my sympathies as well. Strength and preserverance...

Sorry to hear the news Jazzy. I'm glad you finally got him to the doctor to get the tests he needed. At least now you know why he was feeling so bad. Hopefully his treatment will work. We are all standing behind you in this battle.

Prayers for you, dear Jazzy, and your wonderful Armand.

Jazzy --

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. You know you and Frenchie are in our hearts and thoughts and prayers here. All the way.

Gee, Max, I guess it's alright if the Arkansas Supreme Court releases "killers" so long as they are the West Memphis 3.

Jazzy, Im so sorry to hear that. You and yours will be in my thoughts and prayers. And we ARE all standing behind you in this battle.

I guess the right wingnuts would just grab whatever's handy and shoot his prostate. But that's not a very good location to be shootin' at, really.

jazzy.......that is indeed not good news, but i have every faith that Frenchie is still a strong young man and will pull thru this with flying colors. Everyone here will have you and he in our thoughts as you fight this together. Always understand we will do whatever we need to do to be your rock in this, we're here for you and with you.

Jazzy, that's terrible news and I am so sorry. My heart goes out to you and Frenchie.

TotallyLookAlikes has an interesting project going, save for some of the racism.

But here's one which caught my eye
click it.

Oh Jazzy, I am so sorry....please know your AT family is wishing ya'll all the best, hope you have some good news soon!

Keep us posted.

jazzy, if it's prostate cancer (extraordinarily common), there's much room for encouragement and every reason to be optimistic. There are many treatment options these days, as I'm sure you've been advised. At least 50% (some studies indicate 60%) of us guys who eventually make it to 80 will have cancer of the prostate; most of us simply will never know it, since something else will take us out first. That said, you and Frenchie will be in our thoughts every day.

Lord, what the past 48 hours have brought. Frenchie's diagnosis; the passing of Farrah and of Michael Jackson; and sadly, the shocking, yet-to-be explained death of a young friend' baby due to be born in three weeks. The young mother-to-be went to the doctor yesterday for her weekly visit during which it was discovered the baby was dead. She nevertheless had to go through labor and delivery, and her "perfect" little girl was born at 3 a.m. today. She and her husband spent the day in their hospital room rocking their newborn until friends were permitted to see them this afternoon. Devastating.

Jazzy,
Now the problem has a name and you all have weapons to fight it with! Good! Knowledge is better than fear of the unknown. You are so strong and good-hearted and love him so much. Just set your sights on this problem and start battling it. You've got lots and lots of friends to encourage you while you encourage him. Western medicine is very good at fighting prostate cancer. Armand is a tough fellow, too. I'm thinking positively and I want both of you to think that way too. Just think, you're so special that you've captivated all of us here just with your personality. I'm betting on you two! When you feel down or scared you come right here and we'll cheer you up and we'll also let you say just exactly how you feel, because it's ok to hate this bad turn and to feel sad or scared.

We're "neighbors" AND friends. I wish we all lived right on your street to take care of you both in person. We'll do the best we can in this little neighborhood of the blog.
Chin up, courage! We are all on your side, dear friend.

Jazzy,

Even those of us who post only rarely have been following you and Frenchie in our thoughts and hoping that the road to recovery would not have this bumpy detour in it.

We will wait as long as it takes for good news.

You always have my hopes and prayers Jazzy!

If you're up late and have time for a heartening story try this:

A Drug War Truce?
Looking at the headlines, you might get the impression that America is approaching a cease-fire in the War on Drugs. After four decades of mindless prohibition and draconian prison sentences for addicts and casual users, the first four months of the Obama era have seen a rapid turn toward rationality. The administration has announced that it will no longer bust clinics that legally dispense medical marijuana, and incoming drug czar Gil Kerlikowske declared flatly in May that he had "ended the War on Drugs." Prominent politicians from Virginia to California - including Sen. Jim Webb and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - have begun to discuss the merits of legalizing and taxing marijuana. And most striking of all, New York - the state that pioneered the use of prison cells for drug addicts - has repealed its repressive Rockefeller drug laws, replacing the nation's harshest sentences with a progressive approach to treatment. "We put a stop to 35 years of bad policy," Gov. David Paterson tells Rolling Stone.

The pace of change has shocked even the most optimistic drug-reform advocates. "I could never have predicted the way things have opened up in the last four months," says Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "We haven't had an open and honest conversation about drugs like this on a national level since the 1970s."

Rolling Stone article on click me

You and Frenchie are in our thoughts too, Jazzy. The diagnosis can knock you off your feet just as hard as it can Frenchie. Take care of yourself.
As several have pointed out, prostate cancer (and others) can be fought with greater precision and success now. Listen to the doctors, take notes and ask questions. Then scour the Internet, taking care to put your faith in credible medical sites, ie., Mayo Clinic and the like, to get a better handle on the situation. Too often doctors assume you know more than you really do about the diagnosis and what to expect. And ask nurses. Sometimes they can explain things better than the doctor can.
Good luck to you both.

Durango--I heard the story of the lost baby girl from my son today--his wife knows the family. Of all the tragedy I heard of today, that was certainly the worst. What should have been a joyous time in their lives came to a screeching halt. I can't begin to imagine the pain of having to go home empty handed to a house with the nursery ready. What a sad day this has been.

Oh lordy, I'm way late. jazzy, I can't see you or Frenchie from way over here so I don't know the exact picture, but more than half of the old men I drink with on Fridays have had or have prostate cancer. I was told once that your chance of developing prostate cancer is the same as your age. So about 78% of 78 year old men have prostate cancer, same with baldness. If a 45 year old man develops prostate cancer....he's in a mess of trouble because it's fast acting stuff when you're young. In most cases of men over 70, they can either cure it by surgery or radioactive implants or other things, and usually the men live until something else whacks them way on down the line.

One of my best friends is 79, looks like Sean Connery only taller and after taking some kind of prostate reducing drugs for a year, they yanked his prostate out and he's whistling dixie these days. Tonight we might raise 30 bucks and go trolling for hookers on 9th street.

So hang in there and tell Frenchie to hang in there too....with the information you've given us so far, this sounds like a far cry from a death sentence. Of course you know you're both dear to us and we're worrying up a storm. You might have to lay off the sex for a little while...but we all must make sacrifices now and then.

Jazzy,

The C word is really akick in the teeth but as mentioned above you now have a defined enemy instead of an insurgent that strikes then fades into the population.

My brothre in Europe came home to see our mother one last time last September. Poor guy got to LR and the hospital just in time for the family debate about a DNR order (do not resuscitate) for Mom.

The flight over caused his feet to swell. They wouldn't go back down, the return flight casued his whole legs to swell.

After months of guessing they finally determined colon cancer. I spent Christmas day in a hospital waiting room. Not the Christmas in Europe I would have imagined.

Last month I sent my brother $2,000 bucks to buy he and his wife plane tickets to New York. Next week we are all meeting them there for a carefree visit. You see, he is cured! The surgery removed all cancer and none can be found. He has no more chance of a recurrance than anyone else with a family occurance.

My brother is back to work fulltime and although the greatly reduced income from December through April has set him back he has 0, zip, nada medical bills.

Anyone that says European health care is lacking has never been involved with it. My great Blue Cross Blue Shield would have left me with a mountain of "not covered" plus my 20%.

Now back to my Mom and her DNR. Yesterday she kept my choclate lab for me. He is 90 pounds and "active". Mom loves having him over now. You see, she is in better shape than she was this time last year.

I guess health problems and the economic recovery are similar.. When it seems like everything is bad and getting badder, a look back later is the only way to see when the bottom was hit. What I thought was the worst was really already part of the rebound.

I now appreciate a lot of things a lot more than I did a year ago.

Keep the faith Jazzy, we have now identified the enemy and now we can battle that.

Keep us up on the progress.

DBI, have fun tonight. I'm sending you $5 toward your dear and glorious cause.

jazzy, hope things look better in the light of day. All these positive stats people have posted about prostate CA should make you feel a tad bit better. more men die WITH prostate cancer than OF prostate cancer.

Frenchie's not a diabetic, is he? I think I dreamed that up. Did they ever give the poor man anything to lessen his painful symptoms, or what?

Keep the faith & hang in there. I know how hard it is to have a sick family member, believe me. But it seems to be the general consensus of the blog that he will do very well with treatment. Please keep us posted!

Sorry Jazzy, I have been away from the digital notepad for personal reason. You and Armand are in my prayers and thoughts. I concur with the comments about the prognosis for prostate cancer.

Keep him laughing, Jazzy. A smile, a grin and a good attitude are strong medicine for all medical problems and don't do any harm to the partner or spouse either.

Jazzy: My sympathies to you all. As someone that has had my own diagnosis with cancer, I can tell you that it is not necessarily a death sentence. Now that you know what is wrong, you can DO something about it. The worst part is when you first hear about it. I paced around, cried, and worried about how I was going to pay for treatment, in total despair. It's never been that bad since - it's all been uphill from then.

We really need to have universal single payer health care, so people can go in at the first hint of something that is wrong without worrying about how they are going to pay for it, or if they will lose everything trying to pay. It's abominable what our corporate vultures have done to us.