Former President Jimmy Carter revealed that a recent liver surgery found cancer has spread in his body but gave few details about his prognosis in a brief statement released Wednesday.
“Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body,” Carter said in the statement released by the Carter Center. “I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare.”
The statement makes clear that Carter’s cancer is widely spread, but not where it originated, or even if that is known at this point. The liver is often a place where cancer spreads and less commonly is the primary source of it. It said further information will be provided when more facts are known, “possibly next week.”
Carter, 90, announced on Aug. 3 that he had surgery to remove a small mass from his liver.
Not much to add. Just terrible news and a terrible diagnosis.
theotherwa
Horrible news. He’s a fine man and we need him around. I was surprised when he recently turned 90, because he’s still so active in causes. This news makes me sad.
Baud
Really sad.
bystander
A great humanitarian and the embodiment of integrity.
He has expressed regret that he is not closer to Obama. I’ve always wondered why the distance.
JPL
I hope that he can live the rest of his life, without suffering. Take care Jimmy and we will be thinking of you on this journey.
chopper
he’s 90 but here’s hoping he kicks cancer’s ass.
fuck cancer.
Elizabelle
Dog bless him. He’s a good, good man.
Over 1,000 people turned up for his booksigning at Costco in suburban Richmond VA. Link has info on book’s content; sounds worth a read.
BillinGlendaleCA
He was my first vote for President, I wish him the best.
Betty Cracker
It’s a sad thing. He’s a good man.
RaflW
I have great respect for President Carter. I hope he gets the care he needs and wants, and makes the choices that lead to quality of life.
He is 90 and has lived an amazing life. Of course living longer is a fine goal, but living well in the time that remains can be an honorable option, too.
I’m injecting my bias here, obviously, but I sometimes feel that the reaction to cancer is always “fight it” even if that might make the remaining time more unpleasant.
kc
This makes me truly sad.
beltane
A good, decent man who has devoted his life to making the world a better place. May his suffering be as minimal as possible.
Elizabelle
Apparently a long history of pancreatic cancer in the Carter family. Jimmy is (so far) the only member of his birth family not diagnosed with it.
It took both parents (Miss Lillian also fought breast and bone cancer), sister Ruth Carter Stapleton at age 54; brother Billy and sister Gloria Spann after that.
Michael Regan
President Carter, you brought back the respect and dignity for the Presidency after some very bad years.
Your ongoing work especially with Habitat has accomplished much.
I hope and pray for your recovery and for your family.
Evap
Really sad news.
Jimmy Carter story: I live near the Carter Center in Atlanta. One morning about 15 years ago, I was running on a trail near the Carter Center and I passed two dudes running slowly, looking bored. Right behind them were a jogging man and woman. I said “good morning” as I passed and then I realized they were Jimmy and Roselyn! The two dudes must have been secret service. J and R must have been over 70 and were jogging – I was impressed.
Comrade Carter
I will always look at Jimmy Carter as MY President. Always.
CaseyL
Very sad news. I hope he beats the odds.
Keith G
Jimmy was my first presidential vote. I worked with his Ohio folks to help organize GOTV on the Ohio State campus and environs. I still have posters, stickers and gold peanut pins. He and his accomplishments and his dedication to human rights mean so very much to me. Quite simply the best person one could be.
edit…@bystander:
I am not sure how close one can get to a sitting president. Seems to be a lot of ways barriers can exist.
Evap
Also, he was the first president I voted for, I turned 18 the summer of 1976 and voted for the first time in November.
rikyrah
just heard this on the radio. Sending positive thoughts and prayers.
PurpleGirl
This is sad news. President Carter has lead an incredible life and deserves these years to be restful ones. Of all the evangelicals in politics, it seems his life after his naval service was the closest to being Christian. At the time he was mocked for his beliefs but, damn it, it seemed like he truly tried to live his beliefs. Would that more people tried to live as he did.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Keith G: I still have my Carter/Mondale button from 1980. I’ve also got a Teddy button, I saw him speak at UCLA.
FlyingToaster
@bystander: Number of hours in a day.
No sitting president can spend that much time with any former president. Obama isn’t considered “close” to Bill Clinton, either.
JPL
@BillinGlendaleCA: Teddy spoke at my high school, when he was a young Senator. Yes I swooned.
Gex
Just think where we could be if we had listened to his wise words on the environment and energy almost 40 years ago. As it is things seem to be going to crisp faster than models.
He tried.
Wishing Jimmy the best.
Oh and the obligatory Eff Cancer.
PhoenixRising
We can certainly make room for Jimmy Carter on the cancer bus…he gets one of the good seats, with a view, where he can catch a breeze and look at some of the good he’s done so far.
Habitat for Humanity has built over a million homes with (not for) poor people around the world. (I know this only because my mom has traveled to 7 nations, as well as working on the board of her local branch, since 1997.)
Go easy, Mr. President.
youtube.com/watch?v=Qi9Xt-Da9gM
Keith G
@BillinGlendaleCA: I think he was the last major party candidate to not use red, white, and blue as his campaign colors. In 1976, it was green and white.
PaulW
At his age, and given how the cancer seems to be attacking him, I doubt he’s going to recover well from this. :(
As a fellow Georgian born just 40 miles south in Albany from Plains GA, as someone whose awareness of politics when I turned six was his election as President, and driving through Georgia making stops at the Welcome Centers proudly displaying him every summer road trip… I bonded to Carter unlike most other Presidents. Reagan was affable but distant, Bush the Elder too aloof, Clinton too sleazy, Bush the Lesser too goofy and back-slapping. Obama is like a fellow geek to me, almost an equal.
JPL
@PhoenixRising: What a mom!
Napoleon
God bless him. He is my favorite President from my life (from a personal admiration stand point) and I was born during JFK’s presidency.
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I truly do not recall if I did or Anderson, and I am wish I could say the same.
BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: I didn’t swoon, but I did get patted down for the first time by the Secret Service. Everyone did.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Keith G: Same color in 1980. Teddy’s was blue and white.
Roger Moore
Even if you don’t like the way he did his job as president- and I think he was vastly underrated- he has one of the most distinguished post-term careers of any president. It’s hard to think of anyone since Taft who’s even close.
BillinGlendaleCA
@PaulW:
Obama may well be a geek, but I don’t think of him as an equal. That man is brilliant.
OT: Speaking of geeks, while I was walking across the street yesterday, there was a young woman crossing the other direction wearing a shirt that said “GEEK”. LOL.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: Taft supervised the construction of the Supreme Court Building, as Chief Justice.
PhoenixRising
@JPL: Yup. She’s with her sister (breast cancer, 1995) this week; they’re meeting with the oncology team together. Mom has to determine whether and how long to treat her pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
No matter how short or long it lasts, she’s had quite a life. Worked with the Freedom Riders back when SNCC included white college kids; worked against the war in Viet Nam; married an 82nd ABN vet she met in the movement; raised 3 daughters to identify bullshit when we see it; kept on talking about racial inequality until it became fashionable again for white folks to notice such things.
The generation that includes my mom, Bernie Sanders and John Lewis has delivered a respectable level of change, as well as the horrible Rushes and Donalds.
SiubhanDuinne
He is probably best known to most people for his volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, but he may end up being remembered for centuries to come for taking on and virtually eradicating the Guinea Worm parasite.
When The Carter Center took it on in 1986, the disease was widespread through 21 countries in Africa and Asia, and there were an estimated 3.5 million people suffering the painful, crippling and ravaging effects. Today, there are only 126 (not a typo) known cases confined to four countries: South Sudan, Chad, Mali, and Ethiopia. That 99.99%+ reduction in slightly less than 30 years is arguably because Jimmy Carter saw a problem that was being inadequately addressed; had the contacts to get funding and expert medical advice and international partners and a team of volunteers and political leverage in a lot of undeveloped countries; and made it an action priority.
It does appear that he is nearing the end of his life, but if I have one wish for him, it is that the folks on the ground in those four African countries can get this ancient scourge 100% eradicated and that he lives long enough to hear that news. I think he would die a happy and fulfilled man if that were to happen.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Unexpectedly to most, perhaps, Hoover.
gene108
@BillinGlendaleCA:
He was my first “vote” too. In the fall of 1980, my first grade teacher asked who we would vote for President.
She wrote the names on the board – Carter, Reagan, and Anderson. I had never heard of Reagan and thought his name sounded funny. Everybody, but one person, by a show of hands voted for Carter. That person voted for Anderson.
I often think if first graders got the vote, in 1980, things may have gone better for Carter.
Bobby Thomson
@bystander: maybe if he wouldn’t say things like the Obama administration has no significant foreign policy successes and our allies have less respect for us than they did under Bush.
ETA that sounded harsher than I wanted.
After the Spock in Wrath of Khan stuff Carter did I’m just surprised this didn’t happen sooner. It’s good that he’s had the years he did and he’s used them well.
mai naem mobile
His post presidency is the gold standard. Just a great human being. I know it doesn’t sound good but I still will hold out hope that he beats this.
I know I shouldn’t bring politics into this but he has lived long enough to see his grandson bring down the Romney campaign with the 47% tape. Poetic justice.
Kerry Reid
@SiubhanDuinne: I just checked the latest Carter Center update, and it appears to be down to 5 now. That really is an awesome and laudatory achievement.
Kerry Reid
@Kerry Reid: Don’t know why that link was wonky. cartercenter.org/health/guinea_worm/case-totals.html
JPL
@mai naem mobile: I forgot that it was Jason that did that.
Roger Moore
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Actually, Taft only argued in favor of having a separate building; it wasn’t finished until several years after he died. Perhaps more important, he was responsible for a large-scale reorganization of the federal court system, including pushing for the change requiring most cases to get a Writ of Certoriari before the Court would hear them.
Jordan Rules
Ever since I can remember, I’ve admired him. And I always will.
I’ve learned some interesting things about him in this thread and I love hearing how people relate to him and his Presidency.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: He also had a hand in the design of the building.
jl
Very sad news. I can barely even think about it right now. I wish him and his family the best under the circumstances.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Hoover did well, but he still isn’t close to Carter.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kerry Reid:
Wow, incredible!! Thanks for the update.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: John Quincy Adams had a distinguished career in the House after his presidency.
gene108
@NotMax:
Despite being overwhelmed by the Great Depression, while President, Hoover was amazing in many ways.
I believe he was orphaned at 11. Took his technical training, from Stanford, and applied it to be a very good mine / tunnel engineer and later used those skills to become a successful self made businessman.
His idea for organizing relief efforts for Europe, after WW1, were revolutionary at the time. Hoover as more streets, parks and placards dedicated to him, across Europe, than any other prominent American because of this relief efforts.
While Commerce Secretary he got a multi-state agreement over water use done, which helped pave the way for the Hoover damn.
I think like Hoover and maybe a couple of other Presidents (the Adams, father and son, come to mind) the high point of President Carter’s accomplishments may not be his time in office as President.
Cacti
Once the odometer flips over 90, you’re pretty much playing with house money. Everything can be great one day, until it all starts to go very badly the next. That’s how it was for my late grandmother who made it 94 years, 7 months.
May whatever days, weeks, months, or years you have ahead of you be happy and pleasant ones Mr. Carter.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: I believe he had a stroke in the old House Chamber(Statutory Hall).
Zinsky
Probably the greatest ex-President this country has ever had.
stinger
@BillinGlendaleCA: Same here. A great way to wish him well is to toss $10 or whatever you can to the Carter Center.
BillinGlendaleCA
@BillinGlendaleCA: He did indeed and later a cerebral hemorrhage on the House floor and died two days later in the Speaker’s Office.
oldster
I hope he gets as much credit for the good he did, as Reagan has gotten for good he didn’t do.
Schlemazel
@Zinsky:
Grant deserves notice on the list of greatest ex-Presidents. Maybe #2. Even while he was broke and when he was dying from cancer he always had a free meal or cash for down on their luck vets of the Civil War. It seems modern President spend all their time making money.
Roger Moore
@Zinsky:
It’s hard to top Taft, who went on to become one of our better Chief Justices. Still, it’s clear that Carter is in the top tier of ex-presidents.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@RaflW:
I had the same reaction. I hope he has good quality of life for as long as possible, but he has already had a very long life and I worry that aggressive treatment would make it difficult to enjoy the time he would naturally have left.
mai naem mobile
I was listening to an interview with Jimmy Carter recently and he mentioned that the Reagan folks wouldn’t give him an update on the countries he was traveling to just as a common courtesy until he threatened to give a press conference. Also there was another interview a while back where he talked about how his management skills came from working under Admiral Rickover who was a real hard ass about details because he didn’t want a nuclear accident on the sub.
cbear
Crap. This news just sucks.
President Carter is an incredibly decent and honorable man, and I honestly can’t think of another that I admire more.
Crap.
dm
I think it’s probably a good time to bring out this story about the time Lt Carter took on a nuclear reactor in meltdown:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115×285685
Godspeed, Mr President
Keith G
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Since he gives every indication of being certain of his beliefs and at peace with his place in the cosmos, I imagine that there will not be unnecessary “fighting”.
SiubhanDuinne
Apart from everything else he’s done, Jimmy Carter has written 30+ books since leaving office in 1977. Yes, he had some research help for some of the “policy” ones, and yes, one of them was a children’s picture book illustrated by his daughter Amy, but it is my understanding (from a conversation with the guy who was his research assistant on Keeping Faith, his White House memoirs) that Carter himself wrote all the books that have been published in his name — IOW, no ghost-writers. That, all by itself, strikes me as a pretty impressive accomplishment.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@PhoenixRising:
I hope they’re able to find a treatment that will slow the growth and keep her with you for a while. My father in law was given 6 months with his brain tumor diagnosis, but we got 2 years because it responded well to chemotherapy with Avastin.
You definitely need to urge her to write her stories down. If she’s not a writer, get a video camera and have her tell them. An adventurous life should be documented as best you can.
You could also try Story Corps — it sounds like she has stories they would love to preserve: http://storycorps.org
SiubhanDuinne
@stinger:
Hear, hear! Great suggestion.
Keith G
By the way, here is the last (to this point) interview that I heard President Carter give. It is in The Huffington Post podcast “All Together” July 31. It marks the publication of his latest book and is a very personal conversation.
Mary G
One of the many despicable things modern Republicans have done is disparage Jimmy Carter so endlessly. What a good person and my prayers are with him. He was also my first presidential election, but I probably voted for the socialist.
chopper
@Evap:
so do I. never seen carter tho.
tybee
damn. sorry to hear that about jimmy.
he and i saw gregg allman in the fox back when jimmy was just governor of georgia.
jimmy was just 50 rows or so in front of me. practically seat mates.
and the incumbent mrs tybee and i had our first date on the night jimmy got elected president.
he’s a good man.
Julie
@BillinGlendaleCA: Carter was my first presidential vote as well. It was an especially meaningless vote, however, as Carter had already conceded to Reagan by the time I arrived at the polls in California.
Anne Laurie
@oldster:
Seconded, with feeling!
I’m praying that his remaining days — may they be many! — allow him the chance to see how many people are grateful for all the good he’s done.
(I’m expecting that the staunch members of the Wingnut Wurlitzer will display all the dignity they demonstrated during Teddy Kennedy’s decline. Too late to drive decent people out of the Republican party — the last one left some years ago — but maybe they will impel some of those what’s-the-difference non-voters to get off their couches in 2016… )
Davebo
I would say get the hell to MD Anderson and out of Emory but in reality it probably doesn’t matter now.
God Bless you Jimmy.
And how the hell can this happen with the best health care available?
Kropadope
I hope Obama has as prolific a post-presidency as Carter.
raven
He’s a good man and had a great life. I hope he goes on his on terms.
Anne Laurie
@Davebo:
Best we can tell at the current stage of medical understanding, anybody lives long enough, the toxic proliferation of damaged cells we catch-all as “cancer” will getcha in the end.
Especially since it seems to run in his family. There’s still lots of “gene” stuff we just don’t know how to fix.
smintheus
@Elizabelle: You have to wonder with so many family members afflicted whether they were exposed on their farm to carcinogenic chemicals.
Mike J
@Davebo:
How aggressively would you treat a 90 year old? Would you put somebody through chemo that will make him feel like shit for every day of the extra 6 months it might get him?
raven
@Davebo: He’s NINETY years old. He’s two years younger than my dad and my dad has been dead for 12 years.
Doug R
@SiubhanDuinne: here’s a NPR interview from the past year that touches on his guinea worm work:
npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/01/13/376966122/watch-out-guinea-worm-here-comes-jimmy-carter
JPL
@Mike J: this…
I might add that he is also in good hands. Atlanta has good cancer care.
Tomtofa
He was ahead of his time as President, and has spent the rest of his life working in venues where he could be more effective in advancing what he believed. He was thwarted in getting the hostages released, but has saved many, many lives.
Can’t think of another ex-President who has contributed more to the world.
raven
@Tomtofa: “He” was thwarted by an idea that all the services had to have a hand in a rescue operation and they couldn’t hit their asses with either hand.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Julie: I voted absentee since I was in college.
Lavocat
My guess is that he is getting out in front of the curve on this because:
1. He has only weeks or months to live, perhaps 4 months at best;
2. If staged, his cancer is certainly @ 4;
3. He may be moving into hospice care soon;
4. Obama is being given a head’s up here to clear his calendar for a state funeral for a president; &
5. Carter realizes the solemnity that is about to be handed to Obama so that HE can get in front of the curve on this.
Carter is a classy guy in every respect. And 90 years is a long time, no matter who you are. I think we would all be more than blessed to live to be 90 and lead a healthy, happy, satisfying life, as he has.
Davebo
@Mike J: Hence the “it really doesn’t matter now”.
What pisses me off as a guy who spent a lot of time on nuclear powered aircraft carriers is there will never be a USS James Carter despite the fact that he was a president and one of the pioneers of naval nuclear power.
If only he’d tried to trade arms for the Iranian hostages.
raven
@Davebo: I doubt if he gives a shit.
beltane
@Anne Laurie: This is true. My still-lucid 101 year old grandmother was just diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. She is, understandably, refusing treatment, but we are all sorry she has to go that way rather than just dying peacefully in her sleep. After her 100th birthday she let it be known that she had outlived her desired life span.
Davebo
@Anne Laurie:
I guess my question was how could it not have been detected before it spread throughout his body as it appears to have.
Regardless, a great man and a great loss.
Davebo
@raven:
Well I do. And I doubt that you are in a position to make an informed judgement.
How many nights have you spent sleeping over a reactor?
Frankly, from your posts here I doubt you give a shit about anything.
beltane
@efgoldman: In the reality based community, Jimmy Carter already gets a huge amount of credit. Reagan, likewise, is considered a treacherous piece of crap. The wingnuts, of course, adhere to their own demented version of history. There’s no getting through to them.
Davebo
@efgoldman:
While I’m inclined to agree let’s not forget it was an agreement forged in what turned into 6 billion dollars a year in aide to the two countries for over 30 years.
And that money didn’t really buy anything other than the two concentrating on making other problems for the US.
redshirt
I like Carter a bunch but how is this really terrible news, unless you think every person who’s ever died on this Earth suffered “terrible” news.
It’s life. The condition is fatal.
Mike J
@Davebo: He was a bubblehead[1], so it makes sens that the USS Jimmy Carter is an attack submarine. SSN-23
[1] submariner, not an idiot.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike J:
It’s his call. I suspect he has given this very careful thought and has very clear documents making his explicit wishes known to family, Carter Center colleagues, and his medical team. If he wants to fight it as hard as he can, with every remote possibility for a few extra days or months held out by the medical community, good for him. If he decides to go for palliative care only, understanding that his lifespan may be slightly shortened, good for him. If he has left instructions saying “Unplug me at thus-and-such a point,” good for him.
Lavocat
@redshirt: No one here gets out alive.
Davebo
@Mike J:
True enough. But the SSN’s or SSBN’s don’t get the same prestige as the CVN’s. Perhaps if they surfaced more but even then I doubt it!
SiubhanDuinne
@Doug R:
Thanks!
Kropadope
@efgoldman:
Quoted for awesome truth.
Davebo
@efgoldman:
No. I don’t think so.
Yes, I suppose it is. Depending on your allegiances. After all, things are going so swimmingly in the region now. And lord knows the hundreds of billions to one half of the parties involved has resulted in the US having great sway on that tiny principality.
gene108
@Tomtofa:
My understanding is Carter got the hostages released. He did the negotiations that finally ended the hostage crisis.
But some reason, instead of having the hostages leave Iran to land in the U.S. before the end of Carter’s Presidency, they sat around a couple of days and only managed arrive the day Reagan was sworn in.
JCT
My eldest spent a summer interning at the Carter Center and treasures her picture with Jimmy and Rosalyn – she keeps it on her nightstand. Wonderful people. Good docs at Emory, he’s in good hands.
SiubhanDuinne
@Lavocat:
True, of course, and very thoughtful of President Carter. It seems former Presidents and First Ladies usually only gather when there is either an opening of a new Presidential Library, or a state funeral for a former POTUS (I feel as though there was some event at the White House a few years ago that gathered all the living ex-Prezzes, but it’s mostly funerals and grand openings).
It would seem unlikely that George H. W. Bush would attend a Carter funeral — in fact, he’s actually about three months older than Jimmy Carter — but depending on her own health, Babs might come. Nancy Reagan, no way. Bill and Hillary, and George and Laura, most certainly. And of course, the current POTUS and FLOTUS. Don’t think I’m forgetting anyone, am I?
Davebo
@SiubhanDuinne:
If he survives himself too I’m pretty sure George H. W. will be there. Hopefully Barbara won’t. I’ve met her on more than one occasion and I wouldn’t want her at my funeral.
beltane
@Davebo:
This state of affairs is the work of subsequent administrations, not Jimmy Carter.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Well, that’s it, I don’t think she’s physically capable. Could be wrong, but I thought she was awfully frail and probably not up to a cross-country trip.
SiubhanDuinne
@Davebo:
I actually hope he is, assuming he survives that long (and I do hope we are talking about some time well in the future — I’m not ready to say goodbye to Jimmy just yet!)
I guess it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Carter would be attending 41’s funeral and not vice versa.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Indeed. Nancy Reagan is 94. Mount Rushmore (the completed sculpture) is a spring-chicken-like 74.
redshirt
Is Lady Bird Johnson still around?
Tomtofa
@raven:
@gene108:
Yes, the mission was a screw up for several reasons. As I recall he was also thwarted by the Reagan crew cutting a deal with the Iranians.
SiubhanDuinne
@redshirt:
No, she died eight years ago.
TriassicSands
A fine man who should have fared better as president. Sadly, admirable qualities are often not conducive to a successful presidency. While Carter may not be ranked as a great president, his presidency is probably as underrated as Reagan’s is overblown.
@SiubhanDuinne:
Some studies have shown that those opting for palliative care actually live longer (with a better quality of life) than those who choose to do everything they can to extend their lives. This may seem counter-intuitive, but given how sick treatments for metastatic cancer can make people, and the toll they take, it really isn’t that surprising. (Atul Gawande discusses this in his recent book “Being Mortal.”)
Mike in NC
@Davebo: Gave him a submarine. Apparently naming aircraft carriers will now be reserved for Republican warmongers.
Elizabelle
My guess is that JE Carter is out with Rosalyn, enjoying the Perseid meteor shower, or planning to be up way early to see it. While he has life and breath, he is of this world.
Oliver Sachs, also facing terminal illness, wrote a wonderful essay: NY Times: My Periodic Table
One thing I love about Balloon Juice: all the scientific minds out there (me not being one of you).
What would be a good element for JECarter? Perhaps something simple, and essential; with lasting strength, and a bit rare?
SiubhanDuinne
@TriassicSands:
That’s very interesting, thanks. Gawande’s book has been on my “to be read” list for several months, although I haven’t actually bought it yet (nor checked it from the library).
Davebo
@redshirt:
No, but her wildflower institute and the former town lake lives on.
Ben
@efgoldman:
To be fair, Begin was the leader of the insane Right in Israel…he only looks sane in hindsight.
PhoenixRising
@Davebo:
Well, having recently attended personalized lectures from our nation’s foremost medical experts in cancers of the upper GI tract, I can actually answer that: It may not have spread from any further than the pancreas/duodenum/stomach/gall bladder/esophagus. Once any cancer of that area (back of your mouth to your small bowel) leaves its initial site and hits the liver, that’s stage IV.
There are biological reasons for this. The types of cells that line the upper GI tract are able to withstand the acidic bath that everything you eat gets broken down by. Therefore, they are wrapped in a coating to extend their lives in that soup; when those cells go malignant…they break bad.
[My mom has decided to get the chemo for the pancreatic cancer because it’s not too tough a treatment. Long odds against curative, and not likely to stop the cells that have already set up shop in her liver…but there’s no real down side.]
redshirt
@Elizabelle:
Mint condition 6 pack of Billy Beer?
TriassicSands
@SiubhanDuinne:
You’re welcome. When you think about it, people trying last ditch treatments are often too busy and too sick to actually “live.” Their lives become all about “fighting,” and there’s little time or energy to enjoy the present. People have to decide for themselves how they want to spend the last weeks and months of their lives, but often, I’ve come to believe, that accepting the inevitable and living one’s last days to the fullest extent possible will be far more rewarding than trying to eke out one extra month or week. (To some degree, I think this may also depend on what type of cancer one has and one’s prognosis. For a person newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given a few months to live, having an extra month or two could be very important. For someone in the terminal stage of, say, prostate cancer, where the individual may have already lived a number of years beyond the diagnosis, having another month seems less compelling.)
Also watch Frontline’s “Facing Death.” It follows a number of gravely ill people in the last months of their lives. At the end of the program, one of the doctors admits that she probably violated the Hippocratic Oath — she is quite sure she has harmed her patients by giving them treatments with little chance of success in a desperate attempt to extend their lives just a little bit. For most of the patients, if not all, their last months were miserable and still ended in death.
(And something we’re not supposed to mention (lest the specter “death panels” arise), the cost of their treatments was appalling and unrealistic for a universal health care system).
Davebo
@PhoenixRising:
Good luck to your Mom friend. Mine was diagnosed (thankfully early) with kidney cancer and was planning to head to her local (East Texas) hospital before I snagged her and took her to MD Anderson.
It’s been 5 years and thankfully she’s cancer free. Perhaps the locals could have produced the same results but if the best care is available I wanted her to have it.
Lavocat
@SiubhanDuinne: I imagine there will be hundreds of heads of state in attendance, given his immense stature both as a statesman and as a humanitarian. This could be a friggin’ HUGE fanfare.
mai naem mobile
I don’t like even thinking about JECs funeral whenever it ends up happening but,hell,you could do a whole lot worse than having WJC or BHO give your eulogy.
mclaren
@efgoldman:
Also no one has mentioned that when Jimmy Carter started his foundation to eliminate river blindness in Africa (caused by a parasitic worm), 6 million people were going blind from that parasite. Know how many people were going blind from that parasite last year?
Less than 3000 people.
Jimmy Carter’s foundation has single-handedly nearly wiped out the entire scourge of river blindness in the continent of Africa. And within our lifetimes, river blindness (onchocerciasis, spread by infected blackflies) will be gone as completely as polio or smallpox are gone today.
All because of Jimmy Carter.
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren: Wrong.
dww44
@JPL: Jason was the grandson who ran for governor. I don’t think he had anything to do with the Romney 47% video. Believe that was grandson James?
Bonnie
Yes, this is very sad news. He is truly a good person.
dww44
@oldster: My favorite remembrance of the thread. I think Carter himself would love it. You should send it to the Carter Center. They’ll make sure he gets it.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Or even more likely, vide Lavocat @ #130, any number of current and former heads of state. And probably a lot of people most of us have never heard of, but who have been important in President Carter’s many endeavors and accomplishments.
Roger Moore
@Davebo:
In case nobody has corrected this, there is a James Carter. It’s just that given his service history, they decided to give his name to a submarine (SSN-23) rather than a carrier.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
In fact, River Blindness and Guinea Worm are two different diseases. Carter has been hugely instrumental in working to eradicate both of them. I truly believe that his health initiatives may cement his place in world history, perhaps even more than the peace and democracy work. He has touched literally millions of lives and made them better.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Okay. Damn. Now I need to apologize to mclaren.
@mclaren: I apologize. That particular achievement was not mentioned.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
Gold, like his heart.
Suzanne
Here’s my Carter memory:
I was born in 1980, so I don’t remember Carter as President, but as soon as I was old enough to have awareness of history, I admired him. A friend of my grandmother’s was one of the Iranian hostages, and he admired Carter, as well. So a few years ago, I made an effort to see him at a book signing here in Tempe. It sold out, and we all got instructions on protocol as we stood in line outside the store. We were told that we were to walk up, get our book, and leave. No stopping, and ABSOLUTELY NO TALKING TO PRESIDENT CARTER. As I walked up there, I totally lost my shit, in front of everybody, and I looked at him and said, “HI!”. He looked right at me, smiled, and greeted me back. I just about fainted with happiness.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: It hurt, but I did it.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: No. I was wrong. I owed it. Simple fact. (The fact that mclaren will never return the same courtesy is immaterial.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Suzanne:
What a nice memory. His big grin is justly famous.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
I always heard “squid” = submariner.
“Skimmer” = surface fleet.
“Airedale” = naval aviator.
My RWNJ brother, who was in the Navy before he blossomed into a RWNJ, said that squids were all brain and no dick, airedales were all dick and no brain, and skimmers were the perfect balance of the two. Brother was a skimmer, of course (destroyers).
TriassicSands
I smiled when I read that — the fact that at 90 years old he has a schedule that needs to be rearranged is both remarkable and exactly what one would expect from Carter.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
This comment reminds me of an excellent book, Primo Levi’s memoir The Periodic Table (1975). Levi was an Italian chemist, partisan and Holocaust survivor.
The book contains
Highly recommended.
J R in WV
@JCT:
Whenever I hear about Emory U in the news, I am reminded of one of the best professors I ever had. His name was Don West, a historian and poet from the north Georgia mountains, and he was fired by Emory for working against segregation of Black folks.
So my opinion of Emory is quite low, regardless of their other accomplishments. No room in my heart for deep south segregationists, especially in academia.
raven
@J R in WV: You sure it was Emory?
Another Holocene Human
@PaulW: Obama is a geek AND one of the cool kids, and that is a tough combo to pull off.
Another Holocene Human
@PhoenixRising: Sounds like my late grandmother; she was a little bit older. Talked about and worked on racial inequality her whole life (integration struggles up North for her), proudly voted for “O’Bama” and was very dismayed at the end of her life at the racist backlash he received.
Another Holocene Human
@smintheus: There are some very dangerous micro-organisms in soil that get stuck to peanut shells and sometimes gets on the peanuts. Aflatoxin comes to mind.
And then of course you get to pesticide and fungicide toxicity.
Lavocat
@efgoldman: I think we shall all be surprised at the people who will show their faces at his funeral. I think he is far more respected than The People Across The Aisle have ever truly realized. In fact, I think most Republicans – no matter how far right – will begrudgingly show up, if only out of respect for such a great man.
Besides – what a great way to get free publicity!
Emily B.
@Lavocat: Agree. It wouldn’t be strange for pancreatic cancer to show up first on the liver. And it doesn’t give you much time (think weeks, not months). Whatever President Carter’s cancer turns out to be, it’s very sad news.
The parents of a friend of mine stopped in Plains, Georgia one year on their way home from Florida and went to the weekly Bible study group Carter led at the Plains Baptist Church. They said he was just what you’d expect, very down-to-earth and kindly.
Nora Carrington
@Napoleon: One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Balloon Juice is the Carter love. Too many liberal/progressive folks write him off as a failure because of his inability to secure the release of the hostages held in Iran. Since WWII there have only been three one-term presidents and the first of those, Gerald Ford, is sort of a special case given he was originally appointed by Nixon to replace Agnew and ended up having to step up when Nixon resigned. Lots of my friends sneeringly voted for John Anderson in 1980 (and we all know how that election turned out; Reagan won hands down) but I proudly cast my second ballot for Carter. What I always admired about him as a President was his modesty. He wasn’t just personally modest, a rare trait in a twentieth century President to be sure, but he was modest about the powers of the Presidency itself. In part this was a correction to the Imperial Presidency of Nixon, but some of it was due to his Christian humility; government was the servant of the people and not the other way around. I’m not a Christian and Carter is one of a handful who have earned my utmost respect for the way he has always lived his faith. The modesty of his Presidency can also be ascribed in part, I believe, to the Christian view of the relationship between life on earth and life in the hereafter. I have always admired him greatly. My mother is also 90 and like many of the old-old (and I suspect like Carter himself), death is no longer something to be feared even if it is not yet something to be welcomed. I wish him well and will hold him in my thoughts in the coming weeks and months.