Support for LateToSchool

[NYMomof2]

<p>sax, I would not post the link. This thread is heartbreaking. I would not like to think of someone who is in the early stages of lung cancer and, as LTS was, is determined to be positive and proactive, reading this and following LTS through it all.</p>

[PRJ]

<p>I agree with NYMom2. My mom died of breast cancer and I hesitate to discuss her with current breast cancer patients - despite her valiant effort, she died very quickly of a particularly aggressive form of cancer. I can’t offer the kind of hope that people want/need to hear.</p>

<p>My D wore bright red shoes at her HS graduation last week and I thought of LTS as she walked across the stage…</p>

[marite]

<p>I never told LTS of a friend of mine who contracted lung cancer. No one in her family or her husband’s smoked. The tumor she had was too close to her spine for doctors to dare operate, and the various drugs, some experimental, failed to halt the progress of the cancer. She died the day before her 36th birthday, leaving two young sons and an inconsolable husband.
It is possible that smoking-related lung cancer masked the incidence of small cell lung cancer. It also needlessly stigmatized victims who were all too often wrongly held responsible for contracting lung cancer. And it made them rail against fate all the more.</p>

[Karen_Colleges]

<p>Marite-- how is LTS’s daughter doing? I hope she is okay.<br>
Please pass on that she is still in our thoughts, as is her mother.</p>

[marite]

<p>Karen:</p>

<p>I wrote to LTS around the time of the funeral and did not hear back. She was going through major transitions, having postponed making decisions regarding her future because of LTS’s condition. I think of her quite often but am reluctant to intrude. We are strangers to her, cyber-acquaintances of her mom, not hers. I do wonder, sometimes, whether I should not try again.</p>

[Northstarmom]

<p>I was not active on the LTS thread because at the same time, my best friend – a nonsmoker married to a nonsmoker – was battling lung cancer, a battle she lost a year ago.</p>

[ADad]

<p>NSM, I am so sorry for your loss.</p>

[Faline2]

<p>thanks for the thoughts on LTS’s daughter, marite. I think your instincts to not contact her are likely for the best…although you never know…</p>

<p>LTS was such an interesting woman that I always hope she has other fine adults in their circle who would be ongoing now in her daughter’s life…such a loss to lose your Mom that young! </p>

<p>NSM, so sorry your dear friend passed away…another death far too early for all who loved her I am sure…</p>

[NYMomof2]

<p>How awful about your friend, marite! And I am so sorry about your friend, NSM. </p>

<p>Knowing LTS as we did, I’m sure her daughter was well-provided-for in every way, including a cadre of caring adults. </p>

<p>I have not seen any obituaries online, although I’ve checked a few times.</p>

[BunsenBurner]

<p>I thought of LTS when I read this:</p>

<p>[Doctor</a> rescued from Antarctica in 1999 dies at 57](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/23/obit.jerri.nielsen/index.html]Doctor”>Doctor rescued from Antarctica in 1999 dies at 57 - CNN.com)</p>

<p>

Nearly a decade after she was rescued from a remote Antarctic research station after diagnosing herself with breast cancer, Dr. Jerri Nielsen died early Tuesday, her brother said. She was 57.</p>

<p>Jerri Nielsen treated herself for breast cancer while stationed at the South Pole in 1999.</p>

<p>Nielsen had been fighting the latest round of cancer for the past five years, brother Eric Cahill said. She died just before 4 a.m. in Massachusetts, surrounded by her family, he said.</p>

<p>“She would want to be remembered for the adventure and, you know, living every day, and not just the sickness,” said sister-in-law Diana Cahill. “She was very much active and still even doing talks as late as March of this year. Then the last month or so, she was pretty sick.” </p>

<p>Nielsen caught the nation’s attention in 1999, when she found a lump in her breast as a 47-year-old physician stationed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station. </p>

<p>After finding the lump in June, she diagnosed herself with breast cancer and began treating herself using chemotherapy agents that the U.S. Air Force parachuted to the station the next month.</p>

<p>It was later revealed, according to a March 2009 article in the Detroit Free Press newspaper, that Nielsen – an emergency room doctor from Cleveland, Ohio – performed a biopsy on herself with the help of non-medical crew, who practiced using needles on a raw chicken.</p>

<p>While treating herself, Nielsen carried on her duties as the sole doctor for the 41-person research group. She consulted with her doctors in the United States by e-mail and teleconference. They recommended that she return as soon as possible for treatment.</p>

<p>Although flights in support of the South Pole program don’t usually begin until late October or early November, the start of Antarctic spring, it was October 6 when two planes set out on what was dubbed Operation Deep Freeze. </p>

<p>Ten days and a handful of stops later – California, Hawaii, Pago Pago, New Zealand and then Antarctica – rescuers braved temperatures of nearly minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit to land a ski-equipped plane at the pole, drop off a replacement doctor and pick up Nielsen. It was the earliest such flight attempted.</p>

<p>Once she returned home and was treated, Nielsen’s cancer went into remission, and she wrote about her experience in a best-selling book, “Icebound.” She married and became a public speaker, Diana Cahill said.</p>

<p>But in 2005, Nielsen’s cancer returned in her bones and liver, later spreading to her brain.</p>

<p>“My experience at the pole had to do with accepting things that most people fear most deeply and coming to feel that they need not be feared,” Nielsen told Psychology Today magazine in 2006. "It certainly had far more to do with peace and surrender than it did with courage. Being ‘on the ice’ was a great good fortune: It created a much greater clarity for me about what was essential in life.</p>

<p>“I’m not afraid of death. I’ve come to accept it as being part of life, and I think I’ve come to accept it earlier than my years because of what’s happened to me.”</p>

<p>She said that after learning her cancer had returned, “after about three weeks of going through a kind of terror, I felt the most incredible peace come over me. Now I am very happy and excited about going forward with my life. The metastatic disease is now just another part of me, another thing that has happened to me.”</p>

<p>“She was always upbeat,” Diana Cahill said. “She never really dwelled upon her illness. She told people to live every day, and it was about what kind of life you lived. She was really inspirational to a lot of people around the world.”</p>

<p>In October 2008, Nielsen spoke at the University of Toledo College of Medicine, formerly her alma mater the Medical College of Ohio, according to the Free Press. She took off her wig to show students her bald head, the newspaper said, and told them not to be discouraged: “There is no end of life until your last breath. We can all do something to help someone.”</p>

<p>She told the Free Press in March that the cancer had spread to her brain but still displayed her inspiring grit.</p>

<p>“I’m not as smart a girl as I used to be,” she told the newspaper. “I’m not as hard a worker, that’s for sure. But I’m still doing everything, I’m writing a book and giving speeches, and I’m really having a beautiful winter.”</p>

<p>Nielsen told Psychology Today, "The things that make you strong, and make you feel as though you’ve accomplished something, are not the easy ones; it’s the things you had to work and struggle through. Those are what give us our depth – that make us not gray and plain and nothing but give us depth and texture and longing.</p>

<p>"I believe you’re always much better off knowing what the real truth is. I think it’s only then that you can come to grips with your illness, or with any difficult situation. Some people call this process ‘mourning.’ I prefer to call it tiring of the fear and the depression and the denial, and the fake optimism and the irritation of it all – and just saying, ‘Hey, I’m tired of feeling bad about this. Now I go on.’ "

</p>

[mommusic]

<p>Thank you for posting this. When I saw your post I remembered immediately who it was and her amazing ordeal.</p>

[epistrophy]

<p>

In Annapolis, a miracle worthy of sainthood?
Woman’s cancer vanishes after prayers to 19th-century Maryland priest</p>

<p>The treatment for terminal cancer that Annapolis resident Mary Ellen Heibel took at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2004 and early 2005 worked beyond anyone’s wildest hopes, wiping out malignant tumors in her lungs, liver, stomach and chest. Her doctor did not expect it, nor could he explain it.</p>

<p>Surely the outcome was remarkable, but was it - in the sense applied by the Roman Catholic Church in such cases - a miracle?</p>

<p>In a few weeks, a committee appointed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore will begin exploring that question, examining 11 witnesses, including Heibel, pressing her doctors, nurses and friends in an attempt to understand what happened. The findings gathered at the archdiocese’s downtown offices will be shipped to Rome, and ultimately will bear on a campaign to have Francis X. Seelos, the 19th-century Maryland priest to whom Heibel had turned in prayer for help, canonized as a saint.</p>

<p>For only the fifth time in its 200-year history, the archdiocese has launched a test of faith and science to help the Vatican determine whether one of its own was not only exemplary in virtue during life but now has the power in death to intercede with God. In the end, it will be up to the pope to rule on whether Seelos is to join the men and women held up by the church through the centuries as models of holiness.</p>

<p>“Did what happened come about by the intercession of Blessed Seelos? That’s what we have to discover,” said the Rev. Gilbert J. Seitz, the judicial vicar who heads the committee, emphasizing that its job is not to judge the case but to gather information in a process akin to taking a deposition. . . .

</p>

<p>[In</a> Annapolis, a miracle worthy of sainthood? - baltimoresun.com](<a href=“http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-to.fa.saint28jun28,0,473746.story]In”>http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-to.fa.saint28jun28,0,473746.story)</p>

[Runners2]

<p>Happened across this old post from Late to School dated in 2007. What a wonderful expression of love for her daughter - I’m sure she’s still sending that love today -</p>

<p>"04-25-2007, 06:03 AM #456
latetoschool
Member</p>

<p>Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Miami and Washington, D.C.
Posts: 495</p>

<p>Helms2lee, your lost couple of posts reminded me of high school years, when close friends would say things like “we drive right past your street on our way to the school, it’s no problem for us to swing by, why not carpool” etc. I always said no; I absolutely LOVED driving her to school every morning, having that quiet time to be with her, and then dropping her off, and getting a kiss, and wishing her a wonderful day. I didn’t want to be deprived of even one day, so, no carpooling for us.</p>

<p>Obviously those days ended for me as well, but, I still try to replicate the experience via whatever electronic means are available</p>

<p>I think I will probably do that for the rest of my life - even if we’re in different cities or even different countries from time to time, I will always try to send that love in some way or another… "</p>

[GA2012MOM]

<p>Thanks for that, very sweet and makes you want to cherish the little things all the more.</p>

[alexandrafitzmor]

<p>That was very moving, Runners2, I wish I had been on CC long enough to enjoy her presence; it is people like you guys that make this forum such a joy and help.</p>

[alwaysamom]

<p>I was reminded of LTS recently when a beautiful and talented young actor we know was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. She has never been a smoker and has always taken excellent care of her body, and voice, in order to do her job so well onstage. The support she has received from the theatre community has been overwhelming, both here in Toronto and also in NYC. One of her best friends is currently in the Broadway revival of Hair and has arranged a benefit concert evening for her at Joe’s Pub in NYC. If any of you, or your kids, happen to be in the city on Sept. 14, please consider going, for a good cause and for a terrific evening of music.</p>

<p>[Playbill</a> News: With a Little Help From My Friends, Featuring Entire Hair Cast, to Play Joe’s Pub](<a href=“http://www.playbill.com/news/article/131671-With_a_Little_Help_From_My_Friends_Featuring_Entire_Hair_Cast_to_Play_Joe’s_Pub]Playbill”>http://www.playbill.com/news/article/131671-With_a_Little_Help_From_My_Friends_Featuring_Entire_Hair_Cast_to_Play_Joe’s_Pub)</p>

[Faline2]

<p>thank-you, Runners2–and best thoughts to alwaysamom and her circle of friends supporting someone fighting cancer</p>

[marite]

<p>I was helping S tidy his room the other day and came across the hand-written note LTS had included with a check to pay him for the (minimal) help he’d given her about some math issue she was having at work. She’d insisted on paying him at the rate she would have to a regular consultant, and he was absolutely delighted with the gesture.
It was such a reminder of the classy person LTS was. A fighter, a loving mother, and someone with bone-deep integrity.</p>

[PRJ]

<p>So bittersweet to see this thread revived - I was just looking at it this morning as I knew we were nearing the anniversary of her death. I think of LTS and her daughter often. I hope that her D has begun to find some peace.</p>

[Kalley427]

<p>i’m so sorry.
i will say a prayer for you.</p>