Connie (Mrs. WebSlave)

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Well, this is worth noting here.....

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7272521/

That's very interesting; I've never heard of that usage for Ivermectin. The paper was published a couple years ago - I wonder if any further research has been done.

Originally Posted by Insomniac101

That's very interesting; I've never heard of that usage for Ivermectin. The paper was published a couple years ago - I wonder if any further research has been done.

After what I have seen concerning COVID and the absolute rabid antagonism towards therapeutics that have had many MANY instances of success in favor of the experimental "vaccines" I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the same thing is very likely going on with chemo treatments. Cancer is a real money maker for pharmaceutical companies. Connie told me she read somewhere that there are more cancer treatment workers than there are cancer patients. Based on the bills we have been getting, why on earth would they want to actually find a CURE for cancer and end this lucrative business? This is much better for them. Put people on treatments that may or may not work (but they get paid all the same), that can run for months, and even those that do "work" it is usually only temporary as the cancers will usually come back sooner or later. So cha-ching, more expensive treatments for all those unfortunate cash cows that are now hooked into the system.

May or may not be true. I am sure such tracks would be thoroughly covered over. But honestly it makes me sick in my stomach to think it is likely, even probably, true. After seeing what they did to try to bury Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, they have showed their true colors to me. I had my PCP tell me she could lose her license by prescribing Ivermectin to me. Assuming that the local pharmacies would even fill the prescription. Something seriously, SERIOUSLY wrong with this.

Oh yeah, and we have this interesting little tidbit of info:

On April 5, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to discontinue the administration of sotrovimab.
Bebtelovimab is Florida’s only available monoclonal antibody treatment.
–
On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised the Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) for Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab-etesevimab and Regeneron’s REGEN-COV monoclonal antibody treatments, discontinuing their use by any U.S. state or jurisdiction. The full Florida Department of Health press release can be found here.

SOURCE: https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/

Now while you are thinking about the above, the below makes it even more interesting:

Biden-Harris Administration Purchases Additional Doses of Bebtelovimab to Treat High-risk COVID-19 Patients

On June 29, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Defense, ordered an additional 150,000 doses of bebtelovimab for use in treating patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and are at high risk of hospitalization from the infection. The medicine is administered as an injection and is the only monoclonal antibody medication currently found to be effective for treating infections from the SARS-COV-2 omicron variant and sub-variants.

This commitment brings the total U.S. government purchase of bebtelovimab to 750,000 doses. This latest purchase and the doses available from previous purchases are expected to meet current demand levels through late-August. The U.S. government intends these newly procured doses to provide a bridge while it supports Lilly to create a path for keeping bebtelovimab available in the U.S. in the absence of additional future government funding.

“Therapeutic treatments for COVID-19 have helped reduce hospitalizations, which means they have prevented countless deaths from this illness while decreasing the burden on overworked hospital staff,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell. “We are pleased to make this purchase, though we had to shift funds from other important programs in order to make it. As such we will continue to work with Congress to secure additional funding for the critically important tools needed to protect Americans during the pandemic.

The medicine must be administered within seven days of symptom onset and is available with a prescription from a health care provider. The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which funded the latest purchase, also created a therapeutics locator for health care providers to assist their patients in filling prescriptions for bebtelovimab and a therapeutics clinical decision aid to help clinicians determine which of the available products is most likely to be effective for individual patients.

The government-procured COVID-19 therapeutics can be used to prevent or treat eligible, non-hospitalized patients who have tested positive for COVID-19, have mild to moderate symptoms and are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and hospitalization. Prevention and early treatment for eligible patients can help improve patient outcomes, reduce stress on healthcare facilities, and even save lives.

HHS/ASPR is actively partnering with state and territorial health departments as well as national health care and medical organizations and associations to help ensure equitable access to the treatments for those who need it most.

SOURCE: https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/...-30June22.aspx

Date of above quote is 30 June, 2022, btw.

Yeah, maybe I am just not seeing something that it obvious to other people, but damn.....

Sorry, I know this has gone WAY off topic, but every time I take Connie to that "chemo farm", well, it just gives me a real bad feeling about what this country (world?) has become.

I haven't had time to check out the other links, but I also believe that cancer is too profitable to cure. When my dad was at University of Michigan with lymphoma, they just kept bombarding him with different chemotherapy drugs. By the time his insurance maxed out ($1M), they decided that he wasn't responding to treatment, and he died two days later.

Coincidence? Maybe, but it's odd that they were willing to try everything, until his insurance wasn't going to pay for any more treatments. They got their million bucks, so it was a win; well, for them, anyway.

Connie's blood work seemed to be OK this week. Low on some things and high on others. The only thing the oncologist was concerned about was the platelet count (I think). If the chemo had been scheduled for today, I believe they would have postponed it for a week. So I guess we'll see how the blood work looks next week. Dr. Ellison said that she really can't recommend anything to help with that count, as it is something that only time seems to be able to help. Time not being exposed to chemo drugs, I assume.

Connie seems to be in pretty good spirits with only some minor issue that effects her being able to sit comfortably. I don't think she would want me going into any more detail than that.

I am glad she is not suffering some of the possible side effects that she could be going through. No nausea, so she has a pretty good appetite. She read of people getting sores in their mouths and throat so bad that they could not eat, so that potential did have us worried. Every now and again Connie's voice will get a little hoarse, but nothing worse than that. And I think if she had lost her appetite, and not eating like she is, she would lose weight rapidly. She has to eat a lot just to keep her weight up to 105 lbs or so. And she is trying to walk around as much as she can for exercise.

Hoping they do another test soon for that tumor marker they monitor and we see the number dropping even more. Must be a reason why they don't do the test more often, I guess.

I am very happy, Connie, is doing okay. Despite some of the side effects. That article you posted is absolutely amazing!! Thank you, for sharing that with all of us.

The main reason there are so many people working on cancer is because treatments have to be tailored to the kind of cancer and what is becoming evident that the cancer in an individual may respond better to a customization of treatment regiment as opposed to a one plan for everyone. An example of this is papillary forms of breast cancer that are often benign. Cancer treatments are profitable because most people want to survive cancer and there are more than 200 types of cancer.. Consider the price of Cuora trifasciata because of the demand for it as a cancer treatment in Asia...

Some thoughts

Ed

Well, I can see that point, somewhat. And I am pretty sure that "whatever the market will bear" plays a big part in pricing for the drugs being used to treat cancer. For instance, once of the drugs Connie is getting lists on the oncology center's billing for around $12,000. What Connie's insurance plan (Medicare + supplemental) is charged is substantially less, and we have to pay 20% of that reduced amount. Still around $700 a pop, if I remember correctly. Not too bad, but not exactly chump change, neither. Still, I would rather it came with some sort of guarantee, and wish that the list of side effects didn't scare the bejeesus out of us. But like I said to Connie one day recently, it may be a choice needing to be made: (1) take the drugs and you might still die, or (2) don't take the drugs and you certainly will die.

I am sure people with cancer are usually desperate for a cure. I know I would leap at the chance of anything that would help Connie. But not sure that would include fresh "turtle squeezings", however. It would take a LOT of convincing for me to accept that as being helpful.

As for the number of people involved in the cancer treatment field, my point is that coming up for an actual cure for all cancers would put a lot of people out of work and a lot of businesses out of business. How much incentive is there really out there to find such a cure? If the cure were coming from the people who have, or have someone they love with, cancer, no problem. It would be public domain in a heart beat. But the people developing the drugs being used, if they were to stumble on an actual cure? Not sure from a business sense how they would treat such a discovery. My gut feeling is that there is a excellent chance it would be mostly buried to where it would be available only to selected individuals ,and then done highly secretively and VERY expensive.

Well, Connie was supposed to have chemo today, but she had an appointment with Dr. Ellison beforehand. She wanted to ask her if she could cut back the Bevacizumab since Ellison has said she was cutting back the Carboplatin for this treatment. Connie has been having problems being pretty hoarse much of the time and that is a known side effect of the Bevacizumab chemo drug. Plus she has been having some leg and feet swelling as well, even this long after the last chemo treatment.

So Dr. Ellison threw us a curve ball. She said she is going to stop treatment altogether. Now Dr. Ellison doesn't have that great of a bedside manner, and instead of immediately explaining what she had in mind, both Connie and I just jumped to the conclusion that she was saying "Sorry, I can't help you. Hit the road." Of course Connie started crying, and that about broke my heart right then and there. I said to Ellison, "Sounds like you are just giving up on Connie."

But no, what she meant was to stop treatment with those particular drugs, do a CT scan (not sure what she would be looking for, but I am assuming she would be looking for additional developing tumors) and the decide from there where to go. On the plus side, Connie's number for the CA125 tumor marker from her blood work dropped down further to 211, so it sure seems like that is a good sign.

So heck, I don't know. What would it mean if they find more tumors? What will it mean if they don't? I am guessing they have other drugs in their arsenal, so do they try something else to see how Connie responds to it? Or can they continue with the current drug regiment but just stretch the period between doses from the 3 weeks out to 4 to 5 weeks? I guess the all important sign would be what that CA125 number is showing.

Connie looked up info online on that Bevacizumab drug, and apparently the hoarseness could mean something quite serious. People have lost their voice permanently, and some had to have surgery to repair damage from it. So it seems that Connie's bringing her symptoms to Ellison's attention obviously triggered something.

So Connie has a CT scan scheduled for the end of next week. I have no idea where things will go from there. I know Connie is worried about her "quality" of life here on out. Losing her voice permanently was not very attractive to her, regardless of the status of the cancer. She is worried about having permanent side effects that just might make that "quality" of life nothing near what she wants out of the rest of her life. How the heck am I supposed to respond to that? I would accept whatever burden I have to have, but she is not going to allow that to happen. Being alive, but bed ridden and in constant pain and only half alive is no life at all as far as she is concerned. And what sort of monster would I be if I insisted that was good enough for me to still have her around?

Might be a valium night tonight..........

Given the events over the past few months I'm not surprised the two of you automatically respond to change - any change - with a OH CRAP THINGS ARE BAD AND GETTING WORSE reaction. I'd be rather surprised if you didn’t react that way.

That said, I think in the future it would benefit both of you if you reminded each other before each visit that this doctor's bedside manner sucks, and you're not paying her for her empathy and bedside manner, you're paying her to treat Connie. So, when the doctor makes a statement like "I think we should do or stop doing X" and no explanation is forthcoming, ask the reason why, or for the alternative course of action, before immediately jumping to the worst possible conclusion. If nothing else you won't need as much valium.

Well, for the most part, that sounds very very promising.

For whatever it is worth: I have doctors with horrible bedside manner, over the years. But, they have made me "better" physically I mean. Mentally, do you think anyone can help me, LOL!!