The saddest part of Farrah’s story is the effort she put in to going through all the painful treatments. I only hope that the medication she is getting now keeps her pain free and it should.

Even sadder is that apparently she refused a colostomy at one point when it would have perhaps made a huge difference in her treatment and the outcome of the disease.

Without being clinical , even bad non-cancerous infections have problems healing if the pressure and possible infectious organisms are not able to bypass the problem site. An example is a Diabetic sore needs to be isolated and treated without pressure.

Anyone who has cancer or serious infections should be told the truth by their doctors and the worst possible outcomes if treatment is postponed.

I think Farrah was told the truth near the beginning but perhaps did not understand the consequences. 

I would have saved my money for my old age. But I enjoyed spending it when I was young.  I wouldn’t repeat high school if they gave me a million dollars to do it.  I loved college and would do it again with the same roomates who ended up as lifetime friends.

I would have married the same man(now deceased). I might or might not have had children although I love them all and all the progeny that goes with them. Could not now imagine a different life.

I would have still been born in New Jersey  because I love New Jerseyites and New Yorkers.I would not have stayed there but I have grown up more or less in Califonia and I would do it again. Just a note that there are the same trials and tribulations in California as the middle class in all the other states but I could do without the laid back lifestyle.

Maybe regrets is the wrong word. Since I am 83 and I worked in a life and death field fo 65 years I have learned a lot. Everyone has thought now or then that they wish they could change some things. I will never stop thinking that someone should have told myself and my 4 brothers and sisters that my mother was ill.  But I have forgiven and mostly forgotten this.  But you have to know this you never never forget.

Now I still work with Assisted living and Nursing patients in their 90’s. In a way it is a blessing when they forget the bad stuff and  live in the present. As for positive things coming from negative experience from this point in my life I understand it. Experiences propelled me into a Health-Education field and I loved it from the beginning.

As for all the negatives they don’t go away. They form your life and make you  more caring person, I believe. 

Only a few regrets. I have had a good life. Many tragedies early in my life. I wish that I had made an effort to like my "Wicked" stepmother who came into our lives after my mom died when I was 13 leaving 5 children for my 40 year old father to raise. She turned out to be a good woman who made a long successful life with my father.

The other regret connected to that is that I wish I had been nicer to my mother as teen-agers often can be mean without even knowing it. In that regard I regret that after she died no one ever discussed the circumstance with we children.  I would have asked more questions.

Other wise I picked the perfect career for me.  I had a good marriage and many many very good friends and acquaintances plus children I love and still do.

There is no one way to treat Alzheimers or dementia. It is frustrating and sad and frightening to see it in members of your own family. For ordinary people without significant resources it is devastating.

The caregiver needs support of friends and health workers if the family member is difficult and out of control.  

I agree with Eileen and the others that you have to forgive yourself and do what you can to survive.  Even if your family member is in a nursing home or facility of some kind you have to keep contact with them.

No one really knows what goes on in the minds of dementia victims.

My grandmother used to burst out of the front door of our home screaming, "Help, they are killing me." Thank goodness the neighbors knew about the illness. My Aunt and her husband who were childless ended up being the caretakers with no help from the older brothers and their wives.

Unfortunately that Aunt ended up with the same illness. It is the most difficult time in caring relatives lives to go through this terrible affliction.

We have to be realistic about ourselves and reach out for help from organizations dedicated to finding treatment or care for senility or alzheimers or dementia. 

Being in an age group where this condition occurs is scary. But at this moment we have to deal with the situation as it happens. Thank goodness I have no symptoms (At least I don’t think so.)

By the way my grandmother was the sweetest, kind, loving gran you could ask for until her late 80’s. A midwife and a caregiver herself most of her live. Sad. 

I watched the press conference.  The "echanted etc.question" was a stupid question.  Obviously the reporter was looking for face time on camera.

I don’t know if the questions were pre-set or just approved of by the Presidential Staff members.  Pres. Obama may have answers but he has to learn to be more concise. Fox is not my favorite channel but they are all biased in one way or another.

Nancy glad you are not a clean freak because I certainly am not one. Genes are the key to long life  but along the way we run into many obstacles and injuries and illness that are inevitable.  I am 83, a retired nurse and have been exposed to many different diseases along the way. That includes typhoid, polio and countless others in the day when there was no antibiotics or real treatments.  Somehow I have survived and am healthy for my age.  Someone who smokes and drinks a lot of alcohol is just taking chances with their health. On the other hand I have known Alcoholic men and women and smokers who lived into their late 90’s. 

I wish I could tell you that genes were the key.  They contribute of course but using common sense in the face of known health threats is the only survival mechanism I know. I am sure that being exposed to many diseases in my work raised my defenses.  It is just too complicated.