didn't feel the tears for Farrah Fawcett

just a rant..am horrible person.. but seeing her fly in private jet back and forth to Germany..after providing care for my mom's cancer.. just didn't resonate with me. And the overacting turned me off. Is it just me?

I just left posts in other threads, stating that it was a great look at what happens when a fabulously wealthy celebrity gets sick.

The son showing up in shackles, and her not knowing him - that was shameful, to have shown that.

Ryan O'Neal is a whiner, a self-serving whiner.

I can only theorize that it was a final star turn for Ms. Fawcett. Other than that, it was, essentially, some kind of People magazine on tape........................

I didn't want to watch someone suffer with a horrible disease. I've seen it a bit in my own life and it's too much to bear. I can't even begin to watch those St. Jude's shows. It breaks my heart.

I did have the same thought as you to some extent - Must be nice for those wealthy enough to go anywhere to get the newest, best and even experimental procedures.

I also thought that it might be an educating thing for some Americans to see docs in Germany with good techniques in good hospitals working hard to help their patients. Look at that - non-American doctors on the cutting edge in a socialized system!

I see what my mom is going through with doctors, some of which seem only interested in getting as much money out of her as they can. :( It is disgraceful that we don't have a decent health care system by now.

we were just starting out and had very little money. The ratbastard insurance company treated us like dirt. For instance, to save money we decided (with his doctor's ok) he could handle outpatient chemo treatments, which meant that I was acting as his (unpaid) nurse, including monitoring everything from temperature to pulse and cleaning up the barf.

So the ratbastard insurance company paid LESS of that bill because it wasn't inpatient, which would have cost three-four times as much.

So we saved THEM money and it cost US more.

Why nobody has gone postal at an insurance company is just beyond me. I hate their effing guts. This country's health care system is totally messed up. I don't know what it's going to take to change it, but something's got to give.

My mom is going through breast cancer and although I really feel for Farrah Fawcett, I just couldn't watch what seemed to be a completely fucked up family using cancer to fame whore (not necessarily meaning Farrah, but those around her). I can't abide Ryan O'Neal. He is a piece of shit.

You're very kind. :hug:

have had friends (one ironically was hospice director) who left wonderful videos for their children before dying..but it should be kept private. Sickened me. I pray your Mom is ok..went through the same with my mom.... xoxoxo

My father passed last year from brain cancer and I couldn't watch this at all.

Good thoughts to your mom. :hug:

I turned the program off. I care for my mom who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, which basically affects everything from the neck down. We only have enough money to pay a caregiver to come in twice a week, for two hours to do a bed bath because I can't do it alone. The show just angered me to no end and I had trouble coming up with sympathy.

:hug:

Hugs are good.

a care giver and what a horrible disease. Husband has Parkinsons and perhaps we share that frustration with idiot show. How old is your Mom? Aging Services (federally mandated in every state) can hook you up with many services through federal grants re caretakers in the home (if your Mom qualifies re age and income..my hubby does not) .. but they are wonderful wonderful people with so many resources. Look up in your phone book under your state..dept of aging services. Sometimes they can help with people who are younger as well. A lifetime ago owning home health company they bailed me out of so many horrible scenarios I walked into..fixed them all. Can't say enough about them! My very best to you..and hope you get a respite..a true hero you are! xoxoxo

She's 54 (I'm 24). Yeah, we are linked up with many agencies, including Aging Services, that provide us some help. My mom is only slightly over the income guideline, which is infuriating. Finding a good home health agency in our area is quite hard. They all think we live in the boonies! That, and my mom's case has run a number of them off. A caregiver resource agency provided me with a respite grant, which pays for the current bed bath helper. It's running out soon, but we might have enough money to keep paying privately. My mom is at the point where she will need a nursing home within the next year, so right now we're just trying to hold things together.

I appreciate all the sentiments. My thoughts to you and your husband. :hug:

She is so young and so are you to be going through this. It certainly sounds like you are hooked up the best you can.. you remind me so much of a young beautiful woman I met in balance physical therapy with her Mom... pray tell would it be the strangest thing if you were her? Or is it just common for young girls to give up their lives to care for their Moms with this disease. xoxoxo pm me anytime.

to fly to Germany, etc...but I am less cynical about her motives.

She poses the obvious question in the end, why isn't more being done about cancer in this country?

I doubt very much that the former poster girl with the beautiful smile and the famous haircut wants to be remembered the way she allowed herself to be shown; hair bravely shaved, unable to recognize her own son, drawn and dying of anal cancer.

I've had cancer and I want to thank Farrah for unselfishly sharing her beautiful and ugly moments with us.

involved. I've made up my mind I'm not donating one more red cent to research until they come up with either a cure or real treatment for ANY disease. It's been a long, long time and treatment for these diseases is just astronomical. Sad.

The more common cancers are where the research and funding goes.


David

about making the treatments she received in Germany available in the US and funding for more research for all types of cancer? Thank you Farrah.

The fact that she had to go to Germany is outrageous. I have to admit that I kept thinking how lucky she was to have the money to make the trip and pay for the treatments, and I felt a little resentful thinking about all of the uninsured and under insured who never have a chance.

I feel badly for Farrah and anyone that has cancer, but I didn't find her story depressing because cancer has been a fact of life for me, members of my family and friends. I guess I'm desensitized.

bob marley flew to europe (switzerland, i believe) for his alternative cancer treatments too. if you had the money, wouldn't YOU fly to kingdom come for a chance to live? unfortunately, it didn't help bob, and it's not helping farrah either...poor thing, she's been thru the ringer, especially with ryan o'neal, who's a first class, self-serving (yes) asshole, whole nother story.

i hope her departure is pain free and peaceful...

I didn't watch simply because I am not into "reality tv" but from what I have read there was an inadvertent message which was that alternative treatments are often nothing more than snake oil sold by snake oil salesmen. Whether they're $10 boxes of tea or $10,000 treatments in European clinics. None of which are covered by insurance. So they are treatments for the wealthy. Or merely snake oil for the wealthy.

Cancer is a horrible reality of our lives. And all any of us can do is hope that we catch it at a stage where it's treatable. Reality is many don't because they cannot afford preventative care. Something that Congress needs to look at.

with you, absolutely! something needs to be done about our health care system, and obama has to do it. the health of our population is our number one priority, and it shouldn't matter if you're rich or poor!

single payer!

live in a bubble. There's only a few responses here so far, but already 2 people who are giving care to sick family members...and I'm sure wishing they had more private nurses and the ability to fly around seeking out the very best care available.

I think Farrah's heart is in the right place in that she seems to want to show people cancer, but a lot of people are seeing it up close and personal without her help. And those people are dealing with the financial burdens as well as the toll on their lives of caring for loved ones while trying to raise your kids, have a job and live your life. It's exhausting and hard and scary and sad. Money doesn't make it all better, but it certainly eases some of the burdens. And it gives people options that most of us just don't have with the possibility of better outcomes or at least better quality of life.

Good luck to the caregivers and their families!

I don't know where the hell you are coming from, but yeah, it's just you.

The rest of us express humanity here. Resentment doesn't cut it. Sorry about your Mom, but accusing Farrah Fawcett of "overacting" with anal cancer that has spread to her liver is over the top.

Ugly stuff. Rethink.

overacting imo was by Ryan O'Neill not Farrah

understand the variant images twixt (and goddess bless us all to include even Ms. Fawcett O8)) what is and what is fluff :hi:

Cancer sucks, and I hope anyone dealing with it uses every means at their disposal to get help, even I can't get that same help myself. Blame the system, not the victims trying to survive. Bitterness is an ugly thing.

Particularly people, like Farrah, that got their money by the dumb luck of being genetically beautiful. (Or having rich parents or being talented at a sport, etc.)

Noone was blaming her for trying to get the best treatment, but we all have the right to be bitter that life is treated as a for-profit industry. She's putting herself out there for fighting cancer, but everyone wants to fight a disease that's killing them. The difference is MOST people are at the mercy of their insurance company and their bank account.

The system does suck as does the idea that not having "means" makes it okay for you to die when treatment is available.

And who said it was ok for those of us without the means to die?

She's putting herself out there for fighting cancer, but everyone wants to fight a disease that's killing them. The difference is MOST people are at the mercy of their insurance company and their bank account.

And all that is her fault how?

You're taking a real ugly and bitter road here, and it makes you look amazingly small and petty.

AGAIN, noone blamed her for fighting disease, but having money shouldn't give you the advantage of the ability to get treatment. That's sick.

Which of my comments were ugly or bitter? Do you just make up crap to respond to or do you read the posts?

Small and petty is the idea that we all should just be happy that our profit-based system is available to those with "the means" to afford it. That group is pretty small, but I guess they're better than the rest of us since they have some money.

but having money shouldn't give you the advantage of the ability to get treatment. That's sick.

On this we agree, but until this changes are rich people supposed to not take the treatment that might save their life?

Which of my comments were ugly or bitter?

"Particularly people, like Farrah, that got their money by the dumb luck of being genetically beautiful."

Small, petty, and ugly. Sorry man, it is. :shrug:

Small and petty is the idea that we all should just be happy that our profit-based system is available to those with "the means" to afford it.

Only I never said anything like that. Do you just make up crap to respond to or do you read the posts? There's nothing to be happy about for anyone in this boat, and I never said otherwise.

When she began filming this "documentary" she apparently assumed she would be living life at its fullest again when it aired. That she would be a success story. Instead she was dying when it aired.

I feel sorry for her father. A parent never expects to be left alone. He has buried his wife and his other daughter. And now must bury her. And there is no one else. Except for a grandson who is a disgrace. And a son-in-law who never was a son-in-law and who is as much of a disgrace as his son.

This has been the final chapter in the life of someone we envied and shouldn't have. The O'Neal family is not the ideal of what a family is supposed to be. Ryan O'Neal may be able to convince himself that this is a sequel to Love Story. It is anything but.

There are those who don't have the access to palliative care that she does. Not many have had the relatively easy life that Farrah Fawcett has had. Not many will have the relatively easy death that Farrah Fawcett will have. That is the sad reality for quite a few who are not Farrah Fawcett. They are the ones my heart goes out to.

That sounds cruel but is how I feel.

Because I feel the exact same way.

I feel bad for Farrah, but I'm not sure what the point of this exercise was. The only thing I learned tonight is that Ryan O'Neal and Alana Stewart are two of the biggest attention whores on the planet.

I work extraordinarily hard caring for my mom. I don't get paid. I don't have health insurance. I'm tired of hearing: sorry, we can't do anything for you two. I blame the system, but although I work on improving myself, I can't get past the bitterness I feel seeing an individual using their vast means to seek help. I'm not saying they shouldn't do it, just that it's hard to get past the feeling of why them and not me.

That's what is frustrating and you have EVERY RIGHT to feel resentful about the fact that our system doesn't truly value life.

It's too bad that anti-choice folks use the term because universal healthcare is truly PRO-LIFE!

Good luck with taking care of your mom. I can only imagine what you're going thru. (And what she's going thru.) I hope you are able to get the help you need for her care because you both deserve to have good lives.

I don't mean to be angry at one single person, it just comes out that way because she's in the public eye. Given the means, I'd pay any fee to help my mom, so I completely understand. The root of the problems is indeed the system.

I suppose my point, which I have trouble putting into words at times, it that the we're bombarded with visuals of celebrities fighting back, be it Farrah, Michael J. Fox, or someone else, yet they all have the financial means to fight. For those who don't have the means, we should be able ask the system for help, which leads us to the hot button issue and why I pester Baucus' office about every other day.

The bitterness is misdirected. I'm truly sorry you and your mother are in the boat you are, but why take it on Farrah? She's a victim of a horrible disease, too, just like your mother, just like me, and just like millions of others. It sucks that some have the means to get treatment that others can't, but I'll never begrudge any one taking advantage of the chance if they can get it. What's the option, just give up and die to stand in solidarity with us poor people? :shrug:

I would take the same advantages if I had the funds. When I see someone with the ability to pay care, my first emotion is anger because of everything I've seen with my mom. But, I understand the anger should not be directed at the person. I was just commenting on the difficulty in watching not just Farrah, but anybody fork out the cash for treatments as my mom and I struggle to help each other.

And once again I just have to think --

I'm the bitch???

Allrightythen.

not have to do it except to try to get more notice of the disease, try to get more research allocated, and show exactly what some of the options are and aren't. I can't count the times she read from her diary that she realizes she's had a life most people could never imagine. I guess her biggest MISTAKE is that she was probably the most iconic, beautiful woman of the entire 1970's - she also happened to go on to be nominated for some Golden Globes and Emmies and has a body of work that consists of more than most people realize. Her movie 'The Burning Bed' helped to create a national hotline for abused women. Farah Fawcett has never caused any harm to the world except for her being physically beautiful and IMHO beautiful on the inside too. Oh, and BTW, the drug issues that the O'Neal family has had is a MEDICAL issue much more than a MORAL failing. MY heart goes out to Redmond and Ryan just like it went out to Al Gore Jr.

but reading about it here begs the question:

Why do we have to go to Germany to get the best medical care?

What does *that* fact alone say about our healthcare system. That the fabulously wealthy leave the country to get treatment.

She's not the only person to go to Germany for advanced treatments. A famous (but not wealthy) early music singer, John Fleagle, died in Germany seeking the best treatment as well.

And, of course, the other obvious question: What about the masses of us who can't afford medical care in *this* country, never mind travel abroad for the best care?

...using a plant-based diet to help the body fight cancer (most cancers thrive in the environment created by a typical American diet) ~ imo the cancer industry is too lucrative for this country to recognize natural cures.

this week. And that is exactly what I thought: overacting.

I was ashamed for thinking it, but that is what I thought. Glad I'm not the only one.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

What mom wants that for her child?!

Sure, I envied Farrah her beauty and her hair, but I was never a fan of hers especially after I read Tatum O'Neils book.

But I don't blame Farrah for spending her money and doing whatever it took to try and find a cure.

And I respect her so much after watching this documentary.

She is only 62 years old and is close to the end now.

That is too young to die! :cry: