I really admire Rep. Raskin. He has gone through some pretty incredible stress and trauma over the past few years, and probably some before that, too. Always gracious, always metered in temper, always passionate about his beliefs. Yes, he is realistic about his cancer. He has the most common form of lymphoma, but common does not always equate to most treatable. He said it – it is aggressive. But, he will have great treatment, he has a great attitude and some pretty wonderful endurance and fortitude.
I wish him the best of success and a long and productive life to come. He’s an incredible man.
I’m having a lot of excess energy and grit these days, and I’m sending half of it to him.
Reach out your hand, if your cup be empty If your cup is full, may it be again Let it be known there is a fountain That was not made by the hands of men
There is a road, no simple highway Between the dawn and the dark of night And if you go, no one may follow That path is for your steps alone
Ripple in still water When there is no pebble tossed Nor wind to blow
I’m recovering (recovered? My oncologist doesn’t like to say that) from classical Hodgkin’s, Stage IIB. The chemo turned out to be the easy part – it did the job, and though it was wearying, I made it through. I also had radiation. But it definitely weakens you – I had pneumonia and then a lung infection in the months afterwards, the latter of which put me in the hospital for 10 days.
But I’m doing much better now, six months later, and Rep. Raskin, I’m rooting HARD for you to get back to good health. You’re one of the good guys. Take care of yourself and definitely lean on others.
Wishing a successful and bearable course of treatment for Jamie Raskin. We really need him, and us Marylanders are hoping he will run for Cardin’s Senate seat when he retires. My dad died of this very same cancer 25 years ago, despite 4 grueling months of chemo. Fortunately, the new chemo agents and adjuvants are much improved, more targeted, and less toxic. Godspeed, Rep. Raskin.
Looks like some kind of sheep dog. My stepson and stepdaughter had a sheep dog.
It was a joy to watch him guard our two grand kids. They were clearly his lambs.
He watched them intensely any time they were visible. If they were up and around, he would patrol the area and place himself between them and the street.
The country needs Raskin’s voice once Republicans have control of the House. I am sending all of my positive thoughts to Rep. Raskin for successful treatment and a long life!
My husband is recovering (never “cured” but will hopefully graduate from oncology at the five-year milestone in another year) from the same type of B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma as Rep. Raskin. Like you, the chemo itself was uneventful (although he developed hiccups instead of nausea). It was the rare form of pneumonia that landed him in the hospital for two weeks and ultimately the need to remove one lobe of his lung. My husband and I are members of the Permanent Mask Wearers club. But that’s preferable over the alternative.
I’m rooting HARD for both you and Rep. Raskin. May you recover to full strength quickly and “graduate” from oncology without any further scares.
He’s at the “only needs quarterly bloodwork” stage now and his recent bloodwork came back looking really good. His oncologist says that his biggest threat now is infections since his lungs went through hell and back but she’s confident that the R-CHOP chemo treatment sent his lymphoma into deep remission.
Thanks for this great post. Cancer is not for wimps. Survivors are a very special group of people. (I am a CA survivor x 3 now. I consider myself in a category that is RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now RIP) worthy.)
You may lean on me, or any of the rest of us CA survivors here, Just ask @darrtown!
Keep going!
It is one of the great mysteries of the universe why the good suffer so much (Mr. Raskin’s son committed suicide, and he wrote eloquently about the experience and now cancer for Raskin) and why other human beings bring nothing but carnage to the populace (think of our prior president and Vlad Putin for current examples) but live long lives. A pox upon T—p and Putin and prayers for healing for Rep. Raskin.
I wanted to buy his book after his talk at the Texas Tribune Festival this fall but they sold out. So I downloaded it on my phone while in the booksigning line, and since I didn’t have a notebook or anything on me, I asked if he could maybe sign a dollar bill and cross out Mnuchin’s signature. He said “I don’t think that’s legal!” but signed a napkin for me.
Seems so unfair that he has to go through this after everything else, but hopefully all our fervent good wishes will help him.
Trump will live another 20 years and remain sufficiently sentient to torment the citizenry all the way to his dying breath. Sometimes karma goes into hiding when it comes to truly despicable people.
