I beleive she has an HPV related cancer.

"Actress Farrah Fawcett chronicles her battle with cancer with her own home video camera, assisted by friends and family, including longtime partner Ryan O'Neal, Alana Stewart, Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson and her father, Jim Fawcett."

Here is news blurb:
[quote]A "heavily medicated" Farrah Fawcett couldn't attend an advance screening of the documentary about her cancer struggle Wednesday night, but longtime companion Ryan O'Neal says doctors will lower her meds so she can watch the film when it airs at 9 p.m. Friday on NBC.

"I think she'll take great pride in this," O'Neal tells the Associated Press. The movie documents Fawcett's grueling treatment for rectal cancer, which has since spread to her liver, and shows her shaving off her own famed tresses.

"I do not want to die of this disease," Fawcett says in the film. "So I say to God, 'It is seriously time for a miracle.'"[/quote]
It will be interesting to see if she touts the non FDA therapy she flew to Germany for - but at least she appears to be treating this with standard radiation and chemo for anal cancer in addition to the German immune system therapy, Adjunctive and not alternative

I really care abi=out our ladies in the forums much more than I ever could care about her, She never had the time of day for ordinary people before. Our ladies are all special to me.

I watched it last night and all I've got to say is she is one tough cookie with a huge desire to live. My hats off to you Farrah and all the Caregivers you have.

I was somewhat disappointed with this show. While I empathize and sympathize with Ms. Fawcett, her initial reluctance to follow her doctors recommendations here in the US, and go off for treatments (where she wouldn't have to have a colostomy bag) in Germany sends the wrong message to others, delayed her treatments, and likely altered her long term outcome.

Not all of the treatments are thing that we wish to do, for reasons that are often based in feelings other than what we (or our doctor teams) know is best for us. Look at the number of people here who have fought the PEG, not because it wouldn't have been beneficial for them, but because it altered their perception of how sick they were and more. Colostomies are reversible in the long run. But in this case, the distasteful nature of the procedure had an enormous impact on decision making and subsequent decision to go overseas where someone was willing to do something different (not necessarily better or as good) and employ treatment protocols that had unpublished track records of success or measured by other institutions parallel experiences.

My father couldn't stand the idea of having his chest cracked to have a new valve put in his heart, even though one was damaged to the point it had thrown a dangerous clot. He spent two month looking for a doctor that would tell him there was another way this could be treated - alternative treating this mechanical situation through diet etc. He, like anyone who looks long enough, finally found someone who was willing to tell him what he wanted to hear, but not what was necessarily standard of care or even practical. He died six months later, when his bad valve again threw a clot to his brain. Avoidance of what was a commonplace lifesaving procedure in the world at that time, and his ATTITUDE, killed him.

While I find Farrah's spirit to be extraordinary, I find her decision making process flawed. But we are all the architects of our own situation and we have the right to make any decision that we wish. Putting off known treatments that work for alternatives, delays the treatments ability to do their job, and allows the disease to prosper and advance. I don't care which cancer you consider, that statement remains a truism.

Brian , I like your answer as usual. You are always on the road that makes sense to all or mostly all of us.

I agree with Jim and Brian. I feel so sorry for her and her son and
Ryan, but the whole time I watched her story, I did cry, but I did
wish us "people who work for a living" could afford to go to Europe
or wherever for treatment. I did not understand that they can do more overseas than here? I did not think about colostomy bags and the hair thing. I had a peg and was just glad that I could and
just live because I could not eat or drink for a month at first.

Do the drs overseas make these frivolous claims? I must be behind the times or something.

This must make me feel better. I always wished I had gone to Duke or John Hopkins after the fact. At the time I was so scared and
crazed, I just did what my ENT said and never questioned him, although I did ask quite a lot of questions. Maybe the decision I made was a good one and hindsight is not always the best.

Just made me think diffently. I would shave my head every day maybe if I could have my jaw back. But I am doing great! Today
is my birthday and I had a wonderful one with my family.

What a glorious day.

Thanks for being my friends everyone
Debbie

Cancer treatments in the US, and even around the world, are well published. What is published as effective is there for all to see regardless of what country you are in, since the journals for publication and the conferences where the latest data are revealed are truly multinational these days, and they are attended by presenters and listeners from all over the world. What is leading edge threapy isn't an unknown or limited to a small group of practitioners who have secretly kept it from others.

But in any environment there are those that cling to older ideas, (or refuse to keep up with new developments) those that have their own, out of the ordinary, take on things (efficacious or not), and when like my father, you want to hear something, I guarantee you you can find it and someone willing to give it to you. Is it the best possible solution for your situation based on what the majority of doctors and researchers are learning and publishing weekly? Not necessarily.

The one, and likely most important thing we can do for ourselves is become knowledgeable, and then pick the best TEAM offering the most clinically successful treatments (documented in peer reviewed comparative studies) to implement that treatment. Once that is done, as far as protocols are concerned, our job in deciding what to have done to us is over, and is now to hang on and to tough it out, watching for things that are changing in ourselves that may be necessary for our doctors to know. As soon as we start thinking that we know more than the majority of practitioners, we are gambling. As soon as you find someone who is offering something outside the accepted "successful in the majority" norm, are you believing that you have found a gem that no one else has, or are you wandering off into the netherlands of unproven treatments?

[quote=peace4uall] At the time I was so scared and
crazed, I just did what my ENT said and never questioned him, although I did ask quite a lot of questions. Maybe the decision I made was a good one and hindsight is not always the best.
[/quote]

I am at this exact point. I couldn't have said it better myself.

The show was too much for my wife and I to take in one setting so we taped the last hour to watch last night. Brian's comments are excellent as usual and I can't add to them. Emotionally, the candid depiction of the heartbreak of recurrence just resonated with us. While we did have mild envy about private jets and first class recliners for her overseas flights, it was nothing compared to the longing for such wonderful caregivers as Farrah's former Angels, Jacqueln and Kate. They eased the burden on her spouse. Would that all of us could have such auxillary caregivers. Bad as this cancer has been, the absence of friends helping has been worse. My wife has to do it all. In reading many of these posts, I often think that Cancer is harder on the caregivers than the patient. Bless all of you caregivers here on OCF