Suzette Sommers and Alternatives on the Today Show

2bhealed
2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi Semis!

Did anyone else catch Suzette Sommers on the Today Show just a little bit ago? What a story, huh? Being told you have cancer throughout your body and it turns out to be a fungal infection type of thing. wow!

Of course now I'm curious about her book, which is the whole reason for her promo....

peace, emily

Comments

  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    No
    Some of us have to WORK and can't watch TV
    ;-)
    It had nothing to do with that Thigh Master thing she was hawking years ago did it?

    Seriously, that stinks to be told it's cancer and have it not be. I suppose it's a bit better than the other way around.
    -p
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    PhillieG said:

    No
    Some of us have to WORK and can't watch TV
    ;-)
    It had nothing to do with that Thigh Master thing she was hawking years ago did it?

    Seriously, that stinks to be told it's cancer and have it not be. I suppose it's a bit better than the other way around.
    -p

    Uh huh
    and while you're working you can post on the cancer boards hey? ;-)

    I'm on here while Emma is doing her cursive handwriting book not needing my immediate attention....better go focus on my "student" now....whoops! Totally busted!
  • Shayenne
    Shayenne Member Posts: 2,342
    2bhealed said:

    Uh huh
    and while you're working you can post on the cancer boards hey? ;-)

    I'm on here while Emma is doing her cursive handwriting book not needing my immediate attention....better go focus on my "student" now....whoops! Totally busted!

    I saw it....
    ...I just never know to believe her or not, she saw 6 different doctors who said she had cancer throughout her body, but then puts out a book, but I know she did have cancer awhile ago that she said she did heal through alternatively, I walked out for something during it though, and missed the end of it though. What did I Miss??

    Hugsss!
    ~Donna
  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    2bhealed said:

    Uh huh
    and while you're working you can post on the cancer boards hey? ;-)

    I'm on here while Emma is doing her cursive handwriting book not needing my immediate attention....better go focus on my "student" now....whoops! Totally busted!

    Oh Sh*t
    I happen to be on lunch? I take lunch from about 9am to 3pm. OK, I'm busted. I get tired of looking at textbooks all day, I need to check in and see what it going on in here to see if I can help someone in distress.
    I forgot that you are one of "those people" so you're home watching The View and all that good stuff ;-)

    Just thought that while I'm working I could use the Thigh Master!

    Teach on my friend. Make sure you get the Columbus stuff right ;-)
    -p
  • Shayenne
    Shayenne Member Posts: 2,342
    PhillieG said:

    Oh Sh*t
    I happen to be on lunch? I take lunch from about 9am to 3pm. OK, I'm busted. I get tired of looking at textbooks all day, I need to check in and see what it going on in here to see if I can help someone in distress.
    I forgot that you are one of "those people" so you're home watching The View and all that good stuff ;-)

    Just thought that while I'm working I could use the Thigh Master!

    Teach on my friend. Make sure you get the Columbus stuff right ;-)
    -p

    Hey...
    ... I watch The View! Hey Em, Phil must be home enough to know what's on the TV schedule!

    Hugsss!
    ~Donna
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    PhillieG said:

    Oh Sh*t
    I happen to be on lunch? I take lunch from about 9am to 3pm. OK, I'm busted. I get tired of looking at textbooks all day, I need to check in and see what it going on in here to see if I can help someone in distress.
    I forgot that you are one of "those people" so you're home watching The View and all that good stuff ;-)

    Just thought that while I'm working I could use the Thigh Master!

    Teach on my friend. Make sure you get the Columbus stuff right ;-)
    -p

    No daytime TV
    actually I normally don't watch in the morning since I need to get school going. But today I happened to turn it on and they got me hooked with the Suzette Sommers and alternatives so I had to suffer through some Kathie Lee and Hoda banter to get there.

    Donna, I had the same thoughts....how could SIX doctors be wrong? But hey, it sells books.....on the other hand, I would want to be believed. My neurosurgeon was wrong about my food allergies and I'll bet if I went to 6 different ones about my migraines I wonder how many would have suggested they were due to what I was eating. But cancer tests?? So I may have to check it out of my library when it comes out.

    Phil, you ARE the thigh Master!

    I don't teach Columbus (yet)...the Vikings "discovered" America and the "natives" were here first anyway so we're doing ancient American history and aren't even to the Pilgrims yet. Didn't you know the Holy Grail is buried in Minnesota? :-) I love a good conspiracy.

    peace, emily who is now waiting for emma to finish writing her story.
  • thready
    thready Member Posts: 474
    2bhealed said:

    No daytime TV
    actually I normally don't watch in the morning since I need to get school going. But today I happened to turn it on and they got me hooked with the Suzette Sommers and alternatives so I had to suffer through some Kathie Lee and Hoda banter to get there.

    Donna, I had the same thoughts....how could SIX doctors be wrong? But hey, it sells books.....on the other hand, I would want to be believed. My neurosurgeon was wrong about my food allergies and I'll bet if I went to 6 different ones about my migraines I wonder how many would have suggested they were due to what I was eating. But cancer tests?? So I may have to check it out of my library when it comes out.

    Phil, you ARE the thigh Master!

    I don't teach Columbus (yet)...the Vikings "discovered" America and the "natives" were here first anyway so we're doing ancient American history and aren't even to the Pilgrims yet. Didn't you know the Holy Grail is buried in Minnesota? :-) I love a good conspiracy.

    peace, emily who is now waiting for emma to finish writing her story.

    Sommers
    I know history says something about Columbus, but according to one teacher here in Texas, America's independence was won at the Alamo!?!? I am glad I was raised in Colorado!

    About Ms Sommers,
    I read a little about her book on the web. She has many claims, she had breast ca and did radiation and surgery but not chemo. She does not believe in chemo, she said it does not help anyone. (That is a pretty broad statement) Anyway the ACS, our web hosts, are very concerned that people will follow her down this path and die without looking at all the options.
    I read that that she was told by one Dr that her cancer had spread everywhere, but then discovered it had did not. The article also chronicled other celeb types who chose to have alternate therepy. Most have passed on. I think only God knows if they would have been helped with traditional stuff, but they were the ones who made their choice just as we all do.

    I must ask-do you think that the surgery and radiation helped cure her cancer. I have several friends who have had breat cancer. They had surgery, radiation, and chemo and only one has not survived-she had liver lung and bone mets, the others have survived well past the 5 to 10 year mark. Some of these individuals have not changed anything about their life styles, many practiced healthy stuff already.

    Oh by the way she told a tabloid that Patrick Swayze's chemo killed him, not his cancer. I am sure the Swayze family takes so much comfort in her words.

    I am not at all apposed to alternate therapy, but to think that she thinks her choice makes someone else wrong. I guess that is what it takes to sell books. There are those of us who only have the choice for chemo. I guess I could just leave well enough alone, but my survival chances and my recurrance rate do not look so good without chemo. I want to survive. Along with chemo I will take a more holistic approach to my life, I will juice, do a mediterranean diet, take an aspirin a day, increase my Vit. D and exercise, (Thank you Diane) but I need the opportunity that chemo can give me.

    Only one semis opinion, and only an opinion!
    Jan
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    thready said:

    Sommers
    I know history says something about Columbus, but according to one teacher here in Texas, America's independence was won at the Alamo!?!? I am glad I was raised in Colorado!

    About Ms Sommers,
    I read a little about her book on the web. She has many claims, she had breast ca and did radiation and surgery but not chemo. She does not believe in chemo, she said it does not help anyone. (That is a pretty broad statement) Anyway the ACS, our web hosts, are very concerned that people will follow her down this path and die without looking at all the options.
    I read that that she was told by one Dr that her cancer had spread everywhere, but then discovered it had did not. The article also chronicled other celeb types who chose to have alternate therepy. Most have passed on. I think only God knows if they would have been helped with traditional stuff, but they were the ones who made their choice just as we all do.

    I must ask-do you think that the surgery and radiation helped cure her cancer. I have several friends who have had breat cancer. They had surgery, radiation, and chemo and only one has not survived-she had liver lung and bone mets, the others have survived well past the 5 to 10 year mark. Some of these individuals have not changed anything about their life styles, many practiced healthy stuff already.

    Oh by the way she told a tabloid that Patrick Swayze's chemo killed him, not his cancer. I am sure the Swayze family takes so much comfort in her words.

    I am not at all apposed to alternate therapy, but to think that she thinks her choice makes someone else wrong. I guess that is what it takes to sell books. There are those of us who only have the choice for chemo. I guess I could just leave well enough alone, but my survival chances and my recurrance rate do not look so good without chemo. I want to survive. Along with chemo I will take a more holistic approach to my life, I will juice, do a mediterranean diet, take an aspirin a day, increase my Vit. D and exercise, (Thank you Diane) but I need the opportunity that chemo can give me.

    Only one semis opinion, and only an opinion!
    Jan

    Interview
    Hi Thready!

    If you had watched the interview she addressed some of what you're saying....she said her statement about Patrick Swayze was about his particular cancer--pancreatic. That chemo does NOT help pancreatic. She was saddened that they would do chemo on him when the doctors know that chemo does nothing for pancreatic--death is pretty much assured in pancreatic so why bother dumping chemicals into a system. She also claimed that she didn't know the person she was talking to at a private party was a tabloid reporter. Not that I'm defending her saying something like that. I'm just clarifying.

    She also said that her choice is FOR HER and just because it's right for her doesn't make it wrong for others. She was pretty specific on that one.

    I have a hard time believing that six doctors were wrong though. Kinda.

    But she had some interesting info about a test that doctors can do to find out the correct combo of chemo but they don't do it because of the work factor involved so many folks get the one size fits all approach.

    peace, emily
  • thready
    thready Member Posts: 474
    2bhealed said:

    Interview
    Hi Thready!

    If you had watched the interview she addressed some of what you're saying....she said her statement about Patrick Swayze was about his particular cancer--pancreatic. That chemo does NOT help pancreatic. She was saddened that they would do chemo on him when the doctors know that chemo does nothing for pancreatic--death is pretty much assured in pancreatic so why bother dumping chemicals into a system. She also claimed that she didn't know the person she was talking to at a private party was a tabloid reporter. Not that I'm defending her saying something like that. I'm just clarifying.

    She also said that her choice is FOR HER and just because it's right for her doesn't make it wrong for others. She was pretty specific on that one.

    I have a hard time believing that six doctors were wrong though. Kinda.

    But she had some interesting info about a test that doctors can do to find out the correct combo of chemo but they don't do it because of the work factor involved so many folks get the one size fits all approach.

    peace, emily

    Thank you,
    Emily,
    I did not see the interview, I have just read about it on the web, and we all know everything on the web is fact-LOL, and I thank you for the info. Please don't think that I don't give alternative therapies any hope, I really do. I also don't mind being corrected or informed!!! It is just we Americans will follow the spokes person for the Thigh Master anywhere and will take her word over others just because she is famous and she wrote a book. I know you can go to six doctors and get the same info if you look for six doctors who practice the same type medicine or who want to be stars in the new publication. Doctors are just people, if they have a celeb come to them to clarify they might not want to rock the boat and be publically cast in a negative light. They might even have their words construed.

    I also don't think that others choices should be condemned. My Aunt was a scientologist and she went to doctors who practiced within her religion. She died from lymphomas. Does that make scientology wrong? (I am not a scientologist type but I can not be critical of those who go to the people they trust.) We have lost friends and family to cancer who have gone the traditional route and a couple who believed in alternate methods and have passed away. Are these methods wrong? These methods are not wrong, cancer is the problem. We also know people who have survived using various kinds of treatments so who knows what really works. Sometimes I feel like it is a bit of a crap shoot.

    I have gotton 4 opinions from 4 doctors, they all say I need to have the same chemo. Yep, they are all mainstream types. One is my family doctor, one is an oncologist, was is a family friend, and one is a research Dr at University of Texas, Southwestern.

    Pancreatic cancer is a tough one. From what I know medically (not much really) and what I read at the University yesterday it tends to be incurable if not detected early.(October is Pancreatic Cancer month so there was all sorts of literature sitting around and we had quite a wait.) Chemo does help keep death away for a while in many of these people. Many such as the professor who was known for "the last lecture" survived longer because the tumors where held in check longer with chemo. There are two ladies in our area that have received treatment (Chemo) for pancreatic cancer and are 5-6 years NED, but there cancers were caught very very early.

    One other person who is missed and needed right now is my husband's best friend and cousin. He died in June from a 10 year battle with stage 4 stomach cancer, another cancer that has difficult statistics. He told his doctors that he wanted to do everything he could to beat the cancer and they persued traditional, trials and alternative methods for him. He had about 5 years being NED, but the cancer can back in his lungs and bones. He had chemo again to shrink the tumors and help with the pain. He was given more years of productive life. He is my inspiration I only wish he were hear to help us with this new path.

    So in my journey (or walk down this ugly road) I am looking at all sorts of stuff. Along with my chemo I plan a detox thing at the end of treatment, to juice when allowed too, and will follow the things that Diane suggests. I will also keep my eyes and ears open and I will not use bottled water or use plastic in the microwave, for some reason I think this is a problem, I don't have facts it is just a thing I have.

    If you have any other suggestions please I want to hear them, here or PM and let me know I am all ears!!!!!

    Thanks again Emily
    jan
  • Kathryn_in_MN
    Kathryn_in_MN Member Posts: 1,252 Member
    2bhealed said:

    Interview
    Hi Thready!

    If you had watched the interview she addressed some of what you're saying....she said her statement about Patrick Swayze was about his particular cancer--pancreatic. That chemo does NOT help pancreatic. She was saddened that they would do chemo on him when the doctors know that chemo does nothing for pancreatic--death is pretty much assured in pancreatic so why bother dumping chemicals into a system. She also claimed that she didn't know the person she was talking to at a private party was a tabloid reporter. Not that I'm defending her saying something like that. I'm just clarifying.

    She also said that her choice is FOR HER and just because it's right for her doesn't make it wrong for others. She was pretty specific on that one.

    I have a hard time believing that six doctors were wrong though. Kinda.

    But she had some interesting info about a test that doctors can do to find out the correct combo of chemo but they don't do it because of the work factor involved so many folks get the one size fits all approach.

    peace, emily

    I didn't see the show - I
    I didn't see the show - I watch very little television. But I'd have to really disagree with any statement that "chemo does not help pancreatic cancer, and death is pretty much assured so why bother dumping chemicals into a system."

    What I can tell you is I have a friend that would really argue with that statement. He has pancreatic cancer, and has been battling it for a few years now. The first several treatments didn't do much for him, but enough to keep him around till he got on Xeloda. He doesn't have hardly any side effects with Xeloda and it shrunk his liver mets down to nothing! He still has a few small lung mets - they shrunk but are not gone. The original pancreatic tumor is the tough one. It hasn't shrunk, but they've kept it from growing. Currently he has a pretty good quality of life; one he enjoys as it is right now. He went through a few times that were awful, where I think if he knew the rest of his days would be that way, he would have quit. But he persevered - and that is good, because for him the Xeloda is giving him a LOT of extra time in this world - time to finish seeing his boys grow up and graduate from high school.

    In my opinion, anyone that would say Swayze should not have tried chemo, because he was just going to die anyway, since it is pancreatic cancer, needs to shut their mouths and only comment on their OWN situation. This is no different than someone saying if you have stage IV cancer you shouldn't do anything because you are going to die anyway. Hell, we are all going to die sometime - but until then we can make our own choices on how we want to fight whatever comes our way. Suzzane Summers has always come across dingy - not just the characters she plays, but herself in real life too. I'm sorry, but I just don't put a lot of faith in people that play the dumb blonde (this coming from a blonde, but one who does not play dumb).

    Each person has to make their OWN choice about what they need to do. This includes pancreatic cancer. If your choice is no chemo, then those around you need to support it. If your choice is to do chemo, then again they need to support you.
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member

    I didn't see the show - I
    I didn't see the show - I watch very little television. But I'd have to really disagree with any statement that "chemo does not help pancreatic cancer, and death is pretty much assured so why bother dumping chemicals into a system."

    What I can tell you is I have a friend that would really argue with that statement. He has pancreatic cancer, and has been battling it for a few years now. The first several treatments didn't do much for him, but enough to keep him around till he got on Xeloda. He doesn't have hardly any side effects with Xeloda and it shrunk his liver mets down to nothing! He still has a few small lung mets - they shrunk but are not gone. The original pancreatic tumor is the tough one. It hasn't shrunk, but they've kept it from growing. Currently he has a pretty good quality of life; one he enjoys as it is right now. He went through a few times that were awful, where I think if he knew the rest of his days would be that way, he would have quit. But he persevered - and that is good, because for him the Xeloda is giving him a LOT of extra time in this world - time to finish seeing his boys grow up and graduate from high school.

    In my opinion, anyone that would say Swayze should not have tried chemo, because he was just going to die anyway, since it is pancreatic cancer, needs to shut their mouths and only comment on their OWN situation. This is no different than someone saying if you have stage IV cancer you shouldn't do anything because you are going to die anyway. Hell, we are all going to die sometime - but until then we can make our own choices on how we want to fight whatever comes our way. Suzzane Summers has always come across dingy - not just the characters she plays, but herself in real life too. I'm sorry, but I just don't put a lot of faith in people that play the dumb blonde (this coming from a blonde, but one who does not play dumb).

    Each person has to make their OWN choice about what they need to do. This includes pancreatic cancer. If your choice is no chemo, then those around you need to support it. If your choice is to do chemo, then again they need to support you.

    yeah
    I think she was defending her statement when Hoda read the quote back to her.
  • Mike49
    Mike49 Member Posts: 261
    PhillieG said:

    No
    Some of us have to WORK and can't watch TV
    ;-)
    It had nothing to do with that Thigh Master thing she was hawking years ago did it?

    Seriously, that stinks to be told it's cancer and have it not be. I suppose it's a bit better than the other way around.
    -p

    Great Picture
    I kept seeing this face all night yesterday :)
  • kristasplace
    kristasplace Member Posts: 957 Member
    thready said:

    Sommers
    I know history says something about Columbus, but according to one teacher here in Texas, America's independence was won at the Alamo!?!? I am glad I was raised in Colorado!

    About Ms Sommers,
    I read a little about her book on the web. She has many claims, she had breast ca and did radiation and surgery but not chemo. She does not believe in chemo, she said it does not help anyone. (That is a pretty broad statement) Anyway the ACS, our web hosts, are very concerned that people will follow her down this path and die without looking at all the options.
    I read that that she was told by one Dr that her cancer had spread everywhere, but then discovered it had did not. The article also chronicled other celeb types who chose to have alternate therepy. Most have passed on. I think only God knows if they would have been helped with traditional stuff, but they were the ones who made their choice just as we all do.

    I must ask-do you think that the surgery and radiation helped cure her cancer. I have several friends who have had breat cancer. They had surgery, radiation, and chemo and only one has not survived-she had liver lung and bone mets, the others have survived well past the 5 to 10 year mark. Some of these individuals have not changed anything about their life styles, many practiced healthy stuff already.

    Oh by the way she told a tabloid that Patrick Swayze's chemo killed him, not his cancer. I am sure the Swayze family takes so much comfort in her words.

    I am not at all apposed to alternate therapy, but to think that she thinks her choice makes someone else wrong. I guess that is what it takes to sell books. There are those of us who only have the choice for chemo. I guess I could just leave well enough alone, but my survival chances and my recurrance rate do not look so good without chemo. I want to survive. Along with chemo I will take a more holistic approach to my life, I will juice, do a mediterranean diet, take an aspirin a day, increase my Vit. D and exercise, (Thank you Diane) but I need the opportunity that chemo can give me.

    Only one semis opinion, and only an opinion!
    Jan

    She said that??
    Wow, that was awfully bold, and awfully stupid of Susanne Somers to suggest that chemo killed Patrick Swayze! How the hell does she know? I've read the books that say chemo doesn't kill cancer even when there is no evidence of disease. That the cancer is still there lurking, waiting for an opportunity to gain a foothold again. I know that sometimes chemo does work. My aunt had stage III melanoma ten years ago. All her doctors gave up on her, except one offered her interferon. She has been cancer free ever since. I know others who survived cancer without it (there are a few here among us), but they all DID change their lifestyles drastically. It seems to me that we're all very individualized, and what works for some may not work for others. I wasn't willing to take the risk the first time around, but when chemo didn't work, i decided a big change in myself was the only way i would survive. Chemo and radiation had done too much secondary damage to my body, and any more of it would slowly be the end of me.

    I've heard dozens of testimonials from people on both ends of the controversy. Some swear their chemo saved them, some swear their surgery saved them, some swear their change in diet saved them. Jan is right, both sides also have many deaths. Though i believe diet is the number one factor as far as strengthening our terrain against the other factors, some of those other factors may just be too overwhelming to fight no matter what course of action is taken.

    I dunno. It doesn't sound like she's trying to educate anybody on the evil's of chemo as much as she's trying to be shocking and controversial. I would hope if people are going to follow her down that path that she has a great plan? Gerson has a 90% cure rate with his program of diet and enemas, but his program is VERY involved, and requires a hell of a lot of discipline. I don't know what kind of plan she has. I haven't read the book yet.

    Another semi's opinion!

    Love ya!
    Krista
  • sfmarie
    sfmarie Member Posts: 602
    The power of celebraties
    I think it is dangerous for celebraties to make these statements even if she says this is MY choice. The power they have over people is very strong. I think people think that if Suzanne Sommers is doing it, then there must be something to it. I just hope that others don't abandon other treatment options to follow hers or to think well if six doctors got it wrong for Suzanne, then my diagnosis must be wrong also. I think thigh master lady is a bit out there. I think she's missing the fame from Three's Company. Marie
  • Shayenne
    Shayenne Member Posts: 2,342
    sfmarie said:

    The power of celebraties
    I think it is dangerous for celebraties to make these statements even if she says this is MY choice. The power they have over people is very strong. I think people think that if Suzanne Sommers is doing it, then there must be something to it. I just hope that others don't abandon other treatment options to follow hers or to think well if six doctors got it wrong for Suzanne, then my diagnosis must be wrong also. I think thigh master lady is a bit out there. I think she's missing the fame from Three's Company. Marie

    I agree....
    She is just someone I wouldn't look up too anyway, and is just wanting the publicity for her book. She has to make money somehow, I just can't follow someone like her, she has always been too weird. Now, Quillen, Gershon, people who have this kind of a background and have done the trials and are more authentic to me, are the ones I would rather go by.

    Hugsss!
    ~Donna