Incidentally, Chris Murphy, the junior US senator from Connecticut, embarrassed himself over this thing yesterday. He was scheduled to appear on CNN at 2pm to discuss the anniversary of the passing of the Affordable Care Act but was bumped for coverage of the Princess of Wales. He tweeted something about being “bumped for this much more important topic,” though he later deleted his tweet.
Exactly so. I wonder if it’s one of those weird parasocial things where we feel like we ‘know’ public figures well enough that they owe us detailed information about which particular testicle, left or right, has what kind of cancer.
Bad photo doings.
Bad no info on her well being.
Bad, idiotic ranting forevermore about affairs, stis, cosmetic surgeries (yeah, I did it too)
But look at the good she could do. Her MIL came forth about eating disorders, aids, bombs and did a helluva lot of good. I hope she does. Whatever kind of cancer it is.
Do we need Kate Middleton to be open about her cancer diagnosis to bring attention to this disease? I’m old enough to vaguely remember when Betty Ford went public about her breast cancer diagnosis and then the NBC correspondent Betty Rollin wrote a memoir about her breast cancer but these events were in the mid 1970s, or roughly fifty years ago.
But today? Are people unaware of cancers and needing education or advocacy?
I’d say yes.
It was a very big deal when Ford spoke about her breast cancer publicly in the 1970s, when “cancer,” in general, and breast cancer. in particular, was still something that people were uncomfortable speaking about in public, to the point that it was considered by many to be a taboo topic for public conversation. People like Ford helped to break that taboo.
But, at this point, there is still a great deal of advocacy that’s needed, particularly around getting screenings. For example, this Guardian article from last year cites an NIH study, showing that over 30% of English women (ages 25-64) are not up to date on their screenings for cervical cancer, and many have never been screened at all.
Is that from lack of knowledge of the need for screening or laziness?
The unwillingness to confront one’s own or a loved one’s mortality. And the potential (uncovered) medical expenses.
Probably both, as well as fear (as @ThelmaLou just noted, while I was writing this), concerns about discomfort during the test, and generally busy schedules – and, at least in the U.S., financial concerns, due to being uninsured, or under-insured.
The Guardian article actually touches on a lot of that, as well as how seeing public figures having to deal with the disease makes it more relevant to the public.
As I mentioned upthread, the royals’ hospital of choice is more of a five-star resort that happens to have a medical staff, and it’s not like she has to worry about her insurance covering an extended stay.
I’m going to predict that in a few months the two Wales will sit down with a serious but Royal friendly reporter to tell their story.
Well, yeah. She’s British.
Off the top of my head, i can’t think of anything where you expect a 2 week hospital stay upfront. Rabies? Sepsis?
Liver transplant?
Yeah, probably.
My mother had her kidney (and a tumor on it) removed and she wasn’t in the hospital for two weeks. I think it was about a week.
Well, two weeks in hospital are not foreign to me, after surgery. Unfortunately.
Infection. Subsequent problems arising from the surgery. Accidents. Bleeding. Pre-existing conditions.
Not every thing is equal for every patient.
I’ve walked out of a hospital (well, rolled out) from a serious facial reconstruction, 3 days later. And went in for an outpatient surgery where I ended up in hospital 3 weeks and months in rehab.
I don’t think anyone wants to stay in the hospital any longer than necessary, away from family and home; especially not someone with young kids. Two weeks in hospital for a hysterectomy with no complications is not believable in any way, and completely unnecessary.
I mentioned a couple reasons upthread. Post #125.
Complications though are not known in advance.
FWIW my wife is scheduled for getting her uterus ovaries and Fallopian tubes out in a few weeks. “Robotic” laparoscopic. Plan is out same day and told just no lifting more than 20 pounds but expect to be able to drive and work within the week. We are planning travel a couple of weeks later. Even allowing for the usual optimistic surgeon talk.
Royals be different.
I had to have that done last August.
I wound up spending 2 nights in the hospital, but that’s because I did some vomiting after surgery (I do NOT recommend upchucking after abdominal surgery - UGH! that was painful!) and they wanted to make sure I was OK before sending me home, especially since I live alone. Well, that’s an example of how you might wind up staying a bit longer than originally planned, stuff happens.
I was allowed to start driving again in… a week and half? I couldn’t go back to work for several weeks because my job expects me to be able to lift up to 40 pounds, but I was certainly up and around within 2 weeks. Not moving real fast but definitely moving. I was back to work with no restrictions at all in about six weeks (although the surgeon did put limits on certain types of exercise outside of work for awhile, that was annoying).
But mine was a fairly uncomplicated case - no prior surgeries to cause adhesions, no scarring/adhesions from endometriosis, my largest fibroid could still be handled without an open procedure, etc. Other women have had much more complicated situations with longer recovery times.
And, as I’ve already mentioned - a lot of people are assuming Kate’s surgery involved “lady parts” - we actually have no idea if it did or not. She might have had some sort of intestinal problem. Or - well, I don’t know. But women have more organs in their abdomens than just a uterus and its accessories.
Most of the organs are in the abdomen…