Gene Upshaw RIP

[DocTalk]

Cancer isn't fair. It can grow slowly and cause few problems like prostate cancer or it can spread like wildfire and cause a quick death like astrocytomas of the brain. Whether it is diagnosed early or late, it isn't necessarily the tumor itself that kills a person, it is the complications that it brings.

Some cancers grow locally to the point they obstruct structures that are in the neighborhod and cause problems. Some cancers affect the elctrolyte balance in the body. Some cancers bleed. Some cancers spread through the blood stream or lymph system and affect distant organs. And some cancers do all or any combination of the above.

To decide why a cancer wasn't readily diagnosed or why a patient died quickly is more a philosophic question rather than a scientific one. And once a diagnosis is made, it is reasonable for the patient and the family to decide how aggressive an approach to take. It is the physician's responsibilty to guide those decisions but it is also fair for the pateint to disagree and seek alternative opinons.

But just like instant replay can show what happened retrospectively, it is easy to look back and play what if games. For patients and families who have to deal with cancer, looking forward is probably the best game plan.

 

[Lester Bangs]

My dad was diagnosed and dead within five weeks. He was like Upshaw ... same generation. Had been having abdominal pain for weeks, passed out a couple of times, refused to admit it was anything more than "getting old," "exhaustion" or "gas." He was pretty much gone mentally within a week of the diagnosis, but it took another four for it to finally kill him. It's amazing how powerful it is and when you see it close up you never again doubt what it can do.

 

[Bubbler]

Dr. Z weighs in with a pretty decent column:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/dr_z/08/21/upshaw/

The '82 strike was a low point for the NFLPA. The skill players revolted against the 55 percent of the gross plus wage scale that Ed Garvey wanted.

Good stuff.

 

[Blitz]

I spent a quality afternoon in May 2006 with Tag, Upshaw, Gene Washington, Mike Strahan and Philly's Dawkins when they came for NFL Europe Bowl and stopped at military hospital I worked at.
All of them were approachable but it was Upshaw who guaranteed me, that day, that my beloved Saints would survive in N.O.
Tag echoed it, but Upshaw talked to me about it at length, cementing the feeling in my mind that they would remain in New Orleans.
RIP, Gene

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

I spent a quality afternoon in May 2006 with Tag, Upshaw, Gene Washington, Mike Strahan and Philly's Dawkins when they came for NFL Europe Bowl and stopped at military hospital I worked at.
All of them were approachable but it was Upshaw who guaranteed me, that day, that my beloved Saints would survive in N.O.
Tag echoed it, but Upshaw talked to me about it at length, cementing the feeling in my mind that they would remain in New Orleans.
RIP, Gene

Nice quick oneanecdote there, Blitz.

That's cool.

 

[Blitz]

Go **** yourself, Simon.
Give yourself a little quickie.
A quick one.
Get ****ed.
How's that, now?