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Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a woman with some serious-ass moxie. Her work as a pioneer on women’s issues has always inspired me, as has her fiesty and witty style of inserting some flair into her opinions when she gets an opening to do so.
Thus, it is with some measure of concern that I inform you of this:
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery Thursday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the court said. Pancreatic cancer is often deadly, although the court said doctors apparently found Ginsburg’s cancer at an early stage….
Ginsburg had recently told her former law clerks and others that she envisioned serving on the court into her 80s, although those comments were made before the latest diagnosis.
In her previous bout with cancer, Ginsburg received treatment throughout the court’s term and never missed a day on the bench.
If anyone can kick pancreatic cancer’s ass, she can. What say we send up a few prayers and good thoughts, though? Every little bit helps.
Thank you Justice Ginsburg, for all you have done, all you do, and all you will continue to do for years to come. We’ll see you back on the bench in no time.
SCOTUSblog has more.
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Amen. She’s this Court’s best.
Healing thoughts her way. She is the best on the Court, bar none.
Dugg right here!
Please, God!
Justice Ginsburg – i’m sending healing thoughts your way. I hope the process goes well and you feel better soon.
Positive thoughts to Justice Gisnburg. I really consider her the first woman on the court since she’s been the first who remembers the ladies.
Health and long life!
{{{RUTHIE!!!}}}}
Christy, How well said. Our thoughts and prayers for the justice, with deep gratitude for a lifetime of difficult, important work.
Hey all — just back from my trip to Philly for the ACS panel. What devastating news to see when I got home. But she’s a fighter, so I’m hopeful…
Get well soon your honor. Your one of a kind and needed sorely.
Thank you Christy. I just love that picture of her.
Some time ago I read about the kinds of roadblocks she had to face, as she bravely proceeded with her career. It was terribly difficult for a woman, even a supremely gifted one, to make it into practice, and advance.
She makes us proud. We wish her well.
((((Justice Ginsburg))))
All the best to Justice Ginsburg.
One of the articles I read stated that this was found at an early stage, which can help a lot in the outcome.
All the best for her and her family too.
That’s a nice piece at your SCOTUSBlog link, Christy.
Wow what a pretty picture. She’s always been so stylish and beautiful.
I just love that pix — she’s so chic and yet so professional at the same time. And you can just feel the intensity looking at her, can’t you? Just a great photo.
Thank you Christy!
best wishes to the Justice. she’s done so much for so many. here’s hoping she has many more years to continue that good work.
The SCOTUSblog piece is great, as is the ACLU piece at the “pioneer on women’s issues” link. Incredibly inspirational stuff…and you’ll see what I mean by moxie.
Thanks, Christy – I was sure you’d have a post on this subject.
Did anyone hear Nina Totenberg’s report? She sounded emotionally involved, and emphasizes how tough a woman Justice RBG is. Says she’s (Nina) been told the Justice plans to be back at work by 2/23/09! No retirement plans.
Healing thoughts and prayers going up for the Justice all day.
Of course, I’d rather see someone on the other court faction possibly forced to step down, but if it happens, at least it didn’t happen till after this Jan. 20.
Best possible thoughts for Justice Ginsberg. America needs her.
I was looking around. Metastases are usually to the liver, peritoneum, and lungs. Only about 15-20% of tumors are found to be operable.
The surgical procedure is usually a Whipple and is a major procedure. The pancreas, liver, and gallbladder all empty into the common bile duct and this in turns empties into the duodenum. A Whipple takes out the head of the pancreas, the gallbladder, and the duodenum. It reconnects the common bile from the liver, the stomach, and the pancreas to the next segment of the digestive tract the jejunum.
Further cancer treatment is usually both radiation and chemo.
I so hope she is ok but I am so very relieved that Obama is president now.
Many positive energy and healing to her.
That s/b many positive thoughts and healing energy to her.
Love the SCOTUSBlog headline, and the description – “an individual of surpassing toughness.”
And, this cancer really was caught early because routine care in her case is very good medical care. I pray she is in that small percentage who lives for years after a diagnosis.
Off to read the ACLU post.
When Justice Ginsburg had her last battle with cancer, she did her chemo and still heard every case from the bench. And she and Justice O’Conner started an aerobics class at the court as well as a wellness program for the justices and their staffs.
Oh, wonderful! I didn’t know that! But it fits (no pun intended) her personality and history, doesn’t it?
Nothing is impossible…. Her cancer was, thankfully, caught early. What a beautiful picture of a beautiful woman..
Fight on Ruth!!!
Are there any precedents of a Supreme Court justice retiring due to serious health problems?
Yes, including Justice O’Conner who retired due to her husband’s severe health issues. But it is generally the justice’s call on when that might be and why.
Thanks for all the diggs on this, gang. Much appreciated.
The CBS coverage very good…almost makes me cry to think of her courage and intelligence in Bush/Gore. That will make her heroic forever….
And cheers for Clinton for appointing her. To feel proud again.
Blessings of white light being sent to her.
Well said. A good and honorable Judge.
yes,she is abslutely one of akind,broke the mold…{{{RBG}}}}
keyboard not working well
Prayers for strength and healing, Justice Ginsburg
Drive by quickie-hear hear WRT RBG. She’s a national treasure. Heal well, please Justic Ginsburg.
Moderating what, pray tell? Give it a rest mods. I’m on your side fer cryin out loud . . . geez . . . . .
Why do bad things keep happening to good people…sigh. Healing thoughts and prayers for your recovery, Madam Justice.
This tumor is described as being in the body of the pancreas, which would not usually be treated with a Whipple, but with a removal of only part of the pancreas, and maybe, depending on blood supply, the spleen. You need a Whipple if the cancer is in the head of the pancreas, because of shared blood supply with the duodenum and distal stomach, and the difficulty of dissecting that part of the pancreas free of the duodenum.
Please survive, Judge. Obama would probably replace you with a Republican.
No, Obama would seek to replace her with a good, progressive democrat. Then the GOP will object and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Feinstein and whoever else will capitulate.
THEN we’ll get a Republican.
Ruth Badass Ginsburg will be in my thoughts and well-wishes. I find it odd, though, that so little blog commentary is out there since the key longterm concern of any liberal should be the current and future makeup of the court.
Ginsburg is one of its two liberal members and her well-being – or retirement – is an essential consideration in tracking our nation’s health.
Best wishes to Judge Ginsburg.
Very few people survive more than a year with pancreatic cancer, so I’m hoping she is one of the lucky ones.
Too little information is available in the press at the moment to know what kind of pancreatic cancer Ginsburg has but this medical website provides basic information about two main types of pancreatic cancer, exocrine and endocrine.
I’m guessing she has the first kind. (Endocrine tumors of the pancreas are rarer and sometimes more treatable. Apple’s Steve Jobs allegely has islet cell neuroendocrine tumor of the pancreas, an endocrine tumor).
The pancreas is usually divided anatomically speaking into three parts. These parts are referred to the “head”, “body” and “tail” of the pancreas, respectively when moving from a patient’s right side to the left.
The location of the tumor is described as the middle of her pancreas. I’m wondering if this is an overgeneralization, and the tumor is actually in the “head” of the pancreas. Surgery to remove the tumor is called a “whipple procedure.” However, I haven’t read reports that she had a whipple procedure.
So the other possibility is that the tumor is in the body of the pancreas.
Up-to-date has this to say about tumors surgically removed from the body or tail of the pancreas:
Hoping that is not the case here.
Listening to Ginsburg now on Oyez, the website that has recordings of oral arguments before the US Supreme court. Discovered the site after following several of Christy’s links. I like the feature of the speaker’s picture flashing up to match the voice on the audio as well as the transcript presented to the right of the photo. Prevents the need to hit rewind if you miss a word.
Thank you Ruth Bader Ginsburg! Get Well Soon! We need your sanity on the Supreme Court. Thank you Christy Hardin Smith! We need your perspective, determination and compassion.
The bad prognosis of tumors outside the head of the pancreas is not clearly a function of their location in itself, but seems mostly, if not entirely, caused by the fact that only tumors in the head of the pancreas have any prospect of presenting with symptoms before the tumor has grown and metastasized. The head of the pancreas is where the bile duct comes into the pancreas from the gall bladder, joins with the pancreatic duct to form the common bile duct, which then enters the duodenum. A tumor in the head of the pancreas will eventually squeeze the common bile duct shut, creating a back-up of bile. The back-up eventually causes jaundice as the body is unable to get rid of bilirubin, and/or pain from structures in the biliary tree swelling with the backed-up fluid, and/or weight loss from bile and pancreatic enzymes being unable to help digest food. If the patient is “lucky”, the tumor will have been sited such that it creates this blockage while still relatively small, and therefore low probability of having metastasized.
But if the tumor is sited outside the head of the pancreas, it has no chance of creating the symptoms that get the cancer discovered until it has grown quite large. It has to be big enough to press on surrounding organs, or to be felt directly through the abdominal wall. That’s usually very big. It’s this large size, and consequent metastasis, that create the low survivability, not clearly the location iself.
Justice Ginsburg’s case falls out of this typical mode of presentation. We are told that she had none of the symptoms mentioned, and that this 1cm tumor was found in the body of her pancreas by way of special screening indicated by her history of colon cancer. I haven’t seen it reported whether this screening was a CT, or tumor markers (there’s overlap between the ones for colon and pancreatic cancer), or elevated pancreatic enzyme levels; but none of these things would be done on a routine exam of the general population, people with no special risk factors for pancreatic cancer. She presented before the symptoms that usually uncover this disease, and as a result of screening that only very few people get, therefore prognoses based on analyzing people with the usual presentation are of limited value in telling us her risks.
At a minimum, she should have no worse than the Stage IA survival, which is 31% at five years. Her prognosis could be a lot better, with a 1cm tumor, rather than the 2cm cutoff for IA, but not enough people present with 1cm tumors found by screening in the body of the pancreas, to allow actuarial analysis.