Current mood:

happy

Sheesh. Send the girl a picture, for Chrissakes...
Interesting drama here

Pocketsimon sent a letter to Katy, Duran Duran's public relations person, about a friend of hers has MS and is very, very ill. She couldn't make it to the show because of her Chemo, so she asked if the band could maybe autograph a picture or send her a note. It would really make the sick woman feel better, lift her spirits, whatever.

The response: "I wish I could, but the band sell autographed pictures on the site and it wouldn't be fair to the people who have purchased them."

The second thing I'd like to say is I think they are seriously underestimating their fans if they think someone who purchased an autograph online is going to be put out if Duran sends a dying girl a get well message. I wonder how much one has to pay for a get well message these days... I know I spent over 1k just flying out to see them in Vegas. I am aware they aren't going to miss me buying their CDs or attending their concerts, but my heart is going to miss believing in them...

Say whatever terrible things about me that you must, for speaking my feelings. Nothing can hurt me more then having my best friend die.

The last good thing about Duran Duran is their fans. Not for the money the spend, but for the good people they are. Somebody missed that somewhere during their astounding comeback.

So the faithful come up and tell her that it's because the band don't want to be taken to the cleaners by scammers who will take that personally autographed picture and run to EBAY with it.

I'd prove she's ill. Send them a picture of her as she is right now, maybe with a time/date stamp. Enclose the details with the picture. Put her phone number in, as well as an email address. You can't eBay a spoken word unexpected on the phone, or prove the validity of an email.

Fuck that. Like she's not going through enough already?

And DD will be there for you...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have relied on them to get you through difficult times...they can help you get through this. If your friend is losing her eyeesight to the disease, she will surely take the memories you make together in her heart.

Enjoy the time you have together. Don't give up on DD, it sounds like they have always been there for you. They will continue as a support if you let them.

You mean by telling sick people that they can't do anything for them because they aren't paying for the picture?

Since WHEN does Multiple Sclerosis require chemotherapy? Someone needs to do their fact checking before posting something like this..if I was Katy and saw such an obvious error I'd immediately think "FRAUD".

MS is NOT cancer and does NOT require chemotherapy to treat it. There IS no cure. It is a disease of the nervous system.

Surprised noone else picked up on this so far.

Well, it turns out that MS does require that kind of therapy, but it isn't called "chemo". Watch Artchick still avoid admitting she was 100% wrong.

We must realize that DD gets THOUSANDS, maybe millions of requests a day. And it's just not humanly possible for them to go through everything they get. Even if they didn't have touring and songwriting, even if all they did was respond to requests, there would be no way to physically handle it.

Duran Duran? Thousands, maybe millions of requests a day? Riiiiight. And if you close your eyes and click your heels together three times in those cute ruby jazz shoes you've got there, it'll be 1984 again and the boys will be young and good looking, too.

Me? I'm on board with Spitting Kitty, myself. Send the girl a picture. It's not going to hurt anyone, sign it personally so she can't auction it, and act human. It won't kill them or the profit margin.

(Post a new comment)

	Completely offtopic chaoskind 2003-12-04 03:43 am UTC (link)
	....but I love your icon :) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: Completely offtopic crevette 2003-12-04 04:20 am UTC (link)
	Thank you! My buddies made me a birthday cake of it too, complete with pink swirled candle in the Elf's crotch. I love my friends.... LOL. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Completely offtopic chaoskind 2003-12-06 04:49 pm UTC (link)
	You are just one lucky bastard, having such friends :D (Reply to this)(Parent)

	feenix 2003-12-04 04:29 am UTC (link)
	I think it's really shitty that they didn't send her a picture as well. And while she is a tad hysterical over it, I don't blame her at all for it. I'd suggest writing a personal letter, but that could be stalkerish. (Reply to this)

	wonderlander on LJ (Anonymous) 2003-12-04 05:55 am UTC (link)
	Sadly, I'm thinking fraud. The only real treatment for MS is daily Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) injections. She could be having horrible MS flare ups and be in the hospital, but in no way would any treatment for MS resemble chemotherapy. I could be wrong about it being a fraud, but with the internet and crazy fans, it's hard to tell. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: wonderlander on LJ crickets 2003-12-04 09:48 am UTC (link)
	Um, injections are chemotherapy? Not all chemo is radiation? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: wonderlander on LJ
(Anonymous)
2003-12-04 02:01 pm UTC (link)

To say that not all chemo is radiation would seem to me to be an understatement, since radiation-therapy and chemo-therapy are two different things - one employs irradiation of the patient, while the other employs drugs. As far as I can see, historically and formally the term chemotherapy does relate to any treatment of a condition with drug medication, as opposed to for instance surgery or irradiation - and as such, referring to the treatment for MS as chemotherapy would be formally correct. Nonetheless, doing so runs the risk of confusing people, as in modern parlance the term seems mainly used in reference to drug treatment of cancer, and to many people the term is known only in that context. In cancer-treatment, the drugs tend to be poisons, the intent being to kill cancer-cells - the Norwegian term for cancer-related chemotherapy is in fact cellpoison-treatment. Of course, the process kills rather a lot of other cells in the process, which is contributory to cancer-treatment being such an ordeal for those who need it - but when it is a choice between that or dying from cancer, there really isn't much of a choice.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: wonderlander on LJ

sagralisse
2003-12-04 07:01 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, chemotherapy uses chemicals to kill cells. The idea being that you kill more of the cancer cells than the healthy ones. Normally, it's a periodic treatment rather than a daily regime.

My Dad had multiple myloma, and for years he had chemo every six weeks or so. His was in the form of a pill that he took every day for 3 days or so, along with a steroid that helped keep the chemo from making him feel sick. That worked well enough that he actually felt more energetic on chemo than off. After his cancer became resistant to that treatment, they started a more aggressive regime which meant that he had to go into the hospital for his chemo. I think that one had to be given IV. But it was still periodic.

I don't know of anyone who calls a regular drug therapy "chemo".

(Reply to this)(Parent)

OT OT OT OT
(Anonymous)
2003-12-04 04:21 pm UTC (link)

My cousin has lupus, and she is on a treatment plan that involves, among other things, chemotherapy of a sort - she doesn't have cancer, but she does go in once or twice a month for treatments that are given to her on the oncology ward, and she sits next to the cancer patients while she gets it. Since MS and Lupus are both auto-immune disorders, it might be a similar, or maybe even the same, thing - it might not be exactly chemotherapy, ie the same stuff you get for breast cancer treatment, but it seems to have the same side effects (loss of hair, vomiting, horrific nausea, etc). So it is in the realm of possibility that she's getting chemo.

Just my two cents.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: OT OT OT OT smo 2003-12-04 04:24 pm UTC (link)
	My dad's cousin died of lupus. It's a horrid disease, and your cousin has my sympathies. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: OT OT OT OT (Anonymous) 2003-12-04 09:10 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks so much - it is awful, and we're grateful she's doing drastically better on this new treatment plan. For a while before they came out with the chemo-like stuff, we didn't think she was going to make it. And my sympathies to you and your family. (Reply to this)(Parent)

Dayum, you nailed it.

sagralisse
2003-12-04 07:04 pm UTC (link)

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/%5CSourcebook-Chemotherapy.asp

The rationale for the use of chemotherapy to treat MS stems from the fact that MS is considered to be an autoimmune disease. An abnormal, heightened immune action of certain white blood cells mounts an attack on the myelin of the central nervous system. Destruction of myelin¾the fatty sheath that surrounds and insulates nerves¾causes nerve impulses to be slowed or halted and produces the symptoms of MS. Since administering chemotherapeutic agents diminishes the numbers of white blood cells, it should theoretically slow down or halt this autoimmune destruction.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	fragilebroken 2003-12-05 06:40 pm UTC (link)
	Regardless of everything, Duran Duran are a bunch of schmucks and yes they are out for the money. No different from any other group. shrugs Where is the surprise in that? ex-Duranie from 1981, reformed as of 2001 (Reply to this)