"Dreams Come From Us" -- Roger Ebert

Goodbye, Roger Ebert!

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He was not only my favorite film critic, but indeed, one of my favorite people on the planet, EVER. I would like to honor his memory today, but I am too upset and words fail me. What can I say that has yet to be said?

Because this is a health blog and because Roger’s problems debuted with thyroid issues, I shall compile a brief history of his ordeal.

His generous openness regarding his health issues offer other thyroid sufferers a unique insight...

A story in the USA Today, “Roger Ebert Reviews His Thyroid Cancer, by Mike Falcon, with medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D., from back in april, 2002, has a few Ebert quotes that echo Ray Peat’s views on radiation being a major risk factor for health.

"I had radiation for an ear infection in the fifties, says Ebert. “At that time it was still common to treat acne, earaches, and other head and neck problems with high levels of radiation we now know are dangerous. As a result there's a little epidemic of people in my age group who are developing this type of problem."

There was Chernobyl, there are still dental x-rays, many of them unnecessary… The American Thyroid Association just issued a recommendation to the effect that special collars should be used when dental work requires x-rays: Policy Statement on Thyroid Shielding During Diagnostic Medical and Dental Radiology 

"Sometime before Christmas I felt a lump underneath my chin while showering," says Ebert. "We had a biopsy done and the diagnosis surprised me. I had a tumor near the salivary gland removed in 1987 and I thought it might be a recurrence."

So, in the beginning there was a salivary gland issue, and then thyroid cancer. Roger got hospitalized and had this new tumor removed, then he underwent the radioactive iodine treatment. He downplayed its importance, at this point, and seemed quite reassured about the future outcome of his illness. 
In a profile story published by Esquire in 2010, “Roger Ebert: The Essential Man”, Chris Jones summarizes the terrible events that followed:

“A year later, in 2003, he returned to work after his salivary glands were partially removed, too, although that and a series of aggressive radiation treatments opened the first cracks in his voice. In 2006, the cancer surfaced yet again, this time in his jaw. A section of his lower jaw was removed; Ebert listened to Leonard Cohen. Two weeks later, he was in his hospital room packing his bags, the doctors and nurses paying one last visit, listening to a few last songs. That’s when his carotid artery, invisibly damaged by the earlier radiation and the most recent jaw surgery, burst. Blood began pouring out of Ebert’s mouth and formed a great pool on the polished floor. The doctors and nurses leapt up to stop the bleeding and barely saved his life. Had he made it out of his hospital room and been on his way home—had his artery waited just a few more songs to burst—Ebert would have bled to death on Lake Shore Drive. Instead, following more surgery to stop a relentless bloodletting, he was left without much of his mandible, his chin hanging loosely like a drawn curtain, and behind his chin there was a hole the size of a plum. He also underwent a tracheostomy, because there was still a risk that he could drown in his own blood. When Ebert woke up and looked in the mirror in his hospital room, he could see through his open mouth and the hole clear to the bandages that had been wrapped around his neck to protect his exposed windpipe and his new breathing tube. He could no longer eat or drink, and he had lost his voice entirely. That was more than three years ago.”

It is hard to not remark the dooming role radiation played, yet again. Just reading this makes me look for comfort — and where else can I find it, but in Ebert’s own words, from the same "Esquire" article:

“These things come to us, they don’t come from us, he writes about his cancer, about sickness, on another Post-it note.

Dreams come from us.”