RUSH: Twenty-fifth annual Cure-A-Thon Leukemia & Lymphoma Society exclusively on the EIB Network, 25 years you’ve raised over $40 million. Note that I said “you” have, not me. All I’ve done is sit here and give you the phone number and the address. You’ve done it. And you’ve done it every year. I can’t tell you, just me personally, how blown away I am.
I said to Snerdley today, Snerdley will back me up, he walked in here about a quarter ’til 12, and I said, “I don’t know how much longer, we’ve gotta be tapped out, Bo. I mean, 25 years, how much do people have left?”
He said, “No way, you wait. No way.” He said, “What are you afraid of?”
I said, “I’m not afraid of anything. I’m just — 25 years is a long time.”
That’s true. But still, 25 years and over $40 million. And it’s all you. As I say, folks, we don’t do this for any reason other than the cause. You never hear about what happens on this program regarding this, do you? You don’t see anywhere reporting on what happens on this day, on this program, do you? Oh, yeah, you’ll hear about all the other supposed controversial things that say I shouldn’t even be on the radio. You’ll hear all about that, but you will not hear about what happens on this day. I’m not complaining about it. I’m making a point.
We don’t buzz about it. We’re not doing it for that. We’re not doing it for recognition. We’re not doing it for praise. We’re not doing it for attaboys. We’re doing it for the cause, that’s all. This program is real. Everything here is devoted to substance. There’s no symbolism over substance on this program about anything. It’s real. The cause is the thing.
I’ll get very personal with you. Kathryn and I have been living — sorry for this expression, but it’s the best way I can explain it to you — since last October we have been living under a cloud of death and sickness. Her best friend just died five weeks ago, one of her best friends just died with this kind of disease. Kit Carson late January. There doesn’t seem to have been a break from it. It’s devastating, and you just wish with every bit of your heart these people wouldn’t go through it.
In the case of Kathryn’s friend they told her that — well, I don’t want to get too personal — but six months, so they started making some plans to do some bucket list things. She didn’t get five weeks. I’m telling you, it is devastating and anything that anybody could do to see to it that it becomes less suffering, less profound on the way to a cure, that’s what this is all about here. That’s why we’ve been doing it for 25 years. 877-379-8888 or RushLimbaugh.com.
On the phones we’ll start with Jim in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Great to have you, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, pleased to talk with you. This was meant to be. I was riding down the road listening to you on the radio, talked with my brother Ed, and I said, “I got to call Rush and tell him thank you. I’m a three-year survivor of acute myeloid leukemia. I spent 50 days in the hospital over a four month period, and had seven blood transfusions and just felt dreadful for a year, year and a half, before that ’til they figured out was wrong with me.
RUSH: See, three years ago this would have all been just something I would have had to imagine, but now I’ve seen it. I’ve been in the hospital room. I’ve been where this is happening. I know what you’ve gone through now.
CALLER: Yeah.
CALLER: Well, I’m in full remission. My doctor says, “You’re cured,” even though, you know, he said you’re not really cured, but you’re cured. He said the chances of it coming back are so minimal —
RUSH: Yeah, but you always live with the possibility that it could recur, but it’s still gotta be great to have the doctor tell you what he told you.
CALLER: My blood tests were every three months. They’ve pushed it out to every four months now. So all is good. My blood tests come back, I feel great.
RUSH: What was the treatment for you that everybody thinks worked?
CALLER: It was induction chemotherapy, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For the first week it just decimates your immune system, and then you have to worry about getting infections and things like that. So I spent a full month in the hospital the first round. And again, you have to watch out for infections and so forth, so they can’t let you out. You’re in isolation pretty much.
RUSH: I know. See, I know all of this now. I’ve been through all this with other people. Jim, thanks for the call, and congratulations. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Here’s Connie in Beverly Hills, Florida. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Oh, my gosh, Rush, it’s such a pleasure to talk to you. Oh, I’m almost speechless. Almost. I’ve been listening since 1989. You’re my hero.
RUSH: Well, you’re almost a lifer. Wow. Thank you very much.
CALLER: Yeah. All right. I’m a nurse of 35-plus years, and I’ve been an oncology nurse for most of those years, and I have observed over the years something that I felt would maybe be helpful for your audience, ’cause dealing with family members is a big part of this terrible disease. It isn’t just the patient going through it; it’s the family as well, and friends, like you were with your friends. And they find it so difficult to see the patient. Not all, but many find it difficult to go in and see the patient or they’re afraid they’re going to tear up and cry and then make the patient cry. Or they’re not gonna be able to speak and say anything that makes any difference, and I have tried to help so many people figure out, “No, this is what you need to do. Don’t worry about it if you tear up. It’s okay. If ever you had a good reason to tear up, it’s okay.”
RUSH: This is true, folks. People don’t know what to talk about.
CALLER: They don’t.
RUSH: You walk into the room, it could be your friend, best friend, an acquaintance, a friend of a friend, family member, and you don’t know what to say. You’re afraid of being negative so you don’t want to go on that route. I have developed, to deal with this, I’ve found my own ways of communicating with people now that seems to work for me and them and I’ll share that with you when I have more time here. But it’s an excellent point, Connie. Your point about it being harder on the family sometimes than the patient, that sounds kind of hard to say, but it can be true. I saw that, too.
CALLER: Oh, absolutely.
RUSH: Harder on the families, particularly when the patient reaches a certain stage.
CALLER: That’s right. And they do go through all of those five stages of death and dying, and many of them don’t have enough time to get to the last stage of acceptance. But a lot of them do. The family members and loved ones, it’s harder for them, because they just feel so frustrated and so helpless. It is a hard thing, but having done this, and I’ve given the chemotherapy, and I’ve held emotional support groups, and I’ve talked with more patients and family members and loved ones that you can shake a stick at, and I have seen this so much, and I guess I kind of wanted to say, you know what, just take a deep breath, take a big swallow —
RUSH: And be real.
CALLER: — and go in and say, “I just love you so much.”
RUSH: I hate to have to stop you, but I’ve got no time. It’s real, and this is what the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society also offers, assistance for people in dealing with it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It’s the 25th annual Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Cure-A-Thon to cure the blood cancers here on the EIB Network and RushLimbaugh.com. It’s easy to donate there. By the way, we are, as I mentioned, we’re up in every meaningful way. We’re up in number of donors. We are up in total donations. Last year was a record year, and we’re a little bit down in per capita, but that’s cool. That’s fine. That’s actually ideal. The more people donating, the better.
It doesn’t require a lot. If everybody in this audience gave a dollar, a buck, we would set a donation record. Now, that’s obviously not gonna happen, but it illustrates the point. And, you know, have you heard people say they want to make a difference, do something to make a difference? This does. This actually does.
You know the odds that you’re gonna run into somebody someday in your life with blood cancers. If you donate to this cause and try to cure the blood cancers, at some point the odds are good that you’re gonna know somebody, somehow who gets it. Maybe directly or indirectly at a distance, you’re gonna know somebody affected by this disease. When that happens to you, it brings it all home.
The blood cancers are a little different because there’s nothing you can do to avoid them. They do not discriminate. There isn’t one group of people more susceptible to them than others like there are in certain diseases. There’s nothing you can do in a preventative way. “Don’t eat that or don’t drink that or keep your weight in control.” None of that matters. If your number’s up, your number’s up. And dealing with it, if you donate, if you help, you will make a difference.
You already have.
You are making a difference.
One of the ways is the Patient Services program. Patient Services program. Now, this is not research. This is nothing that leads to a cure. But the society is all-inclusive. The Patient Services program is designed to help patients on their journey, and it offers a variety of programs, including every bit of information about the disease. Patients want two things.
They want the doctor to be entirely honest with them. They want the nurses, everybody in the medical side, to give total honesty. They want honesty from family members. And they want hope. I know this now, because I’ve been with people who have the disease. Now I know this firsthand personal experience. As far as Kit was concerned, he loved talking about it. He was not… He didn’t have the attitude, “I’m not gonna talk about it; I don’t want to be negative.”
He didn’t mind. If you had questions, he’d be glad to answer them. No matter how deep. No matter how shallow. Whatever the questions, if you wanted to know how he was dealing with it — what kind of thoughts he was having, what was he going through — he’d tell you. Patients want honesty from everybody they’re dealing with, and they also want hope.
They want to believe that there’s hope, that medical research is at that point where it can help them. They want honesty combined with hope. And it is this ongoing research, and the patient services program, that helps patients, helps families provide this hope. It is a key element. Nobody has made a direct correlation or direct link to a positive mental attitude and getting better, but it can’t hurt. A positive mental attitude cannot hurt.
Whereas a defeatist attitude can hurt. A defeatist attitude can lead to the patient not being vigilant, and it can really sadden the family. So Patient Services tries to keep everything realistically positive. And even when the medical news is not what people want to hear, the hope is where that slack is picked up, because everybody involved is hoping, maybe for a miracle, maybe for something else.
Whatever it is, however they categorize it, they’re hoping for dramatic improvement. They’re hoping for the disease’s spread to stop. They’re hoping for anything that would constitute good news, because what they’re ultimately hoping for is just a little more time. Every patient in every family involved in this, the honesty coupled with that is crucial. And everybody who’s been involved in this will tell you that those things are accurate.
The more honesty, the better. The Patient Services program offers in some cases financial aid, family support groups, referral to other local community resources that offer assistance. And all of that is free, because of donations made by people like you and me. The Information Resource Center stands out among health organization call centers because of the depth of individual attention that’s offered.
Now, this started in 1987. More than one million callers have benefited from this. It’s staffed with masters-level health care pros, and their hours have been expanded now from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. This is the Information Resource Center. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society exists to fund cures and its advocacy and policy efforts committed to ensuring sustainable access to the best available treatments for all blood cancer patients. Yeah, it’s expensive.
Not everybody has the kind of insurance that is gonna cover it all. Everybody involved does their best to see to it that patients receive the best. When you make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at 877-379-8888 or at RushLimbaugh.com or on our Facebook page (and, yes, even our Twitter page for today), you are dedicating dollars toward funding blood cancer research and providing education, and as I just said, Patient Services to people in need.
Thanks to your generous support, there are more tools now to deal with these cancers.
But the fight is ongoing, and one way you can keep that fight going is by participating today by sharing what you can. The website is the easiest and quickest way that you can be involved, and we’re set up today to take donations at RushLimbaugh.com or you can call 877-379-8888. I want to remind you that you: No matter if you call or go online, your information/personal data is secure and will not end up on a mailing list.
You will not be hounded by anybody as a result of participating today.
Here’s Mike in Wilmot, Wisconsin. Thank you for calling, sir. It’s great to have you and I’m glad you waited, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you today?
RUSH: Great. Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I’ve got a story I wanted to share with you and your listeners. Last year on July 11th, my 10-month-old grandson was diagnosed with acute myeloblastic leukemia.
RUSH: Ten months? What were the symptoms? Why would anybody even look for that?
CALLER: Well, he wasn’t feeling well. We thought he had the flu. We took him to his pediatrician, and they took a blood test, and that same day they shot him up to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, and sure enough that’s what he was diagnosed with. He went through four bouts of chemotherapy, spent eight months in the hospital, and ended up having a bone marrow transplant that came from umbilical cord stem cells. He just got his hundred-day workup, and he’s disease free; 100% of his bone marrow is donor bone marrow, and ten years ago the stem cells from umbilical cords wasn’t even available. So I just want to encourage all your listeners.
RUSH: You know, I am glad you mentioned that. I neglected to mention the bone marrow transplant. That research has provided more weaponry, more ammunition for other cancers in addition to the blood cancers. The bone marrow transplants have just been phenomenal in fighting this disease, and you mentioned these are umbilical cord stem cells. They are not embryonic. It’s a significant difference.
The cord stem cells are a major, major difference as opposed to embryonic, and they are proving miraculous. But in addition to Gleevec, you are absolutely right. The bone marrow transplants are just phenomenal. In some cases, they’re miraculous, like in the case of your son. But at 10 months, what in the world did you think? What were you feel, at 10 months? I mean, you go from thinking maybe it’s the flu to some sort of early pediatric fatigue to leukemia?
CALLER: Devastating. Devastating for the family. A 10-month-old baby, it was a nightmare. But the research works, man, and I just want to encourage all your listeners to dig deep, ’cause it’s doing great things.
RUSH: Ten-month-old baby. I mean, that’s the sense of innocence. Everybody is, but a 10-month baby.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Your baby had no idea. At what age did your baby actually found out what all has happened, or has he yet?
CALLER: This is actually my grandson.
RUSH: Oh, your grandson.
CALLER: Yes. And, you know, he’s oblivious to the fact. He thinks this is normal for him, but his young parents — my son and my daughter-in-law — just lived through hell. I tell you, if it wouldn’t have been for the umbilical stem cells, our little guy might not be with us today.
RUSH: Yeah, you know, that’s its own story. It’s not embryonic. You know, that was a big cultural dispute and fighting ground, but the cord cells, that’s a different matter, and there’s magic in there, as well as the bone marrow transplants. I’m so glad you reminded me of that. Mike, I appreciate it. I gotta take a quick time-out. But before I go, again the telephone number is 877-379-8888, and of course RushLimbaugh.com right at the top of the page.