Elizabeth Edwards.

Elizabeth Edwards passed away today, at the age of 61. I was lucky enough to hear her speak at the 2006 Lance Armstrong Foundation Summit on Survivorship, and she was amazing. She handled adversity with class and grace, and remained composed in the toughest of situations. While I am sad that she died, I find myself growing irritated with comments I'm reading on Facebook, about how it "shouldn't have ended this way". We can all agree that cancer takes too many lives too soon. But let me frame it another way: her doctors broke the news last week to her that further chemotherapy treatments would be unproductive. She spent the last several days pain-free, in her own home, surrounded by the people she loves, friends and family. Wouldn't we ALL like to die that way? Instead, too many people opt for painful treatments when they are not likely to work - a recent article said that patients spend the most money, treatment-wise, in the last 3 months of their lives, on invasive treatments that add little to no benefit. Elizabeth Edwards's doctors were compassionate and courageous enough to tell her that their options had run out and prevent her from going through unnecessary physical and emotional demands. They did not let ego or the relentless "fighting against disease" sway them and tell her to keep going with chemo.

Anyway...it's been a long day and my brain is exhausted, but I just needed to vent. Here's an excerpt from a message she posted on Facebook yesterday:

"The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human...."