Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is now battling bone metastasis from his pelvic cancer, according to a report by Spanish newspaper ABC. Those are painful. Sometimes even strong narcotics aren't enough.
Citing an unnamed intelligence source, ABC's Washington correspondent Emil J. Blasco says there has been a recurrence and spread of the tumor, which was detected in a test performed on a trip to Havana just after the elections on October 7.
Dios Mio!
Blasco said the metastasis is causing Chavez "severe pain in the left femur and serious walking difficulties."
Femur mets? He's likely confined to bed, perhaps to a chair.
He also says that Chavez passed out twice in August, losing consciousness briefly, and that doctors determined that his situation was deteriorating slowly but steadily.
just like his country
Chavez last appeared publicly during a televised meeting on Nov. 15, prompting some critics to publicly wonder where he went after his election win.
Ima goin ta Didneyland!
Maybe he went golfing. It's all the rage for world leaders of a certain type...
During the electoral campaign, he repeatedly dismissed rumors that he had not been cured of his cancer, and vowed to serve out his six-year term.
"pshah!"
You mean, he lied, and the media there withheld the bad news until after the election? I've never heard of such a thing before!
The treatment that Chavez is said to be undergoing in Havana involves breathing pure oxygen while in a pressurized, sealed chamber. Its value is well-established for treating burns, carbon monoxide poisoning and some other medical conditions, and to aid wound healing and help repair bone and tissue damaged by radiation treatments.
"Michael Jackson still swears by it"
However, the American Cancer Society says there is no evidence the treatment can cure cancer. And Blasco notes that if hyperbaric oxygen treatment were the case, Chavez could have stayed in Venezuela, since the country boasts of having the latest technology on this kind of equipment (his brother Adam presented a "next generation" of those chambers in 2009 as governor of Barinas state).
put him in and weld it shut