Like so many people who are going through cancer treatment, reality TV bounty hunter and mother of two Beth Chapman, wife of Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter”, also must deal with the stress and drama of being part of a big family, and it hasn’t stopped just because she’s sick. So how is she handling the latest such headache, and could it affect her recovery?
Beth, 51, who’s currently battling cancer for a second time, posted a heartfelt tweet on Thursday morning, expressing the sadness she feels having not been invited to her granddaughter’s graduation, and how much the invitation would have meant to her. “I'm very disappointed today. knowing that not only did my daughter @BabyLyssaC not acknowledge me on Mother's Day yet texted some of my friends wishing them a HMD. She decides to exclude her dad and I from ABBIES graduation. On Friday I would have moved a mountain to be there.”
I'm very disappointed today. knowing that not only did my daughter @BabyLyssaC not acknowledge me on Mother's Day yet texted some of my friends wishing them a HMD
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She decides to exclude her dad and I from ABBIES graduation
On Friday ????I would have moved a mountain to be there ????Beth Chapman (@MrsdogC) May 23, 2019 As she fights late stage cancer, Beth has been continuing to work and live life to the fullest, and this family feud has certainly darkened her horizons. But she must also be uplifted by her thousands of fans expressing support.Fans indeed responded with a lot of love, as well much acknowledgement that this is likely a stress given Beth’s current cancer journey. “Forgive!! I pray for your healing Beth, every seed sown not of YOU Lord, be uprooted to allow YOUR love and healing emanate! I was healed of Vocal Cord Cancer 12/18 and you've been heavy on my heart. HE 's YOU!! Please never forget words are seeds, they can be life or death…”
Lyssa Chapman in her mugshot when she was arrested for harassment and property damage; and on the cover of her memoir.This comes after a prior heartfelt tweet, in which Beth revealed that, like a lot of cancer patients, she’s thinking about milestones, and the importance of sharing them together. “Not being invited to my granddaughters graduation when she graduating a year early is a huge milestone to miss,” she wrote in the tweet.
She also responded to people on the internet who have told her not to react too strongly writing, “I’ll decide what’s best for me to get upset about ty for your concern.”
Not being invited to my granddaughters graduation when she graduating a year early is a huge milestone to miss
I'll decide what's best for me to get upset about ty for your concern https://t.co/U1uejvfkqGBeth Chapman (@MrsdogC) May 23, 2019
Lyssa, known as Baby Lyssa, is Beth’s stepdaughter and the ninth of Duane’s 12 children (Lyssa’s mother is Duane’s third wife, Lyssa Rae Brittain). The granddaughter in question is Lyssa’s first daughter Abbie, who was born when Lyssa was only 15. The 24 year old father was arrested for statutory rape. Lyssa would later go on to marry and divorce a different man. She is now engaged to a woman with whom she operates a tanning salon in Hawaii.
Lyssa appeared on Dog’s and Beth’s reality show for several years and has written a book about her experiences. But her relationships with her father and appears to have soured, and much to Beth’s distress, Lyssa has blocked Beth on social media.
As for Beth, she’s been going through her cancer journey for a long time. She was first diagnosed with throat cancer in September of 2017, but she had surgery at the time and was declared cancer free. She was again diagnosed at the end of 2018, this time with Stage 4 lung cancer. Even though Beth has been really open about the struggles of battling cancer in the public eye, she has not been totally clear about how she is being treated.
We do know, however, that there are a few types of throat cancer, and that some kinds are totally curable.
Dr. Jessica Geiger, a medical oncologist specializing in head and neck cancer at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center, who was not commenting on Beth’s case, said that in general how these cancers are treated depends on how far they’ve spread upon diagnosis.
"Hopefully, [the cancer is] just involved in the neck and in the lymph nodes because if that's the case, then we can use our treatments to cure the cancer," she says. "But if the PET scan shows that the cancer has moved to the lungs or the liver, then our approach would not be to cure cancer but to treat it and to keep it under control."
From Beth's and Dog's public comments, it does appear that in her case, the Stage 4 cancer has spread.
"Patients who have disease that has spread outside of the head and neck region, meaning below the clavicles, into the lungs or into the liver, we call that distant metastatic disease and by definition those patients are considered incurable," Dr. Geiger continues, "So our efforts at treatment would be focused on palliative therapy, controlling the disease but, unfortunately, not curing it." Dr. Geiger was not specifically discussing Beth's case.
Often, throat cancer is caused by HPV, or human papillomavirus. It usually goes away by itself, but sometimes it leads to other diseases. "The most common type of head and neck cancer patients that we see are patients who have HPV-related throat cancer. So this is cancer that starts in the back of the throat such as in the tonsils or the base of the tongue," says Dr. Geiger. "They often don't present with symptoms until they have lymph nodes in the neck that are involved. So they come in because they have a neck mass that they felt just incidentally, with or without pain. Sometimes they have a sore throat, but sometimes all they have is a painless neck mass."
The cancer has to be especially rough on Beth as she’s experiencing a difficult time in her extended family, having been blocked by her stepdaughter on social media, not invited to her granddaughter’s graduation and, according to Beth, not acknowledged by Lyssa on one of the year’s most important holidays, Mothers Day, even though Lyssa had apparently sent Mothers Day wishes to other.
“I'm very surprised by the many friends here who were not held in the highest of honor on mother day,” Beth wrote mournfully. “People what are we teaching our kids where are the fathers to explain the importance of a mother you only get one and sometimes a bonus mom.”
I'm very surprised by the many friends here who were not held in the highest of honor on mother day . People what are we teaching our kids where are the fathers to explain the importance of a mother you only get one and sometimes a bonus mom.
Beth Chapman (@MrsdogC) May 23, 2019
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