It's been over a week since the footage of Judge Alexis G. Krot scolding a 72-year-old lymphoma patient for his failure to maintain his front lawn hit the internet. But the story is still generating considerable outrage.
So much outrage, in fact, that Krot took the unorthodox step of issuing an apology for her behavior.
Read More"I usually take care of the stuff in the backyard and everything, but that time I was out of the country," Shibbir said. "There was really mistakes I should have taken care of. But, yeah, still, like she should have said my father more politely."
Lymphoma is a rare type of blood cancer, and the symptoms can be very non-specific. Heres what to look out for.
Though she said that she could not comment on the case last week, Judge Krot has since released a statement of apology:
“I made a mistake. I acted intemperately. I'm very embarrassed that I did so. I apologize to the person who appeared before me and to our entire community for having failed to meet the high standards we expect of our judicial officers and that I expect of myself. When someone appears before me and has made a mistake, I expect them to own up to it. I expect nothing less of myself. No ifs, ands, or buts: that is the reason I self-reported my behavior to the Judicial Tenure Commission. I had no legal duty to report myself to the Commission, but I did so because, like apologizing to the community, it was the right thing to do. I will continue to hold myself to the standards I set for others.”
Since the hearing, the recording of the zoom call has exploded on social media. A petition demanding the removal of Judge Krot has amassed over 235,000 signatures. More names are added to the list every few seconds.
Learning About Lymphoma
There is no reliable screening test available for lymphoma, making it important for individuals to understand the symptoms and risk factors for the disease.
In a previous interview, Dr. Elise Chong, medical oncologist at Penn Medicine explained why there is no established screening method for lymphoma. "Screening is a test we do with the goal of detecting lymphoma in a very early state,” she said. "For something to be a good screening test, we need to see that the screening helps people live longer, and helps people have better outcomes."
Lymphoma symptoms may be hard to spot, leading many people to be diagnosed when their cancer is already at a late stage.
Research has not found evidence that detecting lymphoma early helps patients live longer, so even if lymphoma is identified early on, we don’t know if that improves patients’ survival. "That's the second part of screening that we need to see," Dr. Chong explained. "Because we don't meet those two criteria, we don't have a good screening test for lymphoma yet, although people are certainly working on this."
How Cancer Treatment Can Cause Fatigue
Speaking with SurvivorNet in a previous interview, Dr. Manojkumar Bupathi said, "Fatigue is always a little bit challenging to talk about with patients, and part of that is because it's so subjective.” Dr. Bupathi is a medical oncologist at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers. Part of the challenge of addressing a lack of energy as a side effect is that there is no objective way of measuring fatigue. “We don't have a scale or anything like that,” Dr. Bupathi said.
Cancer treatment aims to kill cancer cells, but chemotherapy can damage your healthy cells as well. Fatigue may occur as your body tries to repair the damage that healthy cells and tissues endure during treatment. Unfortunately the tiredness can sometimes accumulate, making it harder and harder to recover your energy over the course of treatment.
When patients ask Dr. Bupathi about the fatigue they might expect to experience from treatment, he tends to turn to a comparison: "I use the analogy of running a marathon," Dr. Bupathi says. "And the reason for that is, people understand what it takes to run a marathon."
Sleep and Exercise Can Help
You don’t have to push yourself if you don't feel up to it, but most doctors tell SurvivorNet that patients should try to stay as active as possible and aim for 7-9 hours of restful sleep every night. Even just keeping moving by going for a walk every day can make a difference. Exercise doesn't just help manage fatigue, it will keep you in better shape as you push through treatment, and it will help you get back to normal when you're done. Doctors have told us that once chemo is over, most patients will rebound to their old energy levels.
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