Nathan Lawrenson's Twitter

[lilwriter85]

I do have sympathy towards in regards to Tricia. But there are questionable things about him. It is annoying how he has trashed Duke Medical Center. Yes, hospitals aren't perfect but Duke seems to be doing their best for Tricia.

[flyawaystray]

Oh, chaotic life has been absolutely awesome in this thread, I think we can all agree on that. I don't know if I feel sorry for Nate, and I am usually very empathetic most of the time, but Nate's twitter account is very telling. That, and he kind of put himself in the position that he's in right now by saying all these nasty things. His wife is at the end of her life and he's posting anti-Obama stuff, homophobic tweets and rants, and so on.

I can't say for sure what I would do in his position. I think I would be a bit bitter and sad if my spouse were dying, but I wouldn't be spending a lot of time on twitter. I would spend my time helping my spouse out and comforting them as much as possible. He's very selfish and arrogant and I wouldn't be surprised if he was neglecting Trish a little. Not in the sense that he's completely ignoring her, but he never tweets stuff like: "I have the most awesome wife ever and I love her with all my heart and am grateful to have her in my life", it's always hateful commentary.

[flyawaystray]

Nate retweeted this:

@RickWarren

Planned Parenthood is the McDonalds of abortion. It's the #1 baby killing franchise.

Except PP does a lot more than just abortions. They do breast cancer screenings, low cost birth control, and so on. I believe I read somewhere that the biggest reason women go IS for birth control. While I personally couldn't handle an abortion emotionally, I do understand the reasons why women have it done aside for medical reasons. Not everyone is fit to be a parent, and there are too many unwanted children already.

[lilwriter85]

I can understand him being stressed and bitter at times. Sometimes he pisses on other people which isn't fair to those people. I hope the Canadian guy who is visiting Oklahoma got pissed with Nate's hateful tweets about Oklahoma. His response tweet to Nate sort of hinted at that.

I said it before, Nate's hatred of certain people will eventually destroy him. I hope he realizes that his hatred of Obama, gay people, and others isn't making his life better. While he is hating on gays, transgenders, Obama, and people attending the ebil state colleges, they are other people in this world that do discriminate against people with severe illness like Tricia and disabled people like Gwyneth.

[GeoBQn]

Nate is probably one of those people who thought it was real when the Onion printed the article, "Planned Parenthood to Build $8 Billion Abortion-plex."

[mockingbird]

I am sure a lot of his posts are him taking out his anger, grief, etc. on other people. It's pretty obvious that he's hurting, IMO, and I think it's common to want to find something/someone to blame when your loved one is dying so that you have a target for your anger and don't have to deal with the fact that sometimes people die young and there is nothing you can do about it. (And if anyone is at fault here it's Nate and Tricia for choosing to get pregnant and keep the pregnancy.) The problem is that taking out your emotions on other people does not do anything to help you in the long run. It also makes it hard for me to feel empathetic to him even though I am sure he is hurting deeply.

I follow another blog (non-fundy) by a woman whose son died from cancer - Rockstar Ronan. Her son was in the middle of treatment when a scan showed that not only was the treatment not working anymore, but the cancer had spread throughout his body. She HATES the doctor who had to tell her about this. I could understand at the time of her post that she probably just did not want to hear that her son was dying and there was nothing more they could do to treat his cancer. She actually revisited the topic and acknowledged this, but still wants to go "confront" the doctor about the way he acted. For the life of me I cannot figure out what the doctor did wrong. I was not there, so maybe she got a "vibe" from him that's not coming across in her posts. Anyway, after these scans she said he came into the appointment CRYING. I don't understand how more empathetic or sensitive you can get. Obviously he understood how she would feel and he was attached to his patient. Previous to that round of scans, she had been praising him for how caring he was. She was mad because he avoided her in the hall earlier that day when they ran into each other - I assume because he didn't want to have the "your son is dying" conversation in the hallway but didn't want to (thinking that might mislead her) or couldn't act happy around her either. I'm sure he could have played it off better by waving and saying he had an urgent meeting or something like that. She also emailed him something after they went home and his secretary replied, which was unusual for him. Maybe in that incident his grief for his patient got in the way of being able to bring closure to their patient/doctor/parent relationship at the end. But still, I don't see how either of these incidents make him insensitive, incompetent or any of the other words she uses to describe him. To me he seems human and a little awkward, maybe. I have had doctors make *much* bigger, potentially dangerous mistakes with me than what to me were just some small social blunders... I've tried and I just can't understand why she still hates this doctor. Anyway, Nate's Duke stuff reminded me of her reaction. I think in both situations this mom and Nate are/were probably blindsided by grief and I can understand why they would act the way they do. But on the other hand, that does not give you an excuse to treat people poorly. (ETA: I include badmouthing institutions or doctors on the internet as treating them poorly. I'm not talking about legitimate complaints or making people aware of discrimination, etc., but continuing to say, post tweets about how much Duke sucks because they can't save your wife. It's not their fault.)

[HeckBound]

I feel sad for Tricia and her daughter. Nate, otoh, is a hateful douchebag of epic proportion, who seems to spend his free time investigating new and different groups of non straight, white, Christian, republicans to unload his bile on. I wish she'd had a chance to get better and free herself of him. I do wonder how G will turn out.

I can't talk about how he gets to not work and still collect a paycheck because the congregation "understands" his situation. If he were a single black mother not working to care for a dying child,they'd all be wetting themselves over da ebil "gobmint" and welfare and TANF. Ole Nate's another "welfare queen".

[sugarloaf]

Maybe this guy is just so angry and bitter he has to let it out on Twitter or he'll take it out on his family?

Not that I think that's excusable- if that's the case he needs therapy- but potentially understandable. I'd certainly rather take out my rage on the internet than taking it out on a dying woman and two innocent children.

[flyawaystray]

I understand that Nate is hurting. Maybe it's a little difficult for me to understand why he'd rather take out his anger on other people instead of seeing a counselor, since I don't let anyone see me when I am angry or sad. I hide it really well.

He is still rude, though. He spews anti-Obama stuff, is complaining about homeowners insurance rates rising (hello, you live on the beach, genius), and retweeted something that said said Planned Parenthood is the McDonald's of abortion. PP does a lot more than just abortions. Also, PP can't used federal money to fund abortions. If you want one, you have to pay for it yourself. I'm not sure if that applies for medically necessary ones, but I figure if your baby is killing your (or dying/dead in the womb), you'd be at a hospital getting one day.

Only 3 percent of abortions were done in 2009. The other 97 percent of services was for contraception reasons, STD screenings/treatment, breast cancer screenings, etc.

[treemom]

I understand that Nate is hurting. Maybe it's a little difficult for me to understand why he'd rather take out his anger on other people instead of seeing a counselor, since I don't let anyone see me when I am angry or sad. I hide it really well.

He is still rude, though. He spews anti-Obama stuff, is complaining about homeowners insurance rates rising (hello, you live on the beach, genius), and retweeted something that said said Planned Parenthood is the McDonald's of abortion. PP does a lot more than just abortions. Also, PP can't used federal money to fund abortions. If you want one, you have to pay for it yourself. I'm not sure if that applies for medically necessary ones, but I figure if your baby is killing your (or dying/dead in the womb), you'd be at a hospital getting one day.

Only 3 percent of abortions were done in 2009. The other 97 percent of services was for contraception reasons, STD screenings/treatment, breast cancer screenings, etc.

I don't want to hijack the abortion thing...but

1. If the fetus is dead it isn't an abortion.

2. If the fetus is dying...well it really depends on the reason.....but usually if it is early enough for an abortion at PP then Doctors will suggest waiting until a m/c

and 3. If it for the health of the woman an early abortion like PP does probably indicates a future health worry or something that is caused soley by pregnancy (severe HG for instance) that wouldn't cause a complication in abortion.

[flyawaystray]

Ah, thanks! I wasn't sure what was considered an abortion or not. I think it's ridiculous of people to assume PP only exists to kill babies (or whatever Nate's logic is). Clearly, he doesn't bother to look up anything and just says stuff for no rhyme or reason.

[lilwriter85]

Interesting tweet from Nate.

NathanLawrenson ‏@NathanLawrenson

To pray for wisdom about something God has already commanded you to do is to disobey. Just do it.

[desertvixen]

Hopefully this means he is going to do what's best for his wife and take her home?

[lilwriter85]

Hopefully this means he is going to do what's best for his wife and take her home?

I hope so too. I think they are back in the Outer Banks. I hope he is learning to slowly let go of Tricia and let her have peace. For the past several days, I have noticed that Nate is a bit quiet on twitter, he hasn't been whining much and most of his tweets are sports related.

[treemom]

My feelings about Nate being an asshat aside. I hope for the easiest and most peaceful time for Tricia where Nate, Tricia and the kids get to spend as much possible time together.

I have to say Chaotic Life really changed how I thought about CF. I thought things were *so much better* now for those with it. And i guess it is, but there is still so much to do. I would like to do a drive for donations. Those in the CF community, what organization would you recommend?

[flyawaystray]

CFF.org, if you're in the US.

[lilwriter85]

I agree with flyawaystray CFF.org is a good one. I remember hearing about a camp somewhere in the U.S. for kids with CF.

[flyawaystray]

I'm surprised a CF camps. Isn't there a huge risk of infections spreading among CF'ers? On the other hand, every sick child deserves to feel as normal as possible.

I took Nate's tweet differently. I thought it was his usual preaching self. I could be wrong, though.

[chaotic life]

Last I heard, there was only one CF camp left in the US. CFers are warned to keep 4 feet distance from any other CFer in real life, so they had to close all of the CF camps.

That said, if you want to support CF, it depends on HOW you want to support it. CFF funnels funding to research for treatments and a cure. It does NOT provide for day to day support for any CFers. There are organizations that do that, but they generally don't funnel funds into research since CFF does it so effectively.

In the US, median lifespan for CFers is STILL 18. The stastitics put out by the CFF on life expectancy is deliberately manipulated and is therefore desceptive. Eurpoe and Canada actually have a higher life expectancy, but even then we're talking about mid-30s. It's not a disesae where you can possibly die of old age.

[flyawaystray]

With Kalydeco and hopefully the other Vertex medication that will target the double delta gene, lifespans may go up, We'll see, I guess. Of course, the body will still have digestive issues and such, but it seems that the people on Kalydeco get less lung infections, less hospitalizations, and generally have better PFT's long term.

I became an organ donor after watching 65_Redroses and hope my lungs go to a CF'er when I die.

[chaotic life]

England and Canada have NOT increased lifespan with the high tech medications and treatments. They have double the life expectancy of the US because they go old school and focus on WEIGHT deliberately. In the US, insurance will pay for Kalydeco and Cayston, a pnuematic vest and pulmyzme. However, unless you have a feeding tube, insurance WILL NOT pay for formula to boost weight. Canada and England pay for nutritional supplements for all CFers and experience significantly higher life expectancy for far less funds.

[flyawaystray]

Even if you have insurance? I was under the assumption that if a doctor gives you a prescription for Ensure, Scandishakes, etc, that insurance will pay for it.

CF is an awful disease and I wouldn't wish it on my own worst enemy. It must feel horrible to do all these treatments and take medications, but still have low lung functions. And it sucks that transplants don't have a great survival right. Granted, when you're at the end of your life, transplant probably seems like a great idea, but I wish more people were living 10. 20 years out post transplant.

[chaotic life]

Nope. Insurance never covered the vitamins and probiotics that were vital for Micah to live. It only covered his formula because he had a feeding tube. Until the last 18 months of his life, we could typically get him to drink his calories and skip his g-tube but t was only ever covered because he had the g-tube so his prescription actually said to use the g-tube and the doctors verbally told us to try to get him to drink it first.

Far FAR too many friends I know struggle to afford the food and formula required for CFers. Micah was completely typical that it usually took about 3000 calories a day to keep Micah growing and thriving.

[flyawaystray]

That's awful. Insurance companies are willing to take, and not so willing to give.

[already hungover]

That's awful. Insurance companies are willing to take, and not so willing to give.

Yup. And meanwhile, there are people who really want us to think that socialized medicine is Of Satan. Because of course, Jesus would want us to make sure that a child with a terminal illness was unable to get the nutrition needed to thrive and grow unless his family could pay out-of-pocket. Loaves and fishes? Not if it means teh ebil socialism!!!!!!11