The Supreme Court has announced that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was treated for pancreatic cancer this summer, spending three weeks at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for radiation.
In a statement crafted to calm the hearts and minds of frantic progressives, the court was explicit: “The tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body.”
Still, fans of the icon, who is 86 and sometimes known as #NotoriousRBG, did not appear soothed on social media. Within minutes of the release, Twitter exploded with well-wishes, appeals to various deities, and a not insignificant number of offers to donate organs.
This is after all Justice Ginsburg’s fourth cancer diagnosis. In 1999, she was operated on to treat colon cancer. In 2009, she was treated for pancreatic cancer, still in its earliest stages. And last December, two cancerous nodules were removed from her left lung.
In its statement, the court explained that Justice Ginsburg started her out-patient treatment for a localized cancerous tumor on her pancreas on August 5. But this is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose workout routines are the stuff of legends and who, it was reported, continued to work on her caseload from her hospital bed last winter, so she does not appeared to have much slowed down. In its announcement, the court noted that “the Justice tolerated treatment well. She cancelled her annual summer visit to Santa Fe, but has otherwise maintained an active schedule.” The court also assured nervous citizens that “Justice Ginsburg will continue to have periodic blood tests and scans. No further treatment is needed at this time.”
Below, read the full statement from the Supreme Court and then the much less even-keeled reactions from RBG stans, who are prepared to go under the knife for a legend.
RBG, get well soon.
