One of the reasons the suit left him was because he was sick in the first place... if I recall correctly.
Something about needing some fluid in his brain the he was lacking now because of the cancer.
Of course I could be getting storylines mixed up since I don't have the issues in front of me!

That one sentence there almost sums up the entire problem with the Symbiotes. It's like Marvel never learned anything from the 90's and the Clone Saga.

Actually, just to get Carnage's convoluted story right, the original Carnage symbiote (along with Cletus) was encased in an impervious shell of Cosmic Energy by the Silver Surfer so he could meditate on the nature of his evil for all eternity (the Surfer's own words).

Then, some time later, Kassidy reappeared in Ravencroft, with the symbiote, without ANY explanations offered whatsoever. Then Venom showed up and ate the symbiote (why he never did that before is anyone's guess...). Cletus then found his "replacement" symbiote in the negative zone (how did it get there, and why does everyone act like it's the original one?) and finally they were ripped apart by Sentry in Breakout...

And how does any of this go into the brief new Venom series they had awhile back where you felt like the writer just really liked "Who Goes There?" (aka: "The Thing") and decided to write it with the Symbiote?

That was the Daniel Way series wasn't it? I have yet to find something written by him that I have enjoyed.

Ah, but you see, in "Breakout", it turns out the Carnage that was there was other-dimensional and was actually the Ultimate Carnage, as it acted like the ultimate one, and not at all like Cletus'. They just left the explaination up to the readers to figure out.

No.
they retconed and made it that Eddie was sick to begin with. Cancer of the Adrenal (sp?) gland. The symbiote thrived off the rush. The reason (now given) for Eddie being at the church when the symbiote found him is that Eddie was there to pray one last time before he commited suicide. But then the suit found him. they bonded. And the suit kept him alive all that time, tho he was still dying, it was slowed down a bit and Eddie thought he was cured.
As for the brain fluid, all those time Venom said "I'm gonna eat your brain", well, he finally did eat someone's brain. Eddie didn't mean to, but the symbiote did. It had a craving for a special fluid found in one of two places, the brain and chocolate.

Because you're canadian?

I don't get the joke???

I think the Flash Thompson idea is the greatest. Good call on that one, wish you were an editor at Marvel

Well, JTR here's something I know that'll appeal to you (so, yes, run with the joke because I know it's like putting sweatpants in front of Quesada): the center of the brain that would stimulated by chocolate is also stimulated by sex... Hmm...maybe Gwen had a Symbiote bonded to her and that's how they'll retcon the Norm-and-Gwen storyline.