My Facebook and Twitter feed is filled with exclamations. No one can believe it's here. Neither can I.
Welcome to October.
Is it just be or is the annual deluge of pink crap just slightly toned down this year? Maybe I've just had my head under a rock. I was literally offline for a week and it's been longer than that since I've been in a store. I don't listen to commercial radio or watch television that isn't Netflix, so I've been pretty sheltered, so far. I'm thankful.
I'm still astounded at some of the awful pink stuff out there and I'll be featuring some of the best throughout the month, along with genuinely topical and even helpful information about breast cancer and the organizations and people who are out there doing good work.
In short, you can come here this month, if you're in need of some pink de-toxing. This is a pinxploitation free zone.
For today, here is a letter I wrote a couple of years ago, to Q on CBC Radio, that was the Letter of the Day.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Thursday, October 1, 2015
An Amazing Video
The purpose of this video is Hannah wants to explain what its like to have cancer to her friends. She has been very brave and will make you cry.
She also wants to be famous so help share her story.
And she has a really cute outfit.
She also wants to be famous so help share her story.
And she has a really cute outfit.
Think Pink
http://www.syracusewomanmag.com/swm/
A little drop of pink does the attitude good! What a great way to kick of Stupid Dumb Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Thanks To Syracuse Woman's Maghttp://www.syracusewomanmag.com/swm/ for making their October pink!!!
Lots happening today LOTS.........
Here is your chance to be active, really active. The CNY Race for the Cure site is up and running. Sign up and join my crazy ass pink powered team. I will make this year the year that everyone is talking about "CURE OR BUST". Between the parties, fund raisers and Jello-O shots there is no stopping us. I am so sick (like literally cause I feel like crap today) of stupid dumb breast cancer. Who else is fed up?! Stop bitching and do something, I couldn't be making it any easier....
Race is up too, so go get em!!
http://centralnewyork.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/SYR_CentralNewYorkAffiliate?team_id=234025&pg=team&fr_id=2850
my good bad dog: a love story
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| She makes an excellent, if somewhat smelly pillow. |
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| It's a good thing she's cute. |
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| This is her Hallowe'en costume. It suits her. |
She jumps up on visitors and gets into the garbage at least once a week. She ignores most commands, unless she feels like listening and she steals food off the table (one time a fresh baked lemon meringue pie), the moment you turn your back. She'd run into traffic, if she thought there were something interesting on the other side of the street. She hates to get her feet wet but will roll in the mud. She disappears the instant I have a brush in my hand.
But she comes when called (most of the time) and materializes from out of nowhere when I put on my shoes for a walk. She loves me exuberantly and unconditionally. To her, I will always be The Best and Most Important, even when I have lost confidence in myself. She is happy almost every moment of every day and she gets me out the door when I'm feeling unmotivated.
She has the sweetest temperament of any living being and I have watched a child pull her out of a hiding place by her tail, without a whimper or a growl. She'll sit in a lap like a toddler and will fall asleep in my arms, with her head on my shoulder. I call her my Hairy Little Girl and whole host of names too embarrassing to repeat in this space.
She's a balm on my bruised spirit and an undemanding, forgiving companion. She makes me smile and even laugh on the days my heart hurts the most. She reminds me to be happy, to let go of the little things and how much fun it is just to be alive.
She's formally called Amaia Fiesta Lucy Diamond. She's a very good bad dog.
The fastest growing cancer? Not what you think
Let's hear it for the thyroid. Yeah, the thyroid, that sneaky devil, hiding out in your neck and masterminding your metabolism, has the potential to create all kinds of havoc.
The incidence of thyroid cancer - in men and women -- has been on the increase since l980 and scientists don't know why. Between l997 and 2006, in fact, diagnoses of thyroid cancer increased at a rate of 6.5 percent per year, faster than rates of breast, prostate, lung or colon cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The general info about thyroid cancer, like many others, is pretty generic: it's more common in people over 40, those with a history of radiation exposure and a family history. Here's the kicker though and it sounds oh, so familiar: "However, for most patients, we do not know the specific reason why they develop thyroid cancer."
I know a number of thyroid cancer survivors -- Becky, Dorienne and of course, Kairol -- and they're far from 40. On the contrary, they are young, healthy, and suddenly faced with the anxiety of frequent tests and check-ups.
Sometimes it just doesn't seem right, does it?
But the thyroids have something up their sleeves that rates a 15 on a scale of one to ten in my book;
Humor.
In 2006, two really funny women established a web page for people with thyroid conditions, including cancer. Dear Thyroid is touching, passionate, supportive. These women are tight and as honest as they come.
For thyroid cancer awareness month, they established an honor roll. I love it. Anyone who had survived thyroid cancer was invited to list their name, type of thryoid cancer and year of diagnosis. Take a look and celebrate their survivorship with me!
Tonight September ends and with October comes breast cancer awareness.
But it's so much more. On Saturday, October 2, LiveStrong events will take place all across the country and around the world. We're all survivors in a global community. One scientific breakthrough in one cancer benefits another. Some of the drugs developed in breast cancer are now used in other cancers. Work on p53 pathways will lead to treatments for a number of cancers. Many of the body's mysteries have yet to be deciphered. But each cancer is complex because each individual is. Let's be prudent, patient, and forward looking about cancer, and do all you can in your life to prevent it, today.
Love you all,
jody
Additional information:American Thyroid Association
Dear Thyroid Follow Katie Schwartz on Twitter @DearThyroid & @Katie Schwartz
October 4, 2010
The incidence of thyroid cancer - in men and women -- has been on the increase since l980 and scientists don't know why. Between l997 and 2006, in fact, diagnoses of thyroid cancer increased at a rate of 6.5 percent per year, faster than rates of breast, prostate, lung or colon cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The general info about thyroid cancer, like many others, is pretty generic: it's more common in people over 40, those with a history of radiation exposure and a family history. Here's the kicker though and it sounds oh, so familiar: "However, for most patients, we do not know the specific reason why they develop thyroid cancer."
I know a number of thyroid cancer survivors -- Becky, Dorienne and of course, Kairol -- and they're far from 40. On the contrary, they are young, healthy, and suddenly faced with the anxiety of frequent tests and check-ups.
Sometimes it just doesn't seem right, does it?
But the thyroids have something up their sleeves that rates a 15 on a scale of one to ten in my book;
Humor.
In 2006, two really funny women established a web page for people with thyroid conditions, including cancer. Dear Thyroid is touching, passionate, supportive. These women are tight and as honest as they come.
Tonight September ends and with October comes breast cancer awareness.
But it's so much more. On Saturday, October 2, LiveStrong events will take place all across the country and around the world. We're all survivors in a global community. One scientific breakthrough in one cancer benefits another. Some of the drugs developed in breast cancer are now used in other cancers. Work on p53 pathways will lead to treatments for a number of cancers. Many of the body's mysteries have yet to be deciphered. But each cancer is complex because each individual is. Let's be prudent, patient, and forward looking about cancer, and do all you can in your life to prevent it, today.
Love you all,
jody
Additional information:American Thyroid Association
Dear Thyroid Follow Katie Schwartz on Twitter @DearThyroid & @Katie Schwartz
October 4, 2010
After I published this post I heard from my friend Becky Mackenzie, who provided us with a novella of info. She reminds me that when people think thyroid cancer is a “good” cancer a great deal of important information falls through the cracks. With that we also lose our connection of understanding and compassion. Here’s her story.
Becky was diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer, an uncommon and difficult to treat cancer, in 2009 after a genetic test revealed that she has a genetic disorder called multiple endocrine neoplasia 2A. The disorder involves hyperparathyroidism and pheochromocytomas, or tumors of the adreneal glands. Carriers have an almost 100% of developing cancer. And she found out she had cancer from a genetic counselor at MD Anderson, where she sought information and treatment.
As she wrote for Voices of Survivors last year, "The good news was I didn’t have to do chemo. The bad news was I didn’t get an option for chemo." The only option for medullary thyroid cancer is surgery. Unlike the more common thyroid cancers, follicular and papillary, medullary cancer is not technically cancer of the thyroid. It’s cancer of the c-cells (also called the parafollicular cells) which happen to be located inside the thyroid.
As she wrote for Voices of Survivors last year, "The good news was I didn’t have to do chemo. The bad news was I didn’t get an option for chemo." The only option for medullary thyroid cancer is surgery. Unlike the more common thyroid cancers, follicular and papillary, medullary cancer is not technically cancer of the thyroid. It’s cancer of the c-cells (also called the parafollicular cells) which happen to be located inside the thyroid.
“I may always have this,” she wrote to me. “It’s slow growing, but metastasizes very quickly. Because of this, it can take years and years for symptoms to show and once they do, microscopic cells are already in the lymph nodes. The key with thyroid cancer is to make sure you’re seeing an expert at a center of excellence. I fly from Florida to Texas every six months because I can’t find a doctor that compares to the doc’s at MD Anderson. It’s worth the trip because I run into people all the time that had incomplete surgeries because they went to a doctor that didn’t specialize in their disease. A proper, clean surgery is a must."
Cancer changed her in the obvious, and not so obvious ways. “Medically. I have no thyroid. I also have stable cancer in my body that has to be watched and maintained. That’s a huge change. I need to track levels, go to doctors appointments, make sure I take synthroid appropriately, and accept that I am living with cancer. It just isn’t easy.”
All those adjustments made it hard for Becky to establish the “new normal” and she has made big life leaps in a short time. “I’ve learned to weed out the people and the situations that drain me. I dropped a stressful job that involved a lot of negativity and greed. It just wasn't worth it. But I'm more physically active, more involved in my community and not afraid to say things that probably should be said. I'm better educated when it comes to my health. I take more pride in the things that I do. I have more passion.”
And from my perspective? You couldn't have a better friend. She's whip smart, funny, compassionate, human, and absolutely beautiful inside and out. We spent some time together during one of her appointments here in Houston. I'm glad cancer brought us together.
More of Becky's incredible story --- http://voicesofsurvivors.org/?p=360
More of Becky's incredible story --- http://voicesofsurvivors.org/?p=360
She also recommends Dear Thyroid, Kairol Rosenthal, and Thyca (the thyroid cancer survivor’s association), which offers peer support, education, conferences, plus. Thyca has support groups on Yahoo for each specific type of thyroid cancer.
Upending Pink
"Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun." -- Molly Ivins
It's time to upend the ribbon and turn the pink upside down.
October has made me uneasy for a long time.
If you put four women with breast cancer in a circle more likely than not one of them will develop and die of incurable, metastatic disease. Or from the attempt to wrestle devilish cancer cells into a chronic condition, like diabetes or heart disease. But cancer is not like diabetes or heart disease for one obvious reason: chemotherapy, as a way of life, ultimately is not sustainable.
For the other three of us from the circle, the treatment that brought about remission (does anyone say cure?) can leave side-effects that are physical and psychic, not to mention financial. In the past thirteen years I have learned to deal with all but one. The repeated distress of losing that one woman from our circle, the one whose cancer cells were simply uncontrollable, is like losing a limb. Over and over again.
In the meantime, medical sociologists like Gayle Sulik, PhD, in her book Pink Ribbon Blues and sharply observant bloggers like Rachel of The Cancer Culture Chronicles keep raising the curtain on 'pink profiteers' and the 'pinkification' of a difficult disease into something far from the reality most women experience. Money that could be used to fund meaningful research or even funds to directly help affected women is instead diverted into piles of pink "stuff" with the pennies (if that) from those purchases ending up God knows where.
"Breast cancer has made a lot of people very wealthy," Lea Goldman writes in her excellent article, "The Big Business of Breast Cancer." in Marie Claire. Here's she's not razzing on the health industry but the undersided tactics of several large, national breast cancer charities that employ telemarketing services to solicit your funds. From those funds, these "philanthropists" pay themselves handsomely, and oops, sometimes "forget" to make those donations made to the cause they claim to help.
Read Goldman's article side by side with USA Today writer Liz Szabo's "Pink ribbon marketing brings mixed emotions poll finds.," developed from questions added on to an exclusive USAToday/Gallup Poll about President Obama. What stuck out like a sore thumb: more than 80% of the sample said that they had purchased a pink ribbon product.
So is this what breast cancer - or any kind of cancer - awareness means to the majority of Americans now? Purchasing a product? What happened to modifying risk factors that can be addressed or helping assure that underserved populations have the same care that those with insurance do? Isn't that part of awareness, too? Without additional surveys and questions directed specifically at the link between the two (and other factors) we can't know for sure. But I'm not sure that would be far off the mark.
Starting Monday "UPENDING PINK" October on #BCSM with Gayle Sulik, PhD, at 9 PM ET. Please join the conversation.
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| Graphic by Kathi Kolb |
October has made me uneasy for a long time.
If you put four women with breast cancer in a circle more likely than not one of them will develop and die of incurable, metastatic disease. Or from the attempt to wrestle devilish cancer cells into a chronic condition, like diabetes or heart disease. But cancer is not like diabetes or heart disease for one obvious reason: chemotherapy, as a way of life, ultimately is not sustainable.
For the other three of us from the circle, the treatment that brought about remission (does anyone say cure?) can leave side-effects that are physical and psychic, not to mention financial. In the past thirteen years I have learned to deal with all but one. The repeated distress of losing that one woman from our circle, the one whose cancer cells were simply uncontrollable, is like losing a limb. Over and over again.
In the meantime, medical sociologists like Gayle Sulik, PhD, in her book Pink Ribbon Blues and sharply observant bloggers like Rachel of The Cancer Culture Chronicles keep raising the curtain on 'pink profiteers' and the 'pinkification' of a difficult disease into something far from the reality most women experience. Money that could be used to fund meaningful research or even funds to directly help affected women is instead diverted into piles of pink "stuff" with the pennies (if that) from those purchases ending up God knows where.
"Breast cancer has made a lot of people very wealthy," Lea Goldman writes in her excellent article, "The Big Business of Breast Cancer." in Marie Claire. Here's she's not razzing on the health industry but the undersided tactics of several large, national breast cancer charities that employ telemarketing services to solicit your funds. From those funds, these "philanthropists" pay themselves handsomely, and oops, sometimes "forget" to make those donations made to the cause they claim to help.
Read Goldman's article side by side with USA Today writer Liz Szabo's "Pink ribbon marketing brings mixed emotions poll finds.," developed from questions added on to an exclusive USAToday/Gallup Poll about President Obama. What stuck out like a sore thumb: more than 80% of the sample said that they had purchased a pink ribbon product.
So is this what breast cancer - or any kind of cancer - awareness means to the majority of Americans now? Purchasing a product? What happened to modifying risk factors that can be addressed or helping assure that underserved populations have the same care that those with insurance do? Isn't that part of awareness, too? Without additional surveys and questions directed specifically at the link between the two (and other factors) we can't know for sure. But I'm not sure that would be far off the mark.
# # #
Starting Monday "UPENDING PINK" October on #BCSM with Gayle Sulik, PhD, at 9 PM ET. Please join the conversation.
"what's wrong with breast cancer awareness month?"
"October is breast cancer awareness month, which again fills the stores with pink products and pink ribbons. But many people with breast cancer are feeling exploited."
It's only September 30th and I already have pink ribbon fatigue. I ranted about about this in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (there is also a version of this rant in my book, Not Done Yet).
This year, let me point you to an excellent article by Maija Haavisto (and I don't just say this because she quotes me):
Since 1985 October has been celebrated as breast cancer awareness month, often symbolized by pink ribbons and the color pink. It is interesting to note that the awareness month was started by the drug company AstraZeneca (which manufactures several breast cancer drugs) and the pink ribbon originated from cosmetics giant Estée Lauder.
Simply put, I think a lot of breast cancer awareness month is big scam. To quote Maija's article quoting me (is this as po-mo as it gets?):
"I really resent big corporations making a profit - while donating only a tiny percentage to breast cancer research - on some disposable item that has been made under questionable environmental conditions by workers who are paid less than a living wage."
Want to do something to raise breast cancer awareness? Make a donation to an organization doing good work. Advocate for changes in environmental laws. Encourage young people to be aware of changes in their bodies. Do something nice for someone who has been affected by the disease.
And if you are craving a slice of pink cake, washed down with a glass of pink lemonade, by all means, indulge yourself. Just please don't do it in my name.
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