(Disclaimer: Many of you know that I just visited my oncology team last week- Just so you know, all tests came back normal. I continue to have no evidence of returning disease. I am feeling happy, humble and very grateful for being in this place in this moment.) I have thought of western treatments like…
Tag: breast cancer statistics
Beyond Awareness Month: Lessons from the Shirtwaist Strike of 1909
What follows is an account of the Shirtwaist Strike of 1909 as it might relate to Breast Cancer Awareness month. In late September 1909 some brave women, seamstresses actually, organized a general strike that pulled in over 20,000 garment workers. They were fighting for safer working conditions, a fair wage, regular working hours, and the…
Ah Statistics! Tamoxifen Update #3
As I continue to question and research Tamoxifen I see that there is no way of applying statistics to the individual, just the possibility of having a generality. Statistics are like a squall passing through, who knows where the rain will fall? Or who will be at the right angle for a rainbow? There are always those…
Magical Realism
Many folks upon hearing they have a serious diagnosis of any kind, go immediately in one of a few different directions. Either they hunker down to being realistic at all costs, go look up their prognosis on actuary charts and prepare for the worst. Or they might try denial, LALALALA. Perhaps they decide to “Fight Fight Fight – never…
Contributing Factors Part 1 – Sickness
Part One – Why do we get sick? When my friend Jenniveeve, found out I was having a cancer party in my boob, she called me up to offer support. She wanted to know Why I thought I had cancer? The ten million dollar question to be sure. We talked about what would happen if…
Don’t Think about Pink Elephants
There is a certain looking-for-trouble aspect of the oncology world that rattles me. I am going in for my yearly mammogram next week. A ridiculous activity geared to make money versus because it makes sense. Everyone in the equation knows that I have an extremely dense breast, and that my mammogram will be inconclusive – a breast…
“When sorrows come…”
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet to Horatio These last weeks I have been playing a minor character in the last production in the life of my friend Meg. She is dying from late stage breast cancer. I have written before about my views of…
Chicago
A little more than a week ago I heard the sobering news that a friend who is about a year ahead of me on this whole cancer-ing trip is experiencing a reoccurrence- with metastasis to lungs and liver. This time around it is about more than her breasts. She is so beloved by her wonderful family and intimate…
You say Placebo, and I say Nocebo.
pla·ce·bo (pləˈsēbō) a. A substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient’s expectation to get well. b. An inactive substance or preparation used as a control in an experiment or test to determine the effectiveness of a medicinal drug. no·ce·bo (nəˈsēbō) A detrimental effect on health produced by psychological or psychosomatic…
Riding the Pooka 