Saturday, February 28, 2009
Cancer Still Sucks
I feel a certain indescribable pain every time I hear that someone has cancer. I don't remember being as emotional before my sister died. I have met people through this great World Wide Web who have cancer. The amazing thing is that they are all fighters. What can you do, but fight?
Once again, I am bawling over my keyboard for one of these great fighters, someone who ended up losing their fight. Lisa was a wonderful person. I have never seen a community pull together for someone before, like the blogging community did for her. I emailed her last September about Relay for Life, and she was so friendly. It pained me to see her fight this, another young mother, whose children will have to grow up without her.
Rest in Peace, Lisa.
Labels: awareness, cancer, cancer sucks, ovarian cancer
Posted by Lynda ::
12:27 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Monday, November 03, 2008
Be Aware
October was Breast Cancer Awareness month. You probably saw it. Pink everywhere. Product packaging. Merchants asking for donations to the Susan G. Komen foundation.
November is Lung Cancer Awareness month. There will be no proclamations far and wide. In fact, many people won't even know that there is a month for Lung Cancer Awareness. But, if you are reading this, it means one more person is aware. Maybe you will tell your friends. Maybe they will tell their friends.
Lung cancer is a concern. Not just for smokers, like everyone wants to believe. Lung cancer is a concern for everyone.Labels: awareness, cancer, lung cancer
Posted by Lynda ::
7:09 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Some Cancer Patients Turn to 'Coaches'
Feb 18, 5:40 PM (ET)
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
The advice made her head spin: Have the lump removed. No, let them take the whole breast. Chemo? Radiation? Everyone seemed to have an opinion.
"I just shut everyone down around me," said Bernie Brann, a newly diagnosed cancer patient from upstate New York. "You're just so overwhelmed with information."
Bad advice, or just too much of it, can compound the trauma and damage done by the disease itself, cancer patients often find. Friends and relatives are important for support, but when these untrained people act as cancer coaches, they can sway people to make poor decisions about their care.
This includes survivors, whose opinions are highly valued by patients suddenly facing the scary diagnosis. They may know a lot about cancer, but can do harm if they project their own experiences onto someone else, who may have a different form of the disease that needs different treatment.
Survivors also may be out of touch with changes in the field, where genetic discoveries are rapidly reshaping notions of who needs chemotherapy and what kind.
What's the solution?
Many advocacy groups and hospitals are using "professional" coaches - trained volunteers or paid workers who can objectively help new patients navigate the maze of information and options.
The American Cancer Society started a patient navigator program a few years ago that now operates in 87 locations and is planning to expand. The National Breast Cancer Coalition also trains coaches, and big treatment hospitals like the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center are increasingly using them for breast, prostate, lung and other types of cancer.
Attendance set records in December at one of the top training programs, held during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. More than 240 breast cancer survivors spent late nights at the convention center, taking notes as scientists schooled them on the latest research.
These women go home to volunteer in hospitals and support groups where they staff hotlines, meet with new patients and teach other coaches what they learned. Demand for this training is so great that the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation gets grants from the Avon Foundation and nine drug companies to subsidize some attendees, but still can't meet the need. Dozens are turned down each year.
To find a coach or navigator, patients can ask their doctors, local cancer hospitals or groups like the cancer society for help. Brann, feeling a need for unbiased help, found a coach by calling the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes, where associate director Bob Riter provided it.
"People are usually too free about giving advice," said Riter (pronounced RITT-er), a survivor of male breast cancer and graduate of the San Antonio program. "We never tell people what to do. We provide information, and we help them think out loud."
Whether amateur or professional, a good cancer coach should offer these things, experts say:
_Support: an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold.
_Resources: reliable information or help getting it, and only if the patient wants it.
_Objectivity: a willingness to help patients discover what is best for them, rather than to validate the coach's own cancer battle and choices.
"There's a big difference in saying, 'This is what I did' and 'Here's what you should do,'" Riter said.
Elderly people are especially vulnerable to having their decisions usurped, he added. "Sometimes middle-aged kids impose what they want to do on their parents" without asking what the parent wants.
No hard numbers exist on how many cancer patients bring professional coaches or informal ones - a relative or friend - to doctor appointments where treatments are discussed.
"The person coming with you can either be an asset or a liability," said Meg Gaines, a lawyer and ovarian cancer survivor who runs the Center for Patient Partnerships, an advocacy resource at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It is good if the coach can ask questions, gather information and take notes for the shell-shocked patient to use later, she said. It is bad if the coach interferes with the patient's decisions.
Doctors often find themselves in the middle, fighting for the patient's trust. Some choices come down to personal values and risk tolerance, said Dr. C. Kent Osborne, a breast cancer specialist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Whether to have chemotherapy is an example. Some women want to avoid it at all cost. Others "don't want to leave any stone unturned," and demand it even if it has harmful side effects and only a 1 percent chance of helping, he said.
As for patients being swayed by others, "a lot of that occurs when they're not in the doctor's office and they go back to their home and their community," Osborne said. "Then well-meaning friends might say, 'Well, gee, I was treated with this and you should get that,' or 'Aunt Molly got this and you should get that, too,' not understanding that every patient is different."
Patients can fall into the same trap when they coach each other, Gaines said.
"This is the potential downside of support groups - you don't have expertise around the room," she said. "Someone may be describing her own treatment and others will think, 'My doctor didn't tell me that,'" possibly because their cancer is different.
Mary Michaud, policy director at the Wisconsin center, warns: "Beware of people who tell you your experience is going to be just like theirs."
Anna Cluxton, a Columbus, Ohio, woman diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32, feels strongly that she did the right thing having her whole breast removed rather than just the lump. When she coaches other young women whose doctors have advised less drastic surgery, she said she will not express an opinion, but suggests a pointed question: "Ask them, 'What will be my chances of recurrence in that same breast?'"
"You need to be aware of all the options" and discuss them fairly, she said.
Vira Brooks, an Omaha public schools administrator, had a different experience 13 years ago. Although she had a tiny, very early-stage tumor, her surgeon recommended removing the whole breast. She chose less drastic treatment after a survivor she knew coached her through looking at other options.
"She was basically my champion. She helped me navigate the system," Brooks said. "She listened, she shared with me what she had been through," but didn't try to tell her what to do.
Brooks now tries to do the same. She has coached dozens of patients, including black women like herself who are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages and are more likely to die from the disease. A local hospital refers people to her.
As for Bernie Brann, the patient from upstate New York, she did not seek a lot of advice when she was first diagnosed. But word got around at Ithaca College Health Center, where the 69-year-old woman works two nights a week as a nurse's aide.
Doctors told her she could either have a mastectomy or just the lump removed, and at first, she thought she would do the latter. "But I had so many people saying, 'No, no, no, that's not the way to go.' Most people said, 'Have a mastectomy.' It was so radical. It just overwhelmed me. It was not something I wanted to do."
She credits her three children with offering support without telling her what to do. Her oldest son went with her to appointments, as did a close friend with nursing training. Ultimately, she changed her mind about what would be best for her, and had a mastectomy in late December.
"I didn't want to go through this again. My feeling was, get in there, get rid of it, get on with your life," she said.
"It's been quite a rollercoaster," she said. But she feels more confident now that she can make good decisions about her future care.
---
On the Net:
American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org
Personalized treatment decision tool: http://tinyurl.com/2uvyu6
American Society of Clinical Oncology patient site: http://www.plwc.org
National Cancer Institute: http://www.cancer.gov
Treatment options: http://www.nccn.org/patients
Association of Cancer Online Resources: http://www.acor.org
Breast cancer support groups:
http://www.y-me.org
http://www.komen.org
http://www.bcaction.org
http://www.stopbreastcancer.orgLabels: cancer, chemotherapy, coaches, lung cancer, radiation, support
Posted by Henry (Calem's Opa) ::
2:10 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Monday, October 22, 2007
Two Year anniversary
Today it is 2 years ago we lost Laurianne. Life has never been the same since that awful Saturday in 2005. We are so fortunate to have Calem in our life. Sometimes it is bittersweet to see him become what he is now and know that Laurianne is missing out of all of that.
Tonight we will burn a candle in her honor and for all the people who are battling this disease and lost their life to it.
Are you There?
by Diane Robertson
Misty breeze wraps about my shoulders, thinly clad.
I shiver not, despite the coolness on my skin.
Comfort, I now feel.
Is it you my precious Angel?
Are you there? I cannot hear your quiet voice,
But bird song fills the air
From high treetops to grassy marsh.
I wonder – is it you, Dear? Are you there?
The roses in your garden bloom large,
And varied in hue from crimson deep, to barely pink.
I cup the velvet bud, its fragrance soothes a troubled mind.
This must be you, my little girl. Are you there?
Are you the fiery autumn maples,
Or the star-like flakes of snow?
Are you the sparkle in the water of the lake that we both loved,
Or, perhaps, the warmth I feel in the sand beneath my toes?
Though your quiet voice I cannot hear,
Nor can I see again your sparkling eyes,
Or feel your dainty hand laid gently on my own,
You are here.
For memory's book will never close –
Each lovely sound, or sight, or scent,
Another page from special times that we have shared.
Oh, yes! You are here child – everywhereLabels: 2 years, cancer, disease, Laurianne, lung cancer
Posted by Henry (Calem's Opa) ::
2:34 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Today September 22
Today it is 23 months ago that Laurianne left us. Since it is Saturday it is a 100 weeks ago today. We will celebrate her life today with burning a candle. There is not one day in my life I'm not thinking about her and when I see her son becoming bigger and bigger there is always a twinge of pain of her missing out of it. We will also celebrate her life and that of other people who are battling this disease and the ones who has lost their life. Today is also the day today that my brother in law and friend Hans lost his battle with lung cancer in 2001. He was only 52 and left his wife and 3 young children behind. We will remember him as well and burn a candle for him too.Labels: cancer, Laurianne, lung cancer, smoking cessation
Posted by Henry (Calem's Opa) ::
2:56 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Monday, September 17, 2007
More May Be Offered Lung Cancer Surgery
My mom saw this a few weeks ago. I was just a little slow getting it up here. :)
More May Be Offered Lung Cancer Surgery
Aug 31, 1:31 PM (ET)
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Thousands more lung cancer patients each year could be offered surgery or other aggressive therapy under a new system that classifies many tumors as more treatable than in the past.
It is the first big overhaul of a decades-old method used to predict survival and help determine whether a lung cancer patient will have surgery, chemotherapy or be treated at all.
The new guidance is to be presented at a conference of lung cancer specialists in Seoul, South Korea, that starts Saturday. It is expected to be adopted by policy-making groups in the next year.
Lung cancer is the world's top cancer killer, claiming 1.3 million lives each year. In the United States, 213,380 new cases and 160,390 deaths from the disease are expected this year.
Nearly 60 percent of people die within one year of diagnosis, and nearly 75 percent die within two years, American Cancer Society statistics show.
In treating it, doctors use a formula called tumor staging. It is based on a tumor's size, how far it has spread and other factors to predict a patient's survival odds and to guide treatment.
The current system was developed from about 5,000 tumor samples from University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston decades ago - before improved scanning technology was available to evaluate a cancer's spread.
The new plan is based on 100,000 tumor samples from around the world including Asia, where lung cancer rates are projected to climb because of trends in smoking, unhealthy lifestyles and aging populations.
It keeps four broad groupings but sorts people more precisely based on refined understanding of tumor characteristics.
The result: "There will clearly be shifting of patients from categories not operable to operable" - as many as 10,000 a year in the United States, said Dr. David Johnson, a lung cancer specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He reviewed the plan, which was partly published in a medical journal recently.
The stage of the tumor at diagnosis is the best predictor of survival. Only 20 percent of cases are diagnosed in Stages 1 or 2, when tumors are small and confined to a lung, Johnson said. About 30 percent to 40 percent are found in Stage 4, after they have widely spread. The rest are in the middle.
Five-year survival rates are 47 percent for Stage 1 and 26 percent for Stage 2, but only 8 percent for Stage 3, and 2 percent for Stage 4, according to the American College of Surgeons.
Most lung cancers are the type called "non-small cell," which is covered by the new staging system. The system was developed by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, a group of lung cancer specialists from around the world.
Dr. Peter Goldstraw, a surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, led the project, and Canadian scientists independently validated the recommended changes by comparing survival across geographic regions.
Among the changes: creating more sub-stages for tumor size, reassigning some large tumors to a more advanced stage, reclassifying tumors that have spread into the fluid surrounding the lung, and recognizing that spread to certain lymph nodes is more dangerous than its spread to others.
"By changing some of these groupings, some patients will get moved to an earlier stage of disease for which we tend to be more aggressive" in treatment, said Dr. Joan Schiller, a lung cancer specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
"Before, a patient may have only been offered chemotherapy. They may now be offered chemotherapy and radiation," or more intense radiation, she said.
Conversely, some people thought to have earlier-stage tumors now will be grouped with those whose tumors have widely spread, and discouraged from undergoing therapies that have little chance of helping them.
"In some cases, patients were getting inappropriately aggressive treatment," Schiller said.
Some people with very small tumors may get away with less therapy - taking out just a segment of lung instead of an entire lobe, said Dr. Stephen Swisher, a chest surgeon at M.D. Anderson.
The impact of the changes in Europe and Japan is unclear because doctors in those countries tend to remove whole lungs rather than lobes to treat lung cancer, Johnson noted.
Doctors hope that ultimately survival will improve, but that won't happen "unless we get patients into the right hands" and they get correct treatment, Johnson said.
Revising the staging system also will do little good if doctors don't do the right tests to properly stage a tumor, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Staging for lung and other types of cancer should become even more precise in the near future as biomarkers and gene tests are developed to better sort patients, he added.
---
On the Net:
American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org
National Cancer Institute: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/lung
Cancer staging explanation: http://tinyurl.com/2np8um
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vote for Laurianne's Hope for Best Health Blog for the Blogger's Choice Awards 2006.Labels: cancer, lung cancer
Posted by Lynda ::
1:08 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
To Smoke, Or Not To Smoke
I really enjoy the few weeks of nice weather we have here in Indiana, before it gets too humid to really enjoy being outside. When my husband, Dan, and I met for lunch, it would be really nice to sit outside.
There is one thing that stops us though. The nice weather always brings out smokers. If there is a breeze, it always seems to blow in our direction. In a lot of ways, I am more sensitive to it than Dan is, and even he will say, "It's such nice weather. Too bad sitting outside would be ruined by smokers."
I remember the great debates about smoking in California, before their establishments became smoke-free. In Indiana, it seems to be different. I think Indiana has a great smoking population than California does. We also have some of the best cancer research centers. Go figure. The way many people in Indiana feel is that if they are smokers, they have the right to smoke. They should be able to do this whenever and where ever they want. I remember reading an article in the IndyStar about how family restaurants were going to be changed to non-smoking. A woman commented that it would be nice to go some place with her family where she didn't have to worry about breathing in the smokey air. A person commented back to her that they were a smoker, and if this woman didn't want to breathe smokey air, she should just stay home.
Even before this ordinance, I was a little conflicted. Dan and I went to two restaurants where we asked for non-smoking, and the hostess sat us on the border of the smoking section. My sister had just passed away at the time, so as soon as we started smelling the foul stench of cigarettes, I flagged down the hostess and told her that we needed to be moved or we wouldn't be patronizing their establishment. I would tell her how my sister died of cancer at 25 years old, and even though it wasn't because she was a smoker, it doesn't mean it couldn't have factored in. The truth is, we probably will never know what caused Laurianne to develop lung cancer.
Once again, these are just my opinions. I can tell people to stop smoking, and list all the harm that smoking does to the smoker. Ultimately, it is each individuals choice. I know this. But, I think it is only fair, though, that smokers and non-smokers show each other consideration. Maybe then, I could enjoy the nice weather.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Labels: awareness, cancer, Laurianne, lung cancer, second-hand smoke, smoking cessation
Posted by Lynda ::
7:18 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Five Blogs That Make Me Think
Shelli at Shelli's Sentiments awarded me the Thinking Blogger Award for this blog.
The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to the original post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).
Between this blog and my less serious blog, I have been thinking long and hard about the blogs that make me think, because almost everyone in my blogroll has at one point or another. (Note that these are not cancer-related blogs, just people who I admire and make me think.) The people I choose are:
- Mammassage - Because of her own personal experience with her daughter, she shares information about the importance of organ donation.
- Life, Vegas Style - Vegas Princess talks about the issues that are important to her, whether it is family life, career, media, or just something on her mind.
- LynneMW - Unfortunately, we will never see this award on Lynne's blog, because she passed away last August. However, Lynne's blog is still out there. In her archives you can find out the struggles she had to go through as a person with non-smoking lung cancer. I highly recommend reading some of her entries. I want to give Lynne's blog posthumous recognition.
- For Smith's Sake - Anne is a real person, going through ovarian cancer. Her blog is about her life, relationships, and living with cancer. She shares her thoughts and fears about this path that was put before her.
- My Life - Cathy's blog, My Life, is about her life, going to school, and the various triumphs and struggles that she has gone through or is going through. I have gotten some interesting ideas from reading her blog, and I love when she posts a recipe.
Congratulations to you all! :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vote for Laurianne's Hope for Best Health Blog for the Blogger's Choice Awards 2006.Labels: awareness, cancer
Posted by Lynda ::
4:21 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Clues to the Cancer - St. Petersburg Times
Awareness about the Human Papilloma virus is still relatively new to the public. I found this article about David Hastings to be very interesting and informative. This article seemed like something worth sharing here. (Please note: I have notified Mr. Barry that I would like to share his article on this blog. However, at his request, this post may be removed.)
~oOo~
[Times photo: Martha Rial]
David Hastings nearly died last year from throat cancer. His wife Jo saved him by nagging him to see a doctor.
Clues to the cancer
David Hastings doesn't fit the throat cancer profile. So he looked for answers and was surprised by what he found.
By John Barry
St. Petersburg Times
Published April 17, 2007
During the grisly battle for his life, David Hastings played medical detective. He read everything he could find on what was trying to kill him. Nothing made sense. Hastings had throat cancer, mostly known for killing old people. Imagine an elderly soul addicted to cigarettes and alcohol for 40 years. There's a likely victim.
Hastings didn't fit. He was 58. He looked 48. He hadn't smoked since college, and he doesn't drink. His chief addiction is cycling. He rides his bike about 100 miles per week.
He'd never have guessed where he finally did fit in.
He did not have an old smoker's disease, after all. His throat had been attacked by a cancer-causing virus infamous for killing women. It was HPV, the human papilloma virus, that causes most cervical cancers. HPV is the virus at the center of a national argument over preventive vaccinations of young girls.
To his great surprise, Hastings discovered that this controversial women's vaccination plan aimed at ridding the world of HPV cancers may have started with the wrong gender.
One day, the answer might be found here. A thousand Tampa men are currently participating in the world's largest study of male HPV infections. The National Institutes of Health has awarded the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa $10-million for the work. It involves 3,000 men worldwide, including the Tampa thousand, and may soon include their female partners. One preliminary finding is a male infection rate double that of women.
Hastings found other studies as well that have long linked HPV to anal and penile cancers. Gay men and men in impoverished countries are most afflicted. They were horror stories - cancers that required the most ghastly of surgical remedies.
By the end of his searches, Hastings had become an official HPV cancer statistic - one of 10,000 American men afflicted by any one of five types of HPV cancers each year. The male number is close to the annual number of HPV cervical cancers detected in women.
Doctors are seeing more and more cases like Hastings': young, nonsmoking men and women who are turning up with oral cancers they aren't supposed to have. There has been an 11 percent increase - after 50 years of constancy - even as smoking has declined. A Chicago conference is planned for June. The maker of the current vaccine for girls is seeking FDA approval to give it to boys, too. Some Johns Hopkins University patients are receiving a new experimental vaccine.
Hastings even found himself briefly inserted into the debate in Tallahassee over requiring vaccinations of schoolgirls. His message to the lawmakers: HPV kills men, too.
It almost killed him.
- - -
Hastings had shaved over a swelling on the left side of his neck in March 2006. "It felt muscular," he says, "almost as if I'd been working out." He ignored it. That was typical of his personal approach to all things medical. "I didn't even know what a primary care physician was."
He's a CPA. His tax office is next door to the Habana Cafe in Gulfport, run by his Cuban wife, Josefa. They've been married for 17 years. They have one of those marriages where the fun and fur fly simultaneously. "She promised me I'd never have to work in the restaurant when we started it 10 years ago," he says. "I've been there every night since the first night."
A month went by before he showed his wife the swelling. It was a Friday morning.
"God, you've got golf balls in there," she said.
Jo wanted his neck checked that day. Over his protests, she started calling doctors. The only one she could find late on a Friday was their neighbor, a plastic surgeon. He felt two swollen lymph nodes and arranged a Monday appointment for Hastings with a primary care doctor. That doctor referred him to a general surgeon.
The general surgeon said it might be cancer or might not be, but, regardless, they should come out. He scheduled surgery for that Thursday.
Hastings was finally paying attention. He wanted a second opinion. Jo thought he was trying to get out of the surgery. She called another doctor neighbor, this one an oncologist.
That doctor told Hastings he didn't fit the profile of a "cancer candidate." He thought Hastings might have caught cat-scratch fever from one of Jo's eight cats. Surgery was scrubbed; Hastings went on an antibiotic. But the oncologist also ordered a CT scan.
Then Jo tricked her husband. She asked him to take her mother to an ear, nose and throat specialist. After examining the mother-in-law, the specialist turned to Hastings: "I understand I need to look at you, too."
The doctor felt the neck. "That's not good." He took a foot-long needle out of a drawer. With the needle, he extracted fluid for biopsy. Then he looked over a report on the CT scan. It contained the word "necrosis." That means dead cells and usually indicates cancer. "I didn't want to read that," he told Hastings.
A week later, the doctor saw him again. "Your wife saved your life," the doctor said.
He diagnosed a deadly squamous cell carcinoma. He said Hastings would need a radical remedy that involves the removal of lymph nodes, jugular veins, nerves and muscle between the tip of the ear and the collar bone. It would leave him with a drooped shoulder. And afterward, Hastings would still need chemo and radiation.
His chances of survival after all the cutting, chemo and radiation would be 60 percent.
Hastings fainted.
- - -
He again went looking for options. He ended up at Moffitt, which gave him the first good news since he'd felt the lumps. It concluded he didn't need the surgery. It preferred simultaneous radiation and chemotherapy as a first step, saving Hastings from a crippled upper torso.
During 35 treatments in seven weeks and nausea and dehydration that nearly killed him, Hastings read up on HPV.
It's sexually transmitted. About two-thirds of the population are infected with it in young adulthood. But about 3 percent of women get a strain called HPV-16 that causes cervical cancer and kills about 3,700 women a year.
Last July, the FDA approved a HPV-16 vaccine called Gardasil for young girls. Almost immediately, legislatures, including Florida's, drafted laws to require the vaccinations for girls in public schools.
Almost immediately, parents and religious groups protested, fearful that the vaccinations might encourage sexual promiscuity and take medical choices away from parents.
Overlooked in the furor was the fact that men can get HPV-16 from having sex, too. Sexual encounters in their teens can come back to haunt them in their 50s. The virus usually lies latent until middle age. Then it can show up in anal and penile cancers or in oral cancers like Hastings'.
HPV vaccinations of schoolgirls are a fine thing, contends Brian Hill, founder of the Oral Cancer Foundation in California and a survivor of HPV cancer in his tonsils.
"But if they don't do boys it's solving only half the problem."
- - -
Studies at Moffitt are tending to confirm that. Early findings in one study are showing a 60 percent overall HPV infection rate among men, compared with less than 30 percent among women.
Anna Giuliano, Moffitt's lead HPV researcher, is seeking an additional grant in order to add female partners to her study of the 3,000 men. Then she should know if men are more commonly infected than women.
The ultimate goal, she says, is "one simple vaccine" for all.
Merck, the maker of Gardasil, has already submitted to the FDA its tests of the vaccine on boys ages 9 to 15. They're in the process of testing boys and men ages 16 to 23. Moffitt is participating in those trials. Gardasil is already given to boys in European Union countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Hopkins is testing an HPV vaccine specifically for men who already have oral cancers. "It's designed to enhance the immune response to the HPV-16," Maura Gillison, the lead HPV cancer researcher at Hopkins, said by e-mail.
Hastings has tried to get into the trial. He did so by pressing Moffitt to send his cancer tissues to Hopkins for HPV-16 testing.
Last month the tests for HPV-16 came back positive, vindicating his medical detective work.
Some good news from Hopkins came as well: People like Hastings with HPV cancers have a higher survival rate than those with oral cancers from smoking.
Now Moffitt, which has sent other samples besides Hastings' to Hopkins, is testing a screening procedure of its own.
- - -
Hastings took his message to the Legislature's House Education Committee in early April. He flew to Tallahassee with Ed Homan, a Tampa representative who was sponsoring the schoolgirl vaccination bill. He told Hastings, "Tell them you're a man with HPV."
He had three minutes. Hastings is a guy who has trouble telling his name in three minutes. He rattled off his message as fast as he could. "I was told my testimony was emotional."
Then, with little discussion, the committee rejected the vaccination plan.
Hastings left the hearing shocked by his three-minute civics lesson.
"Unbelievable!" he sputtered. "Kids will die in Florida."
John Barry can be reached at (727) 892-2258 or jbarry@sptimes.com
Fast Facts: HPV- The human papilloma virus is one of the most common sexually transmitted viruses. More than half of all people will be exposed to any one of 80 HPV viruses.- The HPV-16 strain causes most cervical cancers, nearly 10,000 a year in the United States. It kills about 3,700 U.S. women annually.- HPV-16 has been linked to oral, penile and anal cancers in men. About 9,800 U.S. men are afflicted each year.Labels: awareness, cancer, chemotherapy, human papilloma virus, throat cancer
Posted by Lynda ::
12:13 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Friday, April 13, 2007
Pall Malls
Yesterday, I read the Kurt Vonnegut died. I also read he was a long time fan of Pall Malls cigarettes. It got me to thinking.
The Pasadena Weekly said: Vonnegut smoked non-filter cigarettes most of his
adult life. Pall Malls to be exact, which back in Vonnegut's beginnings in the
mid-1950s had a catchy TV commercial pitch that invited consumers to try a smoke
that was “smooth and rich, and you can light either end.”
The Republican quoted a local lawyer as saying: "He always smoked Pall Malls and
drank JB with soda on the rocks," Scheinman said.
The Times Union said: Mr. Vonnegut died Wednesday at 84, some age for someone
who so long ago called himself an old (mildly scatological word here) with his Pall Malls.
From what I have read of Mr. Vonnegut, he seemed to have known the risks of lung cancer. It is even said that he felt his unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes were "a classy way to commit sucide". And what does he die from? Hitting his head.
The point I am trying to make is not that you shouldn't smoke. Ultimately, that is your decision. The point that I am trying to make is that you never know what is going to do you in. Still, people want to blame lung cancer on smoking. I think more awareness is getting out there, but I have learned of so many people who have died from lung cancer, and never smoked. We need to think of these people too.
I have said it before, and I will say it again. Until we found out my sister had lung cancer, I would have been one of the people who said, "Well, you shouldn't smoke if you don't want lung cancer." I probably would not have attributed smoking to increasing breast cancer, colon cancer, prostrate cancer, any other type of cancer, but smoking increases your risk of getting those types of cancer as well.
So, how is it that a man can smoke for 70 years, and die from brain injuries, and someone in their 40's, 30's or 20's can be a non-smoker and die from lung cancer? Because other factors besides smoking can contribute to lung cancer. Other factors besides smoking can contribute to any kind of cancer.
That is why we created this blog.Labels: awareness, cancer, lung cancer, second-hand smoke, smoking cessation
Posted by Lynda ::
10:48 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Monday, April 09, 2007
St. Baldricks - March 2007
Here are the pictures of St. Baldrick's for March 2007. These were taken in Santa Rosa, California, at Sweet River Grill & Bar. One of the young boys pictured below raised $1000 to have his head shaved and help find a cure for childhood cancer!
To find out more about a St. Baldrick's event in your community, visit www.stbaldricks.org
(On a side note, don't forget to vote for this blog in the two categories it has been nominated for - Best Educational Blog and Best Health Blog. See more details in the sidebar.)
Labels: awareness, bald, cancer, childhood cancer, events, organizations
Posted by Lynda ::
9:38 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Cancer Stories: Mike's Mom
This is Mike's mom's story. Today is the one year anniversary of her passing away from breast cancer.
It is important that anyone can get breast cancer. Men typically do not get mammograms, but like women, they can do a monthly self-check to make sure there are no lumps in their chest region. Despite all you hear about breast cancer, there is still no cure!
I am sure after reading Mike's story, you would not want to see any loved one have to go through what his mom did. (And if you have a moment, you can see in his comments the effect cancer has had on others as well.)
This was originally posted in October on Mike's blog, The Mindless Dribbler, which is now defunct.
~oOo~
Mom...
In Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month...and one of my best friends.
Being breast cancer awareness month, it's bringing about mixed feelings for me. Not that I'd ever declare a month dedicated to breast cancer awareness as stupid, not at all...but just the fact that it raises so many uncomfortable thoughts, I'm kind of feeling....sad and inspired at the same time.
I'll tell you my own personal story for the sole purpose of recognizing how important getting your regular mammogram is. Mainly because I wouldn't wish this on anyone, not even my ex wife and that in itself speaks volumes of the cancer's ability to darken even the brightest of days.
The last month of my Mom's life were the hardest for me. I helped get her in the tub for her baths, I helped set her on the portable toilet we kept by her bed, I helped change her clothes, and Trish and I laid in her bed with her to keep her company. I could understand this if she were 80 years old...but at the time, she was only 56.
For most of her last month, she was incoherent in speech and void of any meaningful conversation.
The night they took her to the hospital for the last time, my sister called Trish and I and told us to come to Mom's house as quick as we could. We showed up and they were "prepping" for her return to the hospital. The last sound I heard issued from Mom's mouth was a scream filled with such agony and pain that I had to turn away. As bad as that sounds, I couldn't look at her. It killed a part of me, mainly because I knew the inevitable was upon us.
Once we reached the hospital, they started the morphine until 4 days later, her last day. I never heard her voice again. The only sounds were of her labored breathing.
I have seen up close and personal the ravishing effects breast cancer has on a person. I have seen eyes that have always shone with such life and optimism turn into windows to one's soul where I could see nothing but sadness and terror. A mouth that had always been so quick to smile and tell you that she loves you, turn into a permanent grimace from the pain endured.
I not only lost my Mom to the vile cancer, I lost an amazing friend who'd call out of the blue and offer to buy me lunch once a week. I lost a guidance counselor and a teacher. I lost an inspiration....a "holy spirit on two feet" as her husband once told me.
On one of her many stays in the hospital, she came shuffling back to her hospital room from the chapel and told us about a family that needed praying for, someone she had met while there praying. I thought "here she is, fighting for her own existance and yet, she's down in the chapel praying for everyone else". That was just her character.....she never changed or waivered from being selfless.
Breast cancer isn't a joke. For your own health and peace of mind, get your yearly mammogram. Breast cancer doesn't just affect the one it inflicts, it takes a part of everyone that's close to that person.
I'm proof.
You folks be careful.
Labels: breast cancer, cancer, share a story
Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) ::
7:11 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Friday, March 30, 2007
Some Chemicals found in Secondhand Smoke
Because I signed up for Smokefree Indiana information, I recieved a guide to help quit tobacco for good. For the record, I do not smoke.
Then again, Indiana has laws that allow smoking in some places. Recently, Dan and I went to Memphis, and even though I don't remember them asking us smoking or non-smoking, the people next to us were given an ash tray and lit up. I was glad we were done with our meal.
Stopping in Effingham, IL for dinner, we were asked smoking or non-smoking by the hostess. My well trained husband said, "As far away from smoking as possible!" Even worse is when you have to walk through the smoking section to get to the non-smoking section. Dan and I had that situation happen to us once at a restaurant.
Getting back to Indiana, a recent smoking law was passed that family restaurants were not allowed to have smoking sections anymore. If there was a bar, like in Applebee's, smoking is allowed during non-family hours, which is after 10 p.m. Dan and I use to go to lunch at this place near my work. We had only gone a few times, but they had pretty good burgers and potatos done in a different way. When the new smoking law came out, they actually built a bar and did not allow anyone under the age of 21 to enter the establishment.
Dan and I went there one time afterwards, right before they were about to close. Since they were ten minutes from closing, they turned us away. The place never smelled smoky and I never noticed anyone smoking, but I told Dan that I wasn't going to patronize them anymore. Why take the risk? Do you know what is in second hand smoke. The folks at WhiteLies.TV have a list:
Some Chemicals found in Secondhand Smoke. Polonium-210 Power in space satellites
Benzo[a]pyrene Motor vehicle exhaust
Hydrazine Rocket fuel
1,3 butadiene Found in gasoline
Benzene Found in crude oil
N-nitrosopyrrolidine Found in pesticides
Nickel Used in batteries
Aniline Used in lacquers and wood stains
2-Naphthylamine Used in dyes
4-Aminobiphenyl Rubber antioxidant
Nicotine Insecticide/addictive drug
Cresol Industrial adhesives
Pyrene A main constituent of coal tar
DDT A banned pesticide
Carbon Monoxide Car exhaust fumes
Ammonia Toilet bowl cleaner
Hydrogen Cyanide A fumigation poison
Acetone Fingernail polish remover
Methanol Rocket fuel
Formaldehyde Embalming fluid
Butane Cigarette lighter fluid
Naphalene Moth balls
Nitrobenzene Gasoline additive
Arsenic Rat poison
Cadmium Found in batteries
Toluene Industrial solvent
Isoprene Tire rubber
I prefer fresh air, thanks.
P.S. Anyone need a pocket guide to help them quit?Labels: awareness, cancer, second-hand smoke, smoking cessation
Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) ::
7:58 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Thursday, March 22, 2007
This Saturday
Playing for a Cure
Middle & High School Invitational
Band & Classical Solo Competition
Saturday, March 24, 2007, 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Craigmont Middle School, Memphis, Tennessee
My husband and I will be there! Hope you can make it too!Labels: cancer, events, lung cancer, organizations
Posted by Lynda ::
4:32 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Friday, March 09, 2007
One Year Ago This Month
Tuesday, March 6 was the anniversary of Dana Reeve's death from lung cancer. I did not fail to notice and wanted to blog about it. I just didn't know what to say.
I am glad there is still some awareness out there because of this disease. She really put lung cancer in the media spotlight. It still makes me angry that people were trying to brush off her death to smoking, because she use to sing in smokey lounges. I admit that second hand smoke could be a factor, but in the long and short of it, anyone can get this disease. Laurianne never sang in smokey lounges.
Hopefully, people continue to be aware of lung cancer. I heard recently of a breath test that has been developed. It shows if you have lung cancer, no matter what stage you are at. It sounded very promising. For those of you in the medical profession, the results were published in the medical journal, Thorax. I still see it on my Google alerts as well, so some news agencies are still talking about it.
Every breakthrough is a step closer to awareness, detection and cure.
Labels: awareness, cancer, lung cancer, organizations
Posted by Lynda ::
7:45 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Look Good, Feel Better
When Laurianne found out she had cancer in 2005, she went to the American Cancer Society to find out more about wigs. This is just one of the services the American Cancer Society offers as a service to cancer patients. Fortunately, Laurianne took some pictures of her wig choices, so she is my model for this post.
The American Cancer Society administers a program, in partnership with the National Cosmetology Association, called Look Good, Feel Better which provides wigs to women who have lost their hair to cancer. There is also a program for Men called Look Good, Feel Better for Men as well as a program for teens, and the 2BMe website.
If you know someone who doesn't have web access, you can call the program at 1-800-395-LOOK or contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345. You can also visit the American Cancer Society's Look Good, Feel Better web page.
By calling 1-800-395-LOOK (1-800-395-5665)you can also request self-help materials. And because you don't need to struggle with cancer alone, some areas offer group programs. Here is some information on the group programs, taken from the American Cancer Society's Look Good, Feel Better web page:
Volunteer beauty professionals lead small groups, usually consisting of 6 to 10 women, through practical, hands-on experience. Women learn about makeup techniques, skincare, nail care, and options related to hair loss such as wigs, turbans, and scarves. Each group program participant receives a free kit of cosmetics for use during and after the workshop.
Laurianne was lucky. She didn't actually end up losing her hair. But, most people do experience hair loss with chemo. With programs like this, someone going through cancer can feel less self-conscious and better about themselves. And sometimes that is half the battle.Labels: awareness, bald, cancer, chemotherapy, Laurianne, organizations
Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) ::
6:49 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Hairless Heros
This picture, provided by my mom's friend B, is the Santa Rosa Fire Department St. Baldricks participants for 2006. I noticed there are no women. Maybe Britney Spears will join them next one?
The next St. Baldrick event in Santa Rosa is:
Sweet River Grill and Bar
Event Date: March 16, 2007
Address: 248 Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
Please visit www.stbaldricks.org for a location in your area, or information on how to start an event in your location.
Labels: bald, cancer, childhood cancer, organizations
Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) ::
1:59 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Monday, February 19, 2007
St. Baldrick's
I have always wondered what it would be like to be bald. I imagine a warm breeze over a bald head, or rolling down the windows of my car and not having to worry about getting rid of tangles later. Unlike Laurianne, who loved her hair, I have never been as attached to my hair as it is to me. I keep saying that one day I will definately try it.
Yesterday, my mom told me that some friends of hers read this website, and that they participate in an organization called St. Baldrick's Foundation. (Hi, friends of my mom!) This organization raises money for kids with cancer. In fact, their mission statement is:
The mission of the St. Baldrick's Foundation is to raise awareness and funds to cure kids' cancer by supporting cancer research and fellowships.
In Indianapolis, they are having an event for St. Baldrick's towards the middle of March. I am hoping to get out to one of these events and see what it is all about. I am not going to shave my head this year though. I still want to grow my hair out for Locks of Love. But, to help raise funds for cancer, I would be willing to shave my head.
Just in time for summer, too!
Labels: awareness, bald, cancer, chemotherapy, childhood cancer, Laurianne, organizations
Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) ::
7:20 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Cancer Stories: Shelli's Dad, Mike
Today's story is from Shelli at Shelli's Sentiments. I came across Shelli's blog shortly after Laurianne died. We found we had a lot in common, including cancer. Shelli has asked people on her blog to consider donating your favorite cancer organization, one of the organizations on this website, or Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). One of the organizations not on the sidebar is our Laurianne's Hope Relay for Life team 2007, which you can visit to make a donation to as well.
~oOo~
There is a man behind my blog. It is not my husband, Jason. The man is silent to most everyone, but I hear him loud and clear within my head and my heart. He is the reason that I started blogging. He, rather the loss of him is the reason. In February of 2005, I started my blog as a way to deal with the grief and to tell people about my dad. He believed in my ability to write and I wanted to honor that belief in some way. My very first post was titled Lessons From My Dad and was a tribute to him. Let me tell you about him.
My dad was born in October of 1944 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the first son and second child in a family that would eventually grow to seven children. He would not lead an easy life as a child. But he loved his parents and his siblings immensely and it was obvious.
Dad grew up to meet my mom, Carole, and they were married on August 8, 1964. He was in the army reserves in what was an undoubtedly difficult time in our nation's history. He never went to Viet Nam, and I think that was always a source of guilt and pain for him. He had intended to go, had joined the army with that in mind, but at that time they only took unmarried men and my dad was married. He got news that he would be going but then they said that he couldn’t go if he had any children or any on the way. That was the week that my mom found out she was pregnant with me. There must have been a reason that he wasn’t supposed to go there. Probably it was so that he could have the three of us and raise us to be who we are today.
My dad was a paramedic for 11 years for North Memorial hospital. I loved to ride in his ambulance with him. It was so cool. Maybe that is where I got the first bug to do something medical. He also was a construction worker. He would work his shift at night for the hospital and then go to work during the day at his carpentry job. At some point, that became too much for him and he dropped the paramedic’s job. He really liked his job as a carpenter. He was good at it, too. He especially enjoyed the finish work. He was a craftsman who took pride in details and the beauty of the finished product. When my husband and I got married, his present to us was that he did a major part of the work on our house so that it would go towards the down payment. Now, everywhere I look, I see his loving touch.
Our nightmare with cancer started when everyone else was worrying that the world was going to end. Midnight, January 1, 2000. I called my parents, as I always have, at midnight to wish them a happy New Year. My mom said that they had gone home early because my dad wasn’t feeling well. He had severe abdominal pain. I told them that I loved them and would talk to them in the morning. When I hung up the phone, I told Jason that something wasn’t right and that it was my dad. I just felt that foreboding that something was really wrong. Jason tried to reassure me, but I couldn’t shake it.
The next morning, well it was closer to noon, my mom called and she said that they were heading to the hospital and asked me to meet them there. Jason went to pick up the kids at his parents and I met them at the emergency room.
The attitude of the ER doctor was a little perturbing at first. My dad had been experiencing these symptoms for several weeks. I am sure that the doctor thought “what the hell are they doing here? Why couldn’t they have waited to see their regular doctor on the next work day?” I know he was thinking it because, I have thought similar things myself when people bring their kids in emergently when things have been going on for weeks at a time. But this was different. My dad looked like shit. He was yellow. The man that stabbed himself at work one day and just bandaged it back up and went back to work was in so much pain he couldn’t focus. As the doctor ushered my mom and I out so that he could examine my dad, he still had this look of irritation, but I said, “Dad, make sure you tell him about the 20 pounds that you have lost in the last several weeks without trying.” The drape was closed and my mom and I waited patiently.
The doctor had done a 180 by the time he opened the curtain. He stopped talking to my parents (he knew that I had medical background), his face had lost all it’s color and he was the doctor he should have been from the beginning. He told me that they were going to have to order some X-rays and an abdominal ultrasound for the next business day which was in a day or so (I don’t remember exactly), he also told me that my dad’s liver panel was way out of whack. Here I am thinking that he has hepatitis or liver cancer and I am hopeful that it means a liver transplant and all would be well again. I was very wrong.
He had his radiological studies and then he went to his regular doctor to get the results the same afternoon. In the mean time, being the nurse that I had been, I knew the way to call in and listen to the radiology reports and (I know it wasn’t legal—shhhhsshh) so I did it. I called the radiology line from my home and listened. It took me several times to get through it because I was sobbing. I heard…”Several small lesions on the pancreas…multiple lesions on the liver, with the largest being 3 [or 4] centimeters in diameter…consistent with pancreatic cancer with multiple liver metastases.” Fuck! I knew what it meant. I thought instantly of Michael Landon. I called a friend from my previous work and I was sobbing. The first person who answered, another friend, couldn’t understand me and she handed the phone to the person whom I had asked for. I screamed out, “I am not going to have a dad at the end of this year.” It was unfathomable. And it was like someone was stepping on my chest. I couldn’t breathe.
The next weeks were filled with tests, pain, medicines, hospital rooms, pain, chemotherapy, hiccups and pain. The pain never was completely gone and neither were the hiccups, which caused pain. For the last 6 weeks of his life, my dad had the hiccups, no matter what they gave him to alleviate them. I felt like I was trying to walk through quicksand. To say it was painful doesn’t begin to explain it. And that was nothing compared to the pain my dad was feeling. I told someone once that watching my dad in so much pain was something that made me think of Mary and how much she must have suffered watching Jesus being tortured and crucified. It was unbearable.
As unbearable as it was to watch, that’s all that I wanted to do. I don’t mean that in the sick way that it sounds. I just wanted to never be away from him. While writing this, I went back and read a journal that I kept at that time. There were two phrases that I kept repeating over and over in that journal. The first was, “My life sucks and I hate it,” and the other was, “I am so hungry for every moment with my dad.” And I was. I had a very hard time leaving the hospital every night. In fact, some nights I didn’t. I would stay and sleep on a cot in his room and in the morning, I would get up and go home and take care of kids all day and in the evening I would go back again. He was on a patient controlled pain medication where he could push a button to give himself a “bump” if he needed it. If I wasn’t there to do it for him, he would sleep through several bumps and then his pain would be way out of control. I hated that. It took so much catching up. I needed to be there to control it. It was the only thing that I felt like I could do to help him. I felt so powerless in every other way.
From the first day in the ER to the day he left us, it was only 6 weeks and 3 days. Forty five days. It was too short of a time for us and too long of a time for him. Whenever I was with him towards the end, he looked so small and I felt like I really wanted to lie down in the bed with him and just have him be my daddy and me his little girl again. Minutes before he died, I did just that. I lay down with him and as I wiped his mouth with a sponge, I felt him leave and I said, “Good bye, Dad.”
Those weren’t the last words I ever said to my dad. I still talk to him all the time. Sometimes I do it daily. I hear his answers in my heart. I still miss him everyday. I miss that he never got to see Sam or Emily play ball or that he never got to see his beautiful granddaughter, Isabelle. I think she resembles him so much sometimes. I am sure there will be many other things that I will miss him seeing or being a part of.
I could make this go on and on and on, telling you about the man that was my Dad, but if you read on and on and on, I still don’t think you would know. It’s simple, though. He was a good man. He loved his family very much. And we loved him very much. Cancer took him away from us physically, but it could never steal him away from our hearts and minds.Labels: awareness, cancer, pancreatic cancer, share a story
Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) ::
7:01 AM ::
---------------------------------------
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Cancer Stories: Blue's Mom, Sharon
Bluepaintred asked me to post her mom's story on the 10th anniversary of her death. Also, she is going to try to quit smoking for herself. I think that is a great way for her to remember her mom, and I wish her luck!! Also, if you are trying to quit smoking, check out the sidebar. There are some links that may be useful to you.
~oOo~
Maybe, as a smoker myself, I have no right to criticise the lives cancer steals. Or maybe as someone who does smoke, as someone who thought ‘I can quit anytime’, until the first time I tried to quit, I can teach just one person how hard it is to quit. How physically and mentally exhausting it is. How it is not worth it! Maybe I can stop them from lighting up that very first time.
*We do not smoke inside out home*.
I teach my children that smoking is disgusting that it fills my lungs with tar, even my youngest, 2, tells me I smell yucky, and I encourage that… I don’t lie or try to hide my smokers cough from them. I couldn’t bear it if they started. Yet if I had to leave them early, like my mother was forced to leave us, it would hurt so much more.
Today, February 13, 2007, on the tenth anniversary of my mothers’ death, I will put down my cigarettes and try once more to quit. I have failed in the past, but if I keep trying, one day I will succeed.
*************
Sharon Gehon.
May 18, 1954 – February 13, 1997
In September of 1996 my father and I were digging up potatoes in the garden when he told me they found “something” in my mothers’ lung. It all happened very fast from then on; she had a biopsy, which was positive for cancer. I’m not sure the type.
I was seventeen at the time.
My mother hurt her back at work and had me rub it every night. It never seemed to get better, but she did not really think about it.
She had been a long time smoker, and had quit 4..5 (?) years before. I can remember when she was trying to quit, she had a little plastic smoke that she used like a baby would a pacifier. When she was really wanting, she would stick it in her mouth and suck, unfortunately she often forgot, and lit it!
I can’t recall the events very clearly, but some things really stand out in my mind.
Sound. It bothered her a lot when she was in chemo. We, (I have two other siblings, a sister who was 20 and a brother who was 11 at the time), would have to tip toe around, TV was very low and even talking was frowned on.
Smells. They were the worst for her, I think. We had a fridge and a stove down in the basement though, and my dad would cook food down there to help with the smells.
If it’s possible to have a favourite memory of a loved one suffering from chemo, it would be when my mother, sick and tired of hair falling in her food, had me vacuum her head. It occurred to me, much later, that the hair must have been bugging her something awful to have put up with the noise of the vacuum. But hearing her laugh as I tried to get it all… that’s something I cherish.
I got my drivers licence while my mom was in the hospital, I can remember going in to show her it. I was very excited! She looked so tired.
My mothers’ parents came down and stayed with us for a long time. They were there with us in the end.
I was on the phone, down in my room with my then boyfriend when ..my uncle.. my grandpa(?) came and asked me to get off the phone, that dad wanted to call the hospital for a check in. Within minutes all of the adults knew, and I think us kids knew too, that this was it. My dad made it to the hospital in time, and I am happy for that.
I do not remember who told me, or how. That day is very much a blur for me.
It was February 13, 1997, she was 43 years old.
I met my future husband seven months later. Mom never got to meet him. She would have liked him, I think. And when I was pregnant with my first baby, I wanted so badly to ask her about a million questions. There was no way for my dad to know all the stories a mother tells her child.
How big was I? What did I weigh? Was I on time?
I have three boys and they will never know their Grandma Sharon. That, I think is the worst thing of all.
Bluepaintred
Me, Myself and Us - http://redblogblue.blogspot.com/Labels: awareness, cancer, lung cancer, share a story
Posted by Lynda (Laurianne's Sister) ::
7:36 PM ::
---------------------------------------
Support A Cause
In Memory of Laurianne
Lives Lost to Lung Cancer
Click to Enlarge
