Coming to the end of the week, the weather outside is bleak.  So I am taking advantage of the autumn mood and going through some recent communications.  below is an interesting link to an important message about the relationship between chemicals and cancer.

I hope this finds you well.

Given the enormous reach of your blog platform, I wanted to share this with you and hopefully your readers as well. Are you already familiar with the connection between chemicals and cancer? Studies are regularly being conducted that demonstrate an environmental linkage to cancer, and that rates have increased alongside the use of synthetic chemicals. The Breast Cancer Fund annual completes a report on the matter: Victories

Do you know that over 80,000 chemicals on the market today that are included in products have never been adequately safety tested? Science has been showing for years that exposure to these chemicals are linked to major illnesses including cancer. And last year the President’s Cancer Panel finally decided that exposure to toxic chemicals is an important and under-recognized risk factor for cancer, and recommended that the government take immediate action to reverse this trend.

The Panel advised Congress to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act, commenting that this law is “the most egregious example of ineffective regulation of chemical contaminants” and noting that weaknesses in the law have constrained the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from being able to properly regulate known and suspected carcinogens.” It has also been found that the increase in childhood cancer parallels the proliferation of toxic chemicals.

So why does this matter? I work with Environmental Defense Fund and over 300 health and environment organizations that are working to get Congress to do just what the President’s Cancer Panel advised, that is to overhaul our flawed policy for chemicals – and make chemical companies ensure their products are safe BEFORE putting them on the market.

I’d love to see if there’s a way for us to share this information with your readers whether it’s by syndicating one of our blog posts on here: What do detergents and fragrances have to do with breast cancer? – Not a Guinea Pig – Environmental Defense Fund, or providing you with information that someone there might be interested in pulling from, or writing something specifically for your website.

Thank you in advance for considering. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Rachel Pappas sent me a note about her informational website: 1 Up On Cancer.  It is an excellent resource on a number of different cancers.  I especially appreciated her section on “Freebies and Discounts for Cancer Patients”.  I sent the link to our BMT social worker.

Trish DeFosse, a student at Endicott College in Massachusetts, wrote to me about her new, one entry so far,  blog Cancer.  Her first post is reprinted below.

My Father’s Battle With Cancer

My dad was the kind of person who hated going to the doctor’s office, or any other check-up for that matter, and he was extremely stubborn, so it was nearly impossible to get him to do anything that he did not want to do. My dad took care of himself, but in his own way and on his own time. Little did he know, however, that for the last two years of his life he would spend the majority of his time in one the places that he hated the most- the hospital.
During my freshmen year of high school I remember my father complaining about a tooth ache for months, but when we suggested that he go to the dentist to get it looked at, of course he refused. My sister, Danielle, and I finally got him to go, but we were completely unprepared for what the dentist was about to tell us. The painful tooth ache that my dad had been complaining about was actually oral cancer caused from smoking cigarettes.
My sophomore and junior year of high school consisted of many trips to Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, as well as the local hospital in my hometown, called Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC). At Mass. Eye and Ear, my father underwent surgery to remove the cancer from his mouth and to reconstruct his jaw using bone from his leg. He was cancer free for a few months, which is when he visited CMMC for radiation and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the cancer came back, now in his lungs, and began spreading throughout his entire body. On February 13, 2009, four days after my mother’s birthday and two days after mine, my dad passed away. He fought long and hard for his life, and for that I am so thankful and proud. My dad is, and will forever be my hero.
I cannot even begin to imagine the pain that my dad went through, but I know that he is in a better place right now, watching over me and protecting me to this day. Experiencing my dad’s battle with him, along with the rest of my family, has really opened my eyes and made me realize how precious life really is. Many people do not realize this and take many aspects of life for granted until they are faced with their own death or the death of a loved one. Everyone should life live to the absolute fullest, because life truly is too short to be anything but happy.

This entry has to come under the “Shameless Plugs” category.  It is an email from Andrea, a double cancer survivor, whose post “Fear of Death” was reprinted here on Monday, the 26th.  It is always gratifying to know that our little website can have some impact in this complicated world.

It’s me, Andrea (see above post), I’m back to thank you for everything that you’ve done for me, for taking the time to read my blog, for deciding to feature it on your site, for giving me the oportunity to have a voice.
English is not my first language and writing that blog is difficult, and I’m in pain, I’m fighting my tumours and I’m sick, and it’s not easy. By sharing my experiences my only hope is that I might, one day, be able to help a worried woman, someone, somewhere, even in the smallest way.
I’m so grateful for what you’ve done for me, Dennis, thank you!
In only 2 hours I had over 140 views! This is the gift that your site and your reputation has given me, the joy of sharing, the feeling of being useful and the voice to educate and inform.
Thank you, Dennis
Very grateful, forever.
Andrea

New Bedford harbor

Here’s a little update on my situation and on some interesting cancer news that I have received in emails lately.

Headline:  1 in 20 Americans is a cancer survivor (CNBC)

Looking for Work:

I am beginning to understand the frustration of America’s unemployed.  The loss of a substantial portion of my disability benefits has left me scrambling for some kind of part-time employment.  All the news about the aging of the Baby Boomers coupled with steady talk about a nursing shortage would seem to indicate that I should have no problem returning to the field.  Intuitively, yes.  In point of fact, no.

The economy seems to have made the healthcare industry cautious.  As an old-timer my first impulse was to search the want ads.  But the classified section is skinny even  if it shows up in the daily paper.  And cruising through the newspaper reveals more ads for training schools than for actual jobs.  A recent announcement of EMT  jobs listed a requirement for a $10 application packet fee.

My next step was to look to the web.  I have signed up for numerous nursing groups resulting in daily deposits in my electronic mailbox of a broad range of nursing positions.  Problem is all are full-time and almost none of them are local.

The whole application process has been streamlined as well.  You set up accounts with various healthcare employers, establishing and electronic application and resume.  Then you must reapply for each new listed job that you interested in.  There are generally no contact names or numbers.  In fact you are advised that you will only be contacted if you are offered an interview.  Your resume must be simple and streamlined in order for it to be correctly scanned int the company’s database.

I am looking for 8-12 hours of professional (nursing) work per week or perhaps 20-25 hours of non-professional work.  It looks like I will only be able to secure very part-time nursing work through networking.  So if any of you out there have any connections, please let me know.  I have 25 years healthcare experience mainly in oncology but also in mental health.  I have been a clinical nurse, a nurse manager, a nursing educator, a speaker and consultant, a project developer, and I run two websites.  I can work from home on my computer.  I can travel locally.  Maybe there is a job out there that can use some of my talents.

Launchpad Winner:

From my email box came news that Anne Cheung was one of the winners of this contest which annually makes a cash award to five individuals who have designed projects to transform their community.  Anne’s Big Idea: Cancer patients face tremendously daunting tasks in managing and coping with their disease. Chinese-American cancer patients with limited English proficiency suffer additional uncertainty and emotional stress because of a lack of information and support in their native language. In a 2005-2007 survey, 65 percent of working-age Chinese adults and 90 percent of elderly Chinese in New York had English limitations. I would like to help to develop a Chinese cancer support group, which will provide information and psychosocial support in Chinese to these patients in New York.  (http://launchpad.encore.org)

Unraveling:

A while back we published our first fictional work by a woman who was inspired by the struggles of her mother and brother, both diagnosed with astrocytomas.  We are sad to announce that Marissa’s brother passed away last month.  The following is excerpted from her eulogy: I’m going to be travelling on a long trip, starting this summer. I asked Mickey what peaks he would climb if he was still able. We agreed on a list of 11 peaks, throughout the Pacific Coast of both North & South America. So, leave a message to Mickey on the sheet, and it’ll be cut into 11 pieces. I’ll leave a piece at the summit of each peak. As many of us can attest, sometimes the people that inspire us the most, are our next door neighbors, our football coaches, our siblings, or our ski instructors. So, thanks in advance for participating in this journey, dedicated to Mickey, and my luckiness to have him as brother.

But, no matter what, I feel the same as most of you feel: Mickey always wanted the best for everyone. I didn’t just lose a brother; like you, I lost a friend. A friend that knew me my whole life! - Unravel Cancer: Experiences with family battling cancer

Shared Cancer Experiences:

Terry Halsey wrote me recently.  Terry has an interesting website, an experimental resource, a repository of personal cancer stories.  Some stories are written by blog-authors.  Others are by persons who simply responded to this offer to share their stories.  What is unique here is a collection of accessible experiences organized from one cover page.  It’s a good place to start from someone just diagnosed, someone with an impulse to share.  Terry is looking for ideas and more stories.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to tell your own story, if your own blog seems like too big a step, this could be a good outlet. Even if you have your own blog, this is yet another avenue to be heard.  And the link to Steve Dunn’s work is worth the visit.  The internet is big enough for all our collected narratives.  – Shared Experience Cancer Support Database

National Cancer Survivors Day:

It’s coming up in a couple of months.  Information and merchandise at www.ncsd.org

Winter can be a bleak time for cancer survivors.  The death of Daria Maluda cast another shadow over our community recently.  The preceding post dealt with grieving over a child’s death.  Therefore I am sorry to report the passing of three more cancer bloggers.  Some of these are not recent but only recently came to my attention.  All three were exceptional writers and human beings.  Each was a member of our Honor Roll for Excellence in Cancer Writing, having published Guest Posts on these pages.

~ Barry Fraser, An Explorer’s View of Life, an esophageal cancer survivor, left us last July.

~ Christine Lynds, On The Edge Of Light, a Canadian breast cancer blogger, died peacefully in September.

~ Erik Ludwinski died just shy of his twenty-fifth birthday last February.  In having lived that long, Erik was a hero and spokeperson to scores of young children who struggle with neuroblastoma.

If you know of any other bloggers that have passed recently, please let me know via email (beingcancer@att.net) or by commenting below.

Social Support Research Opportunity:

Hello Dennis.  My name is Jessye Cohen and I am a doctoral student at
Virginia Commonwealth University. Under the supervision of my advisor,
Dr. Kathleen Ingram, I am conducting a study of social support of
individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer.

I am writing to ask if you would be willing to share the following
description by posting it on your website or passing it along via
email. I am really interested in hearing from a variety of people
living with cancer:

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University are conducting a
survey of individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer in order to
understand use of different social support resources. If you are over
age 21 and have been diagnosed with cancer, you are eligible to
complete a 30-minute survey about your experiences using web-based and
other tools or support groups. Please follow this link for more
information and to participate in the survey:
http://tinyurl.com/SupportSurveyVCU  Please feel free to contact me
with any questions or for more information.

New Writing Awards Badge

My second antibiotic is starting to kick in against my latest upper respiratory infection.  So I have crawled out of bed.  It’s about time to work on one of my New Year’s Resolutions: creating an award badge to recognize some of the outstanding work of cancer survivors who blog about the experience.  Last year I created the Honor Roll for Excellence in Cancer Writing. (You can navigate to the Honor Roll page from the site map at left or menu above, under “Community”)

My greatest revelation in starting a “blogroll” for Being Cancer was the quality of writing that I found week after week.  I started printing examples of this writing as our Guest Post feature, one of the most popular and widely read features on our site.  For the most part these are not professional writers.  They are just folks who started blogs and were somehow able to connect deeply with what they were experiencing as cancer survivors.  They were then able to convey the depth of that experience in elegant, moving prose.  Excellent, compelling writing has always been my sole criteria for selection.

Working over the holidays with my son from Boston who knows HTML code far better than I,  we managed to create a Writing Award Badge.  It features the Being Cancer Network lighthouse logo against a royal blue background.  From now on bloggers who are placed on the Honor Roll will be allowed to display this award on their own website.  I plan to spend the next few days sending out award pages to past recipients. I will also be working on updating the Honor Roll listings.

Be patient, try to enjoy the snow, and start having a great New Year.  Take care, Dennis