I am very pleased to announce the the Bee printed an opinion piece by little 'ol me. My regular readers will know how difficult it was for me to write something in a mere 750 words, but I managed. My basic point? Don't pink, donate marrow instead.
I want to remind everybody that the marrow donation for Kurt is tomorrow, Monday, from 2-7 at Mira Loma High School, 4000 Edison Avenue Sacramento. I will definitely be there, at least at the beginning. I don't promise to have the health or energy to stay until the end as I will have already had a very busy day. Cleaning for a Reason will be coming to my house, and a TV film crew is supposed to film me as they clean. This is very cool but it means getting up 3 hours earlier than I normally do. I believe it will be on channel 10 for you locals.
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Also, did I forget to mention that iTriage did an interview with me?
There is your reading for the day.
Ms. Silberman, I think you and I agree on more than we disagree. I am sorry, I do not know why some women even with early stage disease will get recurrent breast cancer years later. Most don't. but that does not help the ones that do. I hope we will all figure this out some day and more lives will be saved and other women will not have to suffer like you have. I am also not going to defend the pink campaign without reservations. I think when NFL football players have pink shoes, it has all gotten a bit crazy. And I suspect a lot of people's donations and buying pink stuff does not go to the purpose or research they think it does, or at least the small percentage of the money actually going to research would be upsetting. In terms of awareness, I don't disagree that most women know and think about breast cancer, but there is still misinformation out there. For example, I have women commonly say, "I did not think I needed a mammogram because it is not in my family". They are surprised when I say 80% of breast cancer occurs in women with no family history. Should we focus less on breast cancer, and more on leukemia and bone marrow registries? I hope there is time and money for both, but I know resources are limited. In the end, I think it is wonderful you are trying to help with children with leukemia, and looking beyond your own suffering.
ReplyDeleteI really wish you the best Ms. Silberman,
Sincerely,
Dan Herron
This is very interesting post..and nice review about this article..this is looking awesome..You doing great job..thanks for sharing here..Doctor Email List
ReplyDeleteAnn,
ReplyDeleteI've been following you since my BC diagnosis last year. I was diagnosed at stage 0, and hope to be able to continue with a future that does not include BC. Although I may be one of only a few, I do believe in my case awareness and early detection worked like it is supposed to. You say that stage 0 women cannot die from the disease, but my type of DCIS had all the characteristics of quickly becoming a large malignancy (comedo necrosis, large size, younger age at diagnosis, poor margins).
Although I could not die of DCIS, had I not received a digital mammogram I would have very likely progressed to a stage where the cancer would be difficult to treat successfully. I agree that much more of our efforts should be directed to a cure, but there is at least some value to early detection!
Wishing you well, Rutu Kulkarni
Awesome post and interview Ann! Always a pleasure to see what you say! --Scarves.net
ReplyDeleteHi Ann - Thank you for the op-ed piece. I hope you have gotten some good response on it. Just wanted to let your readers know, that if they are between the ages of 18 and 44 years old, they can sign onto the bone marrow registry through BloodSource in Northern and Central California. Just visit www.bloodsource.org or call 866.822.5663 for more information. People can also visit bethematch.com and join online. If there is one thing I know it's that there are brilliant people working on better treatments and cures for all kinds of cancer so I hope there will be some hope in that for you personally. Thank you for spreading the word about marrow registry.
ReplyDeleteAnn your blog is inspiring, humorous, and informative with an awesome attitude to kick cancer's ass! My friend, Sandy, had the same cantankerous attitude towards cancer. You are a refreshing strong woman that inspire all around you! Thank you for writing this blog, you, the woman behind the words will live on always to inspire others to keep up their fight!
ReplyDeleteBrendaLeeRather.wordpress.com
Ann, Bravo!! Fantastic article - most people do not stop and think unless this horrible disease has affected their family (as it has mine) - keep writing and getting the word out - and thank you! Pink shoes on football payers, c'mon.....
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your op-ed very much, Ann. I'm in total agreement with you. The pink campaign is way out of control and is so misrepresented by the media. Personally, I would like to see an investigative report done on the Komen organization. I think the true numbers of what goes where would shock most people.
ReplyDeleteGreat piece. I watched my friend die in April, six years after her diagnosis. She was labeled a "survivor". She was feisty ( like you) - I'm on the registry. Thank you your yelling.
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