A highly regarded medical journal - Parade Magazine

I opened the Sunday paper this morning and found a copy of Parade Magazine which is covering cancer in America. I do not consider Parade Magazine to be a source of hard core news but every so often it surprises me.

I have read the majority of it already (its an easy read and I had a case of insomnia so have been up for a bit already) and found some interesting information. First of all they talk about how there are 12 million cancer people in America and many face long term issues that I am all too familiar with: fatigue, pain, cognitive impairment (a/k/a chemobrain), depression and anxiety, and other cancers. 25% of the people lucky enough to get cancer, are even luckier and get it a second time. (Its all a matter of attitude here.) I say cancer is the gift that keeps on giving.

They also talk about the imbalance in funding. More money is spent on breast cancer research than any other kind of cancer but more people die from colon cancer each year (40,000 vs. 50,000). Colon cancer research receives roughly less than half of what breast cancer research does ($599 million vs. $264 million). Thyroid cancer by the way, which is the fastest growing cancer currently, increasing at 6.5% annually, is barely mentioned and only on the list of top ten cancers affecting women each year.

I will say I thought Parade Magazine did a nice job with a concise overview of cancer these days. But there is a lot more behind it. If you want to find out more and how you can help, go to the American Cancer Society's website and you can find out about different types of cancer - diagnosis, prognosis, statistics, treatment - and how you can donate, volunteer, or find support.

The word for the day is 'pain'. I picked up the cat this morning and evidently I should not have. Ouch. It may have done me in for the day. This is not good.