Fat or fit

What's the worst thing about any doctor appointment? They weigh you. What's the nastiest machine at the gym? The scale - especially when it goes in the wrong direction. Has any doctor never said 'stop exercising and eating right'? No, never. They always say eat right, get plenty of exercise, and maintain a healthy weight - which to most of us means 'lose weight'. There is a problem between the 'get plenty of exercise' vs the 'maintain a healthy weight'. Muscle is denser than flab.

My husband used to be in the Army Reserves where he had a regular battle with the weight requirements which are based on a version of BMI. Being a heavy boned guy, he was always on the upper end and stressed. But the military requires physically fit soldiers so he would continually fight his own battle of the bulge. Someone at one point had pointed out that entire NFL teams, while being very fit, would not make the military requirements either.

Now at the Olympics some are calling the women athletes fat. Look at Misty May Treanor of beach volleyball fame. I looked up  her BMI. She's at 23.4 which is topping out the normal range. Does she look fat? No! She looks amazingly fit and on the edge of skinny. Some of the teams are calling the one's who beat them fat. Hello! You need many muscles to be that athletic and they are doing what they need to do to break Olympic and World records.

And why is it the media's business about what people weigh anyway? And why is it such a societal issue that women are supposed to be a size 4? Name calling never got anyone anywhere.

I do know I have a spare 20+ lbs to give to anyone who wants it.

23 Best Breast Cancer Blogs of 2012

Healthline just announced their top 23 breast cancer blogs of 2012 and for some reason included me. I am very honored. You can read what they wrote about me here. Apparently I have opinions.

"Caroline has her own list of aches, pains, and the cancer bug, but she’s not letting it stop her. This survivor has a few bones to pick with the medical community, though, and she’s not letting anything slide. Advocate, blogger, and awareness junkie extraordinaire, Caroline has big plans for cancer: its end.

Caroline’s Breast Cancer Blog has no shortage of provocative, detailed discussion about what’s new in breast cancer treatments, diagnosis, and everything else she feels motivated to scrutinize. Cancer should know by now that Caroline does what she wants – and does it well!"

I'm glad they like me. Someone likes me. I guess I do have opinions.

But now I have 22 more blogs to follow. I probably already follow at least five of the others listed but I am going to start following the others. I suggest you all go look at all the others and maybe start following them as well.

Today I am off to the back pain doctor to talk about my back pain. Grr. I want a miracle.

Fired for breast cancer

It appears that Kathleen Mason worked for the most unreasonable and insensitive bunch of people around. She was the CEO of Tuesday Morning, a Dallas based retailer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in January and February and was fired over the phone (over the phone - really?) three months later even though she had insisted that her diagnosis and treatment would not interfere with her ability to do her job.

Now I don't know all the facts of her diagnosis and treatment - what protocol she had - surgery, chemo, radiation or what. It is clearly her decision on being able to cope with treatment and her job at the same time. Many women work through treatment.

She also had the job for 12 years and the excuse was that sales have been down for recent years. If sales were down maybe they could have asked her for a plan of action to correct that but you don't fire a 12 year executive with out advance warning over the phone. Stupid and discriminatory.

And they want to keep her as a consultant for the next 10 years - meaning they still value her opinion - so why did they fire her? Did the word cancer scare them? Or were they just stupid as now they have lost a good employee, destroyed their reputation (I would boycott them if they were local), and opened themselves up to a lawsuit. Maybe not stupid, just chicken. And dumb.

I didn't blog yesterday

I meant to. I started a post but wasn't inspired or inspiring so I gave up said I shall have a blogless day.

Today I am up early (thanks to the cat once again) and have a lot to do - after I read the Sunday paper. I have to get some work done because I didnt yesterday and tomorrow I go to my other job, have a meeting, and then a phone call.

We have big plans for this afternoon. We have expensive tickets to the Boston Red Sox. Expensive meaning I would never pay that much but I won them in a raffle so they were free. They are Pavilion Box which means they are way up high, in the bright 90 degree sun but we are hoping for a breeze. Then after the game we have a birthday party to go to.

I like having a normal life sometimes where my medical crap doesn't take center stage and prevent me from doing fun things. Sometimes I realize I don't have much of a normal life when I stay home because something hurts or I am not happy about medical news. It can be a constant drain.

But my goal today is to be a normal person, have fun, and see old friends.

Spinning Statistics

Of all the nerve, two professors have dared to criticize the Komen Foundation for the Cure for spinning mammography statistics in a campaign last October. David takes on Goliath and Goliath (a/k/a Komen for the Cure) replies with screening saves lives. Well yes we can't dispute that but we can disupute this which is taken from their ad last fall:

"early detection saves lives. The five-year survival rate for breast cancer when caught early is 98%. When it's not? 23%."

So somewhere in breast cancer statistics I am sure there is a 23% survival rate but just because you don't have regular screening doesn't mean  your cancer won't be caught until its stage IV and you get that 23% survival rate. But let's not spin the numbers here. Are they trying to scare women  into having mammograms instead of educating them?

Part of marketing is taking the features and benefits and writing about them. The feature here is regular mammograms can catch cancers earlier. The benefit is better odds for survival.

I write marketing stuff for a living. My copy writing skills might be slightly impinged by the early hour but I think I can do better than them and not mislead anyone. Perhaps they should have said something like:

Early stage breast cancer has a five year survival rate of 98% and late stage breast cancer can have a five year survival rate of 23%. Regular mammograms will help any cancer to be caught early.

Hmmm... Kudos to the professors. A big thumbs down to Komen.

Stem cells

Stem cells have been a highly debated issue for many years now - and not just due to the fetal stem cell issue - because of the possiblity of cancer stem cells. They have been lauded as the next best thing since sliced bread in the fight against cancer and other diseases. But what if there were cancer stem cells which were resistant to treatment and regrew tumor cells? This is the latest theory meaning that even aftrer treaqtment they will regrow.

 

So maybe the thoughts on cancer treatment need to focus not on the tumor but on the cancer stem cells to prevent regrowth? This would be a whole new area of focus in cancer research and treatment. Hmmm... More studies (of course) will be needed (we need to keep the researchers busy) but we need to realize that this also shows us that with all the progress we have made in treating cancer, we still have a long way to go.

Equality and preventative care

So the benefits from the new health care act are starting to kick in. Starting today, insurance companies need to provide women with contraceptives, breast-feeding supplies and screenings for gestational diabetes, sexually transmitted infections and domestic violence, as well as routine check-ups for breast and pelvic exams, Pap tests and prenatal care. Well many insurance companies will. Some are still grandfathered in but as their plans are forced to change in the future they will lose their grandfather status.

If you read this article over on CNN.com and the comments that follow, its interesting how many men are against this because they feel its not fair. (Allow me to be a bit sexist on this.) Oh, the poor things, they have nothing to do with making babies, sexually transmitted diseases, and domestic violence. They are claiming its unequal. Well pooh to them. They get their Viagra paid for.

And to those who say free means everyone else pays for it the point of preventative care as these mostly are is to catch things early before they are discovered too late and the treatment costs are exorbitant and often result in death. That's a really big expense.