Kidney Cancer organization honors Ann Hull

Today we are honoring our friend Ann Burkhart Hull, who passed away on Saturday evening after a courageous battle with aggressive kidney cancer. All of us at KidneyCAN send our sincere condolences to Ann's husband Jason and their three children: Ellie, Amy, and Joey.

Ann was a truly special member of our community. We remember her positive spirit and sweet disposition in the face of daunting treatments. She was active in the online SmartPatients group and was known for her kindness and support of other patients as they navigated their own diagnoses and treatments. Ann was an inspiring voice for all of us at our DC Advocacy Days, where she and Jason spoke to congressional representatives about the need for kidney cancer research funding.

Brenda Knapp, KidneyCAN Treasurer and co-founder, writes, “From the first time that I met Ann at a Rock the Cure fundraiser in Virginia Beach, I could see she was a fighter and wanted to make an impact on kidney cancer. I was always impressed by her positive, can-do attitude and her wonderful smile.”

Ann faced her battle with grace. In a recent Facebook post from the hospital, she encouraged us to “Take a minute today to enjoy your view from wherever you may be!” Today, for Ann, we will try to do just that.

National Brain Tumor Society

News, information, research, blog.

On Tuesday our son had several seizures, went to the ER, had a CT scan and MRI and by Wednesday we knew he had a brain tumor. A new chapter in our lives.  We had lunch together on Saturday in our old neighborhood and there were no signs of a problem.  Life changes quickly.  Don’t waste your opportunities.

Interesting video of a brain tumor patient with a sense of humor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG0Khy5751Y

Only if you’re wanted do you belong to the human race

After weeks of reading all manner of disgusting behavior from the pro-abortion state and federal politicians, I came across this in my OSU mail--an oncofertility conference to save babies and children. There are also people willing to save and raise to adulthood the babies the Democrats and Planned Parenthood want to kill.

It seems they are only humans if someone wants them to be.

"This conference is intended for physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers who treat children, adolescents and young adults with cancer before, during and after treatment: oncologists, obstetricians and gynecologists; urologists, reproductive endocrinologists and infertility specialists; primary care physicians, pediatricians, pediatric and adult endocrinologists, psychologists, social workers; and oncofertility researchers."

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

I met the Shaw women through blogging 15 years ago. Four sisters, their cousin and their mother who is now over 90 all bloggers. All were pastors’ wives or teachers or both.  They are an amazing family.  Now they are all on Facebook, so I follow and talk to them there. This post is from Facebook and is by Larisa, Carol’s daughter, whose daughter and Carol’s granddaughter, Lily, was diagnosed with cancer over 10 years ago, had passed the important milestones, and then two years ago had a relapse.  She writes:

September college football, relapse, end of treatment, childhood cancer awareness month!

I head into September conflicted once again. 10 years ago the first September after Lily was diagnosed I charged into the month determined to raise awareness for childhood cancer.

The last 10 years hasn’t weakened my resolve, but it has rocked me to the core. The first go around I was filled with the hope and confidence of a fighter in their first fight beating their opponent. Now bloody and tired we are trying to deliver the knock out punch praying cancer stays down on the mat for not sure how much more we can take.

2 years ago on September 1st I remember feeling almost guilty posting about childhood cancer awareness month as I thought about Lily surpassing the ages of many of the friends we had lost. She was doing so well. I remember telling Deb at a fundraiser I felt we had reached the point cancer didn’t rule our lives.

That obviously all changed Sept 22 of that year with one blood test. Over the past two years I have waffled between thankful my baby is kicking cancer’s butt for the second time and very mad/sad over the fact she would have to deal with this all again after overcoming so much. I’m mad I couldn’t protect her from that. Mad she has so many horrible side effects. Mad she missed out on so much.

Many people say cancer parents are so strong. I don’t know how accurate that is. Often I feel like a stronger person would be able to protect their child from the horrors, instead as a cancer mom I am responsible for making sure she gets to and through every single bit of torture that could kill the cancer and then smile and continue life as if this is all normal.

I count out 20 or more pills a day for my child to take.

When she hurts I offer up not Tylenol, but oxycodone.

I thank the nurses when they hook her up to toxic chemo therapies.

I calmly call over a nurse and doctors when her throat starts closing from infusions.

I have pushed chemotherapy directly into her blood stream.

I kiss her forehead and help them position her as she drifts off to sleep so they can inject poison into her spine.

I sucked dead skin out of her mouth with a small vacuum and hid the flesh that came out so she wouldn’t see how bad it was.

I’ve helped them hold her down to give painful shots.

I silence IV pumps when I can’t take the beeping anymore.

I have stayed up all night to press the morphine button so she will sleep through the pain. Praying she wouldn’t remember the pain and she wouldn’t become an addict.

I have given multiple shots a day into her abdomen. I have asked her younger sister to give her shots too when I wasn’t there .

I have smiled and tried not to act like it didn’t make a small part of me feel inadequate when some well meaning parent gave me a homeopathic “cure” that I knew was bogus, but still made me question myself.

I have brushed out clumps of hair from her head. Twice.

I have smiled and laughed as they have shaved off her beautiful blonde hair. Twice.

I have kissed her forehead and caressed her face with the true intentions to see if she has a fever.

I have remained calm when people have asked what we did to cause the cancer.

I have told her I needed a shower when really I just needed the water running so I could cry without her hearing.

People think cancer moms are strong but we are just doing what we have to do.

I can’t even speak for all cancer moms because while I have done many hard things, I have never had to do and pray I never will have to others.

Explain to my child what hospice is.

Hold her hand and kiss her and let her know it’s alright to go.

Go to her funeral.

Wake up each day and go to sleep not being able to do all the horrifying things that I’m privileged as a cancer mom to be able to keep doing.

The true heroes in the battle are our kids. I am as close to her battle as I can be, but never once have I had to actually take all those pills or head off to clinic finally feeling ok after weeks of feeling bad only to get another dose of medicine that will make me feel horrible again.

While I know as an adult - true friends are hard to come by, it is a hard lesson she had learned now twice that while everyone comes around the initial diagnosis that their lives continue and that when your life is chemo and blood counts it is hard to identify when their lives are homework, boys and sports. Sometimes it leaves you feeling like an outsider just wanting to be part of it.

Or that when you have no hair, it’s horrifying but it’s also hard when your hair grows back and no one understands the battle you are still raging.

So it has taken me 3 days into September to figure out what to say. And I still haven’t. I’m pretty sure no one wants to read a depressing post but it’s honestly where we are right now. So, I still have nothing much to say inspirational other than we need a cure. We need to do better for these kids. We need to better support them and their families. And September is our month as childhood cancer fighters to bring that awareness to the forefront.

I have watched the past couple days while numerous friends have turned FB gold for the kids. Some I know have done it in honor of Lily and that makes my heart sing. We have come so far in 10 years and I appreciate those of you turning FB gold while I have been standing in the corner of the ring trying to figure out how to finish this fight.

So for September if everyone who follows this page could just do one thing to help the kids fighting this battle. Give a hug to a friend fighting. Take a meal to a patient. Change your FB page gold to support the kids. Make a donation (no matter how small) to an organization that helps find a cure or support families. Just one small gesture will make the difference.

Electroporation

This article in the OSU News is about interesting cell research on cancer cells, but includes some possible good news on Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

https://ece.osu.edu/news/2015/12/cell-cell-curing-cancer-nanoscale

The process of cell reprogramming through electroporation is recognized as an important strategy for curing Parkinson and Alzheimer’s diseases, as well as many cancers. Stem cell reprogramming researchers were even awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012.

Electroporation involves delivering probes to individual cell membranes, in order to apply a focused electrical field. This makes the cells permeable enough to place foreign molecules inside, like genes or drug treatments, without damaging the surrounding tissue.

[If my troll who doesn’t like my medical articles or my political articles or my pro-life views takes issue with this, please take it up with either the researcher or the editor of the article.  Thanks.]

Midlife Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Incident Cancer, and Survival After Cancer in Men

Good news.  Cardiovascular fitness in midlife may protect against cancer, not just heart disease.  Aren’t middle age?  Well, tell your sons, or grandsons.

Free article. http://oncology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2203829

• High CRF was associated with reduced incident lung (HR, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.29-0.68]) and colorectal cancer (HR, 0.56 [95% CI, 0.36-0.87]) in white men.

• High CRF is associated with a one-third risk reduction in all cancer-related deaths among men who developed lung, colorectal, or prostate cancer at age 65 years or older compared with low CRF.

• High CRF is associated with a two-thirds reduction in cardiovascular death compared with low CRF among men who developed cancer at age 65 years or older.

http://generalfitness.tripod.com/id4.html

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicine/sportsmed/cusm_patient_resources/Documents/Training%20for%20Cardiovascular%20Fitness.pdf

The health and wealth justice scam

Lance Armstrong has an opinion piece in the WSJ today. To promote his foundation he gives a nod to the current health justice line, which is really an insult to common sense. Which is going to help the poor more, leveling out and dumbing down all the health care services, or basic research which benefits everyone?

A leading cancer specialist, Dr. Harold Freeman, says there's a disconnect between what we know and what we do. On many levels, we know how to defeat cancer; we just don't do it. Funding for cancer research. Investment in prevention programs. Access to screening. Early detection and effective treatment for everyone. Support for people living with cancer. Personal commitment to healthier living. These are the priorities we must pursue.

Social programs, prevention, screening and education, those are the elements of the walks, runs, and marathons, but yet all we hear is that we're losing the battle. Obviously, siphoning more off for social goals isn't going to keep anyone alive, is it?

When I count the members of my own family who have had cancer--my daughter, my mother, my father, my grandmother, my aunts, my uncles and one sibling--I can't find a single one who didn't have access to the best in whatever medical care was available at the time their illness was diagnosed. And with the exception of my daughter and my mother, all are on my paternal side of the family genealogy. Of the three who were still smoking when they were diagnosed (the only ones who actually died from cancer), you can't tell me they didn't know! These were bright people. It was the diagnosis, not education or screening, that stopped that behavior.

Before we let the liberals, progressives and marxists dismantle the research, academic and commercial powerhouses which will provide the basic research and technology we need to fight cancer, let's really look at all these media "gap" stories coming at us from all sides, whether in education, health care, legal system, housing, or nutrition. Let's stop turning health care into a big political battle that ignores that there are issues other than income that determine the state of our health.

I'm waiting for the research team brave enough to play the race card, to compare the health statistics of say, a lauded socialized system like Norway, with the health statistics of the American scrambled and cobbled together system for Norwegian Americans who have not married outside their ethnic heritage. Of course, they'd be unlikely to get a grant, and then probably couldn't get JAMA or NEJM to publish it.

Would you be confused?

Me neither.

"Virginia-based Smithfield Foods is being sued by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for allegedly infringing the foundation’s “Race for the Cure” trademark, the Washington Post reports. The lawsuit came after the company filed a trademark application for “Deli of the Cure,” which it plans to feature on packaging to emphasize its corporate donations for breast cancer research. The foundation argues the slogan will confuse consumers."Seen at Capital Research Center Foundation Watch

Which consumers are confused? Consumers of deli products, or consumers of advertising for races? The national organization of all the races, marathons and walkathons take a huge cut of the proceeds for letting the locals use their name, advertising flyers, etc.

Frankly, save me from the colors pink and green. Curing breast cancer is about more than being aware or getting a mammogram; and saving the planet is more about respect for God's creation than thinking you're a big green deal with screwy light bulbs and crossover or hybrid cars. I'm all for businesses being "responsible," but there's way too much coziness between drug companies, food companies, clothing designers, etc. and these various causes, whether it's cancer, diabetes or MS. The Komen Foundation not only takes a cut from the local races, but gets money from huge corporate sponsors and its investments. It has bragging rights on something like raising $1 Billion--and that's great if it all went for research, but it doesn't. It goes to administer the foundation, to sponser races, and to raise awareness. A neoplasm found early doesn't mean it won't kill 10 or 15 years down the road--you just know about it sooner. Besides, it's been in business for 25 years. Is $1 billion that great? And if someone else makes a sandwich and says "it's for the cure," how are they hurt? Unless of course, Smithfield wasn't funneling their contribution through Komen.