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Pinktober Revolution

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Comments

  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 461

    Great, Katy. Thanks for putting your story out there to benefit everyone.

  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 15,894

    Our own Crusader Katy, Go Girl Nice Job !!

  • spookiesmom
    spookiesmom Member Posts: 8,178

    This could be interesting. Haven't checked into it any deeper. imageLists personal care products too For iPhone orAndroid.

  • jenwith4kids
    jenwith4kids Member Posts: 216

    Hi Travel - I am working on an announcement for a company that I represent that uses all natural products and teaches people how to "read their backside" to avoid toxins in commonly used products. Sas suggested that I ask if we can have a link to the company? www.non-toxic-now.com (which until 3/1 will go to Ava Anderson Non-Toxic. After 3/1 it will redirect to www.purehavenessentials.com. LMK if I can submit a write-up to accompany it. I am quite sure we spoke about this a few months ago and you said you'd make some room for me. I got side tracked when I learned of the transition from aant to phe.

    thanks! Jen

    image

  • traveltext
    traveltext Member Posts: 1,055

    Thanks Jen. We'll wait to see what's on www.purehavenessentials.com before making a decision. Sas, JB and others can appraise the site and if it's OK, then we'll link it from a write-up you may wish to provide.





  • spookiesmom
    spookiesmom Member Posts: 8,178

    bump

  • jenwith4kids
    jenwith4kids Member Posts: 216

    Thanks! Be back soon.

  • traveltext
    traveltext Member Posts: 1,055

    Interesting case on a carcinogenic product decided against Johnson and Johnson HERE.



  • Jackbirdie
    Jackbirdie Member Posts: 1,617

    yes. Saw that. Just like the personal care products council and LGFB. And the cigarette companies. They will not voluntarily change their behaviors. Either the suits threaten to cripple them, or they do cripple them, making room for safe alternatives to succeed in the marketplace. Right now it is difficult because these companies have huge margins and the protection of so-called government watchdogs.

  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 15,894

    I asked Anniekay if I could repost this here. She likely will be along. She hasn't learned C&P yet :)


    Feb 20, 2016 05:13PM - edited Feb 20, 2016 05:17PM by Anniekay80

    I tend to agree with a lot of you about the whole "pink" awareness stuff. I watched all those commercials and listened all month (year) long about breast cancer awareness. But while I also believe in positivity..... the message they are sending seems pretty black and white to me. The dark side .....we are told how many women have died from breast cancer; and the positive..... is how far they have come in treating it and if we fight we can survive.

    But they leave out everything in the middle....all that time spent getting treatment, the pain, and what it does to us physically and emotionally. The attitude seems to be....if you survived, be grateful and you are done with the race. While I truly am grateful, I don't think we'll ever be DONE. We will always carry our scars both physical and emotional to remind us of what we've been through, and darn it....I refuse to accept just surviving. I want to LIVE life to the fullest without this cancerous baggage I was given to carry around.

    I just don't understand how an international campaign of awareness can leave so much out of the picture. If we are all so "aware", then why are there so many questions from so many women right here on these boards? I myself was totally unprepared, and I was in the "really lucky" category.

    Its kind of like dropping someone in the middle of a foreign country at war and telling them to survive....no map, you don't speak the language, your life is in danger, you have limited resources, you don't know your final destination and you don't know how to get there. We can sometimes be so busy trying to survive from one day to another, that we either don't have the time or the energy or we just forget about the "living our life" part of the picture.

    If we are all so "aware".......then why is there so much about this journey that the world is left unaware of? Being positive is a necessity to a happy life.....but I believe that most stupid comments are born of ignorance and not necessarily negativity.

    Don't mean to offend anyone (I actually love pink!)......I just think they could do a better job of making all of us truly, fully "aware".

    Dx 11/17/2015, DCIS, Left, 2cm, Stage 0, Grade 3, 0/3 nodes, ER-/PR-, HER2- Surgery 12/17/2015 Lymph node removal: Sentinel; Mastectomy: Left, Right; Prophylactic mastectomy: Right; Reconstruction (left): Tissue expander placement; Reconstruction (right): Tissue expander placement

  • spookiesmom
    spookiesmom Member Posts: 8,178

    imageWas at my Chev dealer, saw this. Geez I hate stuff like this. Donated $4 million! Woop de do. Used to drive past a Camaro Firebird plant, where the cars got painted. The fumes could knock you over. Wonder how many carcinogenic chemicals were in that?

  • traveltext
    traveltext Member Posts: 1,055

    Yep, the classic pinkwash campaign. As to two major corporations donating $4.4 million over five years - big deal.


  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 92

    I'm new to this board, but I agree with what I've been reading. IMO they could find a cure for cancer if it wasn't for the fact that most research is being funded by pharmacutical companies and they make too much money on the drug treatments for cancer to WANT to find a cure. They would be losing money if they found a cure. What motivation do they have to find a cure? Maybe I'm too pessimistic...maybe I'm wrong. I really hope I am.

  • Jackbirdie
    Jackbirdie Member Posts: 1,617

    if you watch the very well-done documentary, Pink Ribbins, Inc., there is an in-depth segment of the proven carcinogenic exposure Ford Motor Company treated their employees to, specifically in a department staffed mostly by women. I think they were making bumpers. Chemicals, no ventilation, no concern for safety. Anyway, they kept exposing women to this long after the cancer-causing link was known, and the life-long female Ford employees experienced much higher than average BC dxs. They were devastated to learn that they had first been betrayed, then insulted a second time by the huge campaign featuring the giveaway of a "pink" (gag) Mustang, using a voiceover of a breast cancer victim to pull on our heartstrings.

    The high profile television ad, was run, I believe, during the Super Bowl, at a cost MANY TIMES times in excess of the cost of the car. So they donate a $35,000 car, and spend $350,000 on the ad so we will think they care. They DON'T. Nothing in the above scenario helps find a cure. It only helps the one person who wins the car. If they can afford to gas it up after emptying their bank accounts on treatment, unemployment, therapy, and all the other little gifts that come along with breast cancer.

    They use these ads to distance themselves from their own despicable and reprehensible acts, and rehabilitate their corporate image.

    And we sit there, watching our tvs, feeling helpless. This is just one of so many examples of truly demonic pinkwashing. I thank you for the reminder, because it pisses me off so much, out comes my pen and paper, once again.

    For anyone who hasn't seen Pink Ribbons, Inc., it is available to stream or purchase on Amazon. It will make you sick, but also will start a fire in your belly.

  • shepkitty
    shepkitty Member Posts: 878

    Traveltext ~ PinktoberSucks.com is brilliant !

    I posted here last September and followed along as long as I could. All the ongoing stupidity and greed of Puketober was starting to make me physically ill. I checked in tonite to share a "gem" and am so impressed with all that has been done here! Thanks to all for the united efforts to make our voices heard.

    I just saw these "special" sunglasses on the Oakley website:

    image

    UNSTOPPABLE BREAST CANCER AWARENESS

    Oakley Breast Cancer Awareness Special Edition eyewear benefits Young Survival Coalition, dedicated to critical issues affecting young women with breast cancer. With every purchase of Oakley Breast Cancer Awareness Special Edition eyewear, Oakley will contribute to Young Survival Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to the critical issues unique to young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer.

    WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

    OMD. Oakley picked a very good charity. But the chemical warning? Oakley has been the only brand of sunglasses I wear for many, many years. This warning is on the ones I wear! I got some letter writing to do.....

  • traveltext
    traveltext Member Posts: 1,055

    Thanks shepkitty, the site is a work in progress. I'm thinking of putting up a page where products could be named and shamed, but I want to make sure companies have a chance to respond to allegations about unsound products, so please report back if you hear from Oakley on this subject.


  • shepkitty
    shepkitty Member Posts: 878

    Traveltext ~ Named and Shamed.....Love it! I'll let you know if Oakley responds.

    I really, really don't understand why it is so hard to get through to some of these companies. Sticky Fingers Ribhouse has been used by our community for several years to cater our annual gathering. Over 800 households are involved; the restaurant makes thousands of dollars. Last year they had a very offensive Puketober campaign. "Buy a Rack, Save a Rack" was the slogan with a very minimal donation made to Komen. (glad it was minimal) A very expressive and heartfelt letter was written to the restaurant's CEO informing him that we would no longer be employing their services. The reasons were clearly explained to the local manager as well. We received no response. The crudeness continued until November. P.F. Chang's also shows no interest in changing their marketing and continues to spread misinformation - along with encouraging vulgar witticisms to be posted on their FaceBook page. Grrrrrr...........

  • Jackbirdie
    Jackbirdie Member Posts: 1,617

    it makes me physically ill too. I feel a sense of physical dread when I think of all the stupidness.

    Oakley ...... Shame on them. 😡😡

  • jenwith4kids
    jenwith4kids Member Posts: 216

    Can someone explain what kind of chemicals are in sunglasses?

  • chisandy
    chisandy Member Posts: 11,408

    It’s probably the composition of the plastics used to manufacture them--even though they may be completely stable or inert (or may have been used only in the mfg. process and no longer present at point-of-sale), CA laws are very strict when it comes to disclosure of environmental factors.

    What fries me is not Oakley’s sale of a product that at one time may have contained or been processed by using a carcinogen. Just about everything, given quantities and circumstance, can be a cancer risk. No, it’s the stupid “Save the Rack/Boobies/'Girls'” themes, as if the point of breast cancer awareness is to prevent the need for mastectomies. It’s NOT about “saving the breasts” but rather saving the patients attatched to them. “Save the Girls?” Only if meant literally and not euphemistically--more appropriately, “Save the Women......and Men."

  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 15,894

    Chi, honey, your explanation was on the mark.

  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 15,894

    I have developed a sensitivity to acetate in the reading glasses. Finally, one day I put it together. I got a different plastic. It presented with simply feeling my nose skin on the left itchy then right, not much, then hurtful to the point I was "aware". Nose was saying pay attention. First I thought I need to make a dermatologist visit. But then I got the connection with the glasses. I went to the Optician and asked what the glasses were made of, he thought acetate. He really didn't know. I think I have polycarbonate now. I'm thinking about getting an eye shield thing like docs, miniaturists, any magnifying need----- head thing. I read about 4-10 hours a day. I'm addicted. I would adjust if I couldn't read, but it is my life. BUT the story is bigger than that.

    I developed a sensitivity to polyurethane. This story will be complete which means overlong. I was getting yet another cat scan. I said to the nurse that the last 4:5 IV sites didn't heal right.

    1. The bad healing sites--4----hadn't been in more than 2 hours. All started by different technicians. Their technique was perfect.

    2. Those sites looked like a site looks like after three days. The bore look. Scabbed for 5-6 weeks. No redness, swelling , or drainage. Remember nurses I said that they were in not longer than 2 hours. Not good.

    3. Those sites took weeks to heal(5-6). I was thinking Hmm....... worry....pre-diabetic?

    4.They're was 1 of 5 IV sites in that time that healed and was invisible in less that 24 hours.

    I went to a friend in my old unit which was Specials and OR/recovery. She immediately, identified that the hospital went to polyurethane catheters. in that time, but the Specials/OR/Recovery had switched back to Teflon catheters b/c they had problems. My trip to the unit was in the time period that Teflon caths were used. That was the site that healed in hours. Highly suspicious. I did research. Nothing identified a problem with polyurethane caths. Since I was coming up on a Thyroidectomy, I had to convince folks to make a polyurethane free equipment box for me. Meaning nothing used on me, in me, left in me could contain polyurethane.

    Since this was not a recognized thing, I knew I would get resistance. I saw a Immunologist. (allergy doc) Got an official script that said I was allergic. Called the Risk Manager. Made him in charge. Plus, asked him to make a report to the FDA. My request was that all items used on me, in me(endotracheal tube, bladder cath, IV cath), left in me did not have polyurethane. Biggest fear was an eroding trachea. Not a nice thing. The key to cooperation was the Allergists script. I knew how to work the system.

    Can't tell you what it did. People calling suppliers, suppliers calling companies. Everyone documenting. Actually, retrospectively, I didn't get it in writing just his word. Won't make that mistake again. Anyways handled well in surgery, no problems. That was April 2014. Haven't had another IV since. Amazing. Till last week.

    Colonoscopy. Different hospital. Went through the drill of telling everyone days ahead to determine what type of IV caths they had. Day of procedure no one had transmitted the info. I assumed it wouldn't be from the beginning, too unusual.. After the office visit, I went directly to the pre-admission area and had a note added.. Then the day before, the quickie call with questions, it was not on the chart, I had it added. And as I already said it was not on the chart the day of the procedure. Too unusual---they didn't realize the risk. Chit. Took them time to work it out. The cath was Vylon(sic). Which already makes it in the Teflon/nylon family --"on". versus the "thane" family. But I let them sweat. b/c they didn't pay attention.. LOL, I just realized none of them must have payed attention in chemistry. I'll cut them slack they all were concerned and worked it out.

    IV site was invisible by the next day.

    I'm a Sherlock Holmes type. The bothersome thing here is this could have been chased and misdiagnosed for ever. The message of this story. If something isn't right...............be Sherlock.

  • Longtermsurvivor
    Longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 738

    When I first moved to bco's forum 8, I asked for directions and the Divine Mrs. M. told me that bco is a country, each forum is like a town and the topics are like neighborhoods. While I haven't wandered far from town, I did find this interesting bit of news to share with other bco members.

    Barbara Brenner, the long-time leader of Breast Cancer Action, initiated many actions on our behalf, including the Think Before you Pink campaign in protest of Pinktober.

    She died in 2013 of ALS, not MBC, but continued to be a strong advocate for us all.

    Here's a review of a new book, So Much To be Done: The Writings of Breast Cancer Activist Barbara Brenner

    And her blog

    Many thanks to the Crazy Town folks for pointing me to this topic!

    Hope you enjoy and feel inspired by this guiding light!

    Heading back home now, Stephanie

  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 15,894

    Hi, Longterm, Thanks for posting the info here. BCA is the best BC advocacy program in the USA. I didn't know that about Brenner. Sad. But her legacy lives on.

    Divine's description was a good one. Would you mind reposting your post to Just Diagnosed-Get Prepared. It hit's two points that fit on that thread which is for newbies. Thanks sassy

    https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/5/topics/748296?page=11#idx_306


  • Longtermsurvivor
    Longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 738

    Will do!

    Thanks for the tip, Sas-Schatzi...so kind of you to guide a newbie around bco.

    Blessings, Stephanie

  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 15,894

    Thanks, Stephanie, and thanks for posting on JD-GP. That bumps it :)

  • traveltext
    traveltext Member Posts: 1,055

    Thanks LTS, we'll put the Brenner links on PinktoberSucks.com.

    Divine's analogy is very apt. I visit many of the BCO "towns" and while the people can be quite different, there's lots of nice, helpful folks out there in the land of BCO.

    One thing, though, these towns have virtually none of the 2,400 men diagnosed annually with breast cancer in the US. I know, guys don't like to talk medical topics, and perhaps they are embarrassed to have the disease, but that's the fact. People here know that I've built the site in my signature to help push information gathered from the collective wisdom of those who aren't great fans of Pinktober. One page of this site mentions breast cancer in men, and out of that page a couple of us Male BCers have produced a Male Breast Cancer Manifesto which can be found HERE.



  • traveltext
    traveltext Member Posts: 1,055

    Well, I'm seeing the first flush of pink for the new season so our site needs to be updated: PinktoberSucks.com. If anyone want to add to the site, just PM me any changes/new material.

    The idea is to hit the media outlets towards the end of the month so that some of the pink hoopla can be called out.


  • tangandchris
    tangandchris Member Posts: 934

    Traveltext-

    I have browsed your sites and they are great! Thank you for sharing and keep up the good fight!

  • Imkopy2
    Imkopy2 Member Posts: 214

    OMG I just found this board & I love it....I've always said no one understands your journey unless they've been thru it... If I had a dollar for every you look great, you're doing so well, you're an inspiration stay strong, and everything listed on the bingo card...plus my fav so when do you think you'll go back to work!?!?

    I have some reading to catch up on...sending prayers for all!

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