STEAM ROOM FOR ANGER
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I see both sides. Breast cancer awareness month raises awareness for a very common cancer that can be caught at home, and raising awareness and making it something no longer taboo to talk about probably has saved lives, not just because women themselves have become more mindful of it but researchers have.
But like all large awarwness campaigns, there is also a lotvof exploitation and hot air. Companies can mislead consumers by pink ribbon packaging their products while not actually donating to breast cancer research or to charities that help those with breast cancer, and a lot of people wear pink ribbons or bracelets but outside of visibility and perpetuating awareness, that doesn't translate into much of substance for those with breast cancer or survivors of breast cancer, and the campaigns fail to really educate about breast cancer beyond a topical awareness.
In a better world, where pinktober was more effective, teenaged girls and young women would not be brushed off when they approach medical providers with concerns, men would know that they can also get breast cancer, and to give themselves a check every so often, radiologists wouldn't shrug off mammograms of dense breasts or invisible palpable breast lumps as normal, and biopsies and MRIs would be discussed and offered more often.
If services for those with breast and other cancers or similar disruptive illnesses were a little better, it would be standard to meet with a social worker who would inform patients of resources available to them and help them obtain those resources, and there would be more emphasis on support and counseling for husbands of spouses with serious illnesses.
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Pulled in my apt parking to see a guy putting on a pink frame on his plate. Made me want to hurl.
Who isn't aware?? Pisses me off that with all the different cancers out there only bc gets a month of up and center crap. Can we say unfair? Is it really because breasts are valued for nursing, sex and self esteem?? Was that guy putting on that frame rallying to save boobs and not really cancer itself? Hmmmm
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There are awareness months for various cancers.
Lung cancer is the most prevalent cancer and breast cancer is the second most prevalent cancer.
Lung cancer awareness month is in November.
I would like to give you an altruistic reason that breast cancer awareness is a bigger event than lung cancer awareness but the breast cancer awareness campaign just had a lot more money behind it.
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unlike bc, there is nothing for lung cancer. Had no idea nov is lung. Just sad and so unfair to those other people with different cancers. Also, I'm pretty sure nov is supposed to be for pancreatic but who knows because the only thing thrown in our face is pink!
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When I think of the amount of money being made by producers of pink junk I get angry. I think that the nfl’s pink shoes to be worn for 1 month is a waste of money that would be better donated to research. I think the whole world is “aware”. What we need is more research, money to help people with cruddy insurance...hey how about going after pharm.... charging $20000 a month for Ibrance. I know they have to make money...I just don’t like being the token survivor people point to....what about those who don’t make it. They are my heroes. Sorry but pinktober still makes me angry after 14 years. My weakness. I don’t want to offend anyone. Just my feelings.
Maire.
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November is also pancreatic cancer awareness month.
Breast cancer gets the most funding but lung cancer gets a good amount of funding as well.
I think people automatically associate lung cancer with smoking though. About 60% of lung cancers are due to smoking. Also, it's another one of those cancers that evidence of can't be checked for at home and often isn't found until symptoms develop.
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which is why the lung cancer myth needs to be busted. My grandma never smoked. There are early on symptoms but even docs are stupid. She had a cough that wouldn't go away. Was given various cough meds. No check on possible cancer since she was healthy and never smoked. It would serve the public well to blow up nov with whatever color it is and teach folks the truth. After 6 mo of cold meds not working as docs kept pushing them, she was finally dxd stage 4! No tx now. Too late. If caught at the first sign then she stood a chance!
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Yes, the cancers that don't present symptoms or have routine screenings really need more awareness, and definitely need more research into developing tests that would show early stage or even pre-cancerous problems. Apparently my kidney cancer had been growing for years, possibly ten, and it was only caught by accident, while having a chest CT scan prior to my lumpectomy. Because of the size, I may have to do chemo -- it's borderline at 7 cm so nothing has been decided yet. I would love for a test to have existed to find it earlier, so I could have had it removed without taking the whole kidney. And I'm still "lucky" because I can get by with one kidney. People with pancreatic or liver or other cancers don't have that luxury. So I would much prefer a cancer awareness, research, prevention, screening, and treatment campaign that addresses ALL cancers because you never know which one will bite you.
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I am for drumming up money for better treatments. People are dying from this disease obviously there is so much more to be done.
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I, too, would like to see the money raised go to research instead of "awareness". One of my big problems with Pinktober is that I just hate being reminded of breast cancer everywhere I go...it's all over Facebook right now, stores are full of pink promo items, and it feels like I just can't get away from it. I spend more than enough time thinking about BC. When I'm out grocery shopping (or whatever) I enjoy having my mind occupied by something else for a while.
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If the person has developed a chronic cough, and it's unusual and worsening, then it should be further investigated.
The challenge health care providers face is that coughs are extremely common and rarely lung cancer and the incident of cancer from CTs would quickly exceed that of lung cancer if they were routinely used every time someone had a lingering cough.
MRIs are rarely used as a diagnostic tool for potential lung cancer because the aspect of movement due to breathing can produce difficult to read images and, unlike breast cancer, where palpable lumps can often be biopsied without being imaged, and the biopdies aren't extremely invasive, to do a biopsy of a lung nodule, it has to be imaged, and is very invasive.
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I'm against the "pinking" of October on several levels.
1) Self magazine and Estee Lauder highjacked the original peach ribbon when the creator, Charlotte Haley, would not let them use her ribbon. She felt it would make it too commercialized. She was spot on with that.
2) There are companies that produce pink products that give little to no profit from their sales towards research or toward helping the patient with treatment, transportation, bills, food, etc.
3) We would have to be living in a cave for our entire lives to not be aware of breast cancer in this day and age. Granted it is different for women in third world countries or who live in repressed societies where they have no voice. So lets put this awareness money toward those items listed in No. 2 above.
4) Wouldn't it have been nice if the NFL for all these years when they pinked out the stadiums and players with pink had just donated that money? But gee, they used this month to find another way to sell merchandise. Granted a small amount of the profit from sales went toward research BUT....
5) Where do we see major mention of breast cancer in men like we do for women? Check out the BCO thread Pinktober Revolution. On page 104, you will see a much more realistic ribbon of what the breast cancer ribbon should look like. It was posted by Traveltext, who is a survivor and is active in making it known that men get breast cancer.
6) I have no problem with people liking pink and wearing it in October but the party atmosphere that can surround the month does a great injustice to those who are in the throws of diagnosis and treatment.
Just my two cents worth.
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All valid points. My point however was that pinktober is not meant to invalidate other cancers. Although many corporations take advantage, most people have the best of intentions when buying, using and sharing the pink stuff. It has its place. I'm sorry for the other cancers for not getting the same recognition, that's sad and hopefully someone, somewhere will figure a way to increase that recognition, but that shouldn't lead to the bashing that I see.
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Boils down to each their own. The only place 100% money goes to research is metavivor.org. everyone else is profiting to some degree.
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dancingelizabeth, Before you ditch the psychiatrist, why not try telling her how what she said affected you. See if she is willing to discuss it with you. If she is, she might even apologize. I wouldn’t demand it from her though, but if the two of you are able to have an honest discussion in which you validate eachother and each make the effort to understand where the other is coming from, and can agree that it was a misunderstanding, that’s a win-win situation. On the other hand, if she is a top down sort of person and sees herself as always right in handing down her pearls of wisdom or her interpretations, find someon else. She should be offering you her “take” on things you tell her and you should be able to take it into consideration and decide whether ot not you want to act on it, or agree with it, or not. It may take a few trys to find a psychiatrist you really click with.
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There is ongoing research for better testing. Most people aren't aware of this but we are actually running out of helium, which is necessary for the operation of MRI scanners.
Most of the helium on Earth was formed inside of stars and trapped in the Earth when it was forming. When you fill up a helium balloon and that balloon eventually deflates, the helium thst escapes rises in to the upper atmosphere and is lost to us essentially forever.
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Haven't heard of running out of helium in the medical community. Do you have a credible source to link?
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Interesting to note that October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month. That ribbon is purple. We hear very little about it. In my area it is just starting to be mentioned. What is needed is acknowledgement of all cancers. How many of us knew that September was Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Got to love this one.Yes, some are more vocal in stating why they are against the pink movement. Rosabella is correct in stating to each their own. Let us not diminish the feelings of others one way or the other.
I have heard that helium is becoming scarce and have seen several articles on the subject. A Google search will bring it up.
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They really should make 1 mo for all cancers. There should be other diseases profiled too, like heart, liver, etc. There are things you can do to prevent or decrease your chances. The bc pink stuff makes me suspicious of really caring or just save boobs as it's used externally and defines many women and well most men don't care for flat. If you post on male dominated boards, you'd be pissed about what they say behind a screen name..
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THe problem, for me is like Kathindc said, 'the party atmosphere'. There is something wrong with the neat, perfect little ribbon which signifies what? Did anything that happened to me feel neat and perky and pretty? No. I felt like I had been sucked into some vortex meat grinder and I was part of a process, caught on a tidal wave and then when it was done, splat, there you are, in a heap, wondering what the hell just happened. Then along comes some bouncy, smiley person to pin a pink ribbon to me and tell me to be positive. This is how people get punched in the throat.
What is the point of 'raising awareness'? Breast cancer is so damn common, EVERYONE knows someone with breast cancer, it is so epidemic and we hear about it constantly that we are almost immune to it. People tune it out. All these campaigns to BE AWARE, what does it mean? What good does being aware do? Does it prevent cancer? No. Does it heal people? No. Does it create the cure? No. Does being aware mean that your life is not shattered? No. Does donating money and being aware make you safe from getting breast cancer yourself? No. So .... what exactly are we being aware of? This has just become a slogan for which there is no real meaning. Be aware, be aware, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, yes it is, yes it is, but by being aware we can change it ...so far that has been a big, fat fail.
I am pleased for and in fact a little envious of people who feel a commonhood (didn't want to say brotherhood or sisterhood as both were too exclusionary and breast cancer affects both genders) when they see the pink ribbon. People do great things when they feel they are part of a bigger cause, a worthier goal. But the pink ribbon leaves me feeling cold. Because you put ribbons on gifts, and there was nothing neat, wrapped up or good about what breast cancer did to my life and mind. Now, if someone were to make the pink splattered bug dead on the windshield, THAT I could get on board with. Because one minute I was cruising along and the next, BLAMMO, head on into the windshield of breast cancer. A smashed pink mess where my happy, ridiculous life used to be. The ribbon is not representative of the battle nor the mental and physical journey. It does not convey the picture at all. I feel alienated by the pink ribbon and like somehow I have failed to be the model breast cancer patient, smiling in gratitude and calling myself a survivor. It's just not how I characterize my journey. I am outside that perfect, pink loop. It excludes the reality of many women and in that sense, for me, fails to make any honest impact.
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Runor, I love how you think.
On the helium question, it's not so much a shortage as a stupid decision to allow the government reserves to be sold off to private ownership. Capitalism at it's crappy, greedy worst. https://news.psu.edu/story/274153/2013/04/22/earth-and-environment/probing-question-are-we-running-out-helium
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Runor. Fantastic post. Says it all.
Pink ribbons for October is simply a commercial money spinning racket! What about the other eleven months?
Started out with best of intentions - then got hijacked - as always, by commerce.....
GP
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Rumor has hit it exactly. I hate being out and seeing the pink ribbon attached to everything (most recently a pair of gardening gloves) Someone actually said to me that at least my cancer had the prettiest ribbon. Wtf??? I'm totally not against awareness but women are getting it earlier (it seems to me) and my Dr initially brushed me off saying my lump was a cyst. He sent me for a mammogram only to make me feel better as I was too young to really be concerned and I had clear mammo one year before that for a different cyst. Awareness also did little to educate me and seek medical advice about a leaky nipple 6 months prior to that. I knew so very little about breast health but I did know how to smoosh them into a pretty Victoria's Secret push up bra.
My BC was hiding behind a cyst. If my breasts hadn't have been cystic I might have not found it until much later .
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since we’re on this topic of giving to other cancer charities other than that big pink one that would gladly prevent any other organization from using pink for anything, I want to let you ladies know about this. The young man is moving forward with this endeavor to help support stage IV ladies. Let me know if you want in!
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I would buy them
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What a kind and caring young man. Put a smile on my face to read about this. Most people who get breast cancer are women , and yes some men too, but I think we are worth the research and effort to discover better treatment and hopefully a cure. And I hope the same for all other cancers as I’ve seen too many friends suffer with other types of cancer.
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lula- I meant to respond to your earlier post and was sidetracked. I love these and definitely want in. If you let me know how to order I will be all over it. What a caring young man your friend is
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Just tell the gp doctor. You certainly didn't get cancer from a car accident.
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Lula, What a wonderful young man! I hope some media people have (or will) put a spotlight on what he is doing with his hair- he could maybe even start a campaign among other young people to do the same. CNN could do a report when hundreds of kids cut their hair at the same time. Now that would certainly raise awareness!
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I like the way you think, Sarah!
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