Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act

Proposed Mastectomy Law Change (written by a surgeon) I'll never forget the look in my patients' eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the drains, new exercises and no breast. I remember begging the doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies. So there I sat with my patient giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet 'Thank you' they muttered. A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery. This Mastectomy Bill is in Congress now. It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important. Please take the time and do it really quick! The Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill is important legislation for all women. Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you're reading this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same. There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached. Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support.. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE! sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and state and zip code number. http://www.mylifetimecom/community/my-lifetime-commitment/breast-cancer/petition/breast-cancer-petition This takes about 2 seconds. PLEASE PASS THIS ON to your family & friends. THANK YOU!

Cancer Is a Bitch

Gail Konop Baker bares all in her memoir Cancer Is a Bitch: (Or, I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis). I have no idea how Gail and I connected on Facebook, but I'm so glad we did. Once I discovered that she had written a book with such a hysterical title, I knew it was one that I'd enjoy reading.

"I imagine all the biopsied areas are cancerous and it spreads and...I become a pothead because why the hell not? I'll call my old pot connection from college and order the best. I'll get a giant purple bong and spend my days with my head floating in pillows of bong smoke, except I hate smoke. Smoke hurts my throat, which is why I was never much of a pot smoker in college. So I'll move to California instead and go to one of those bakeris for medically sanctioned users, like the one I saw on Weeds, and Mary Louise Parker and I will become best friends. I really like her. She's so down to earth and real and honest, except for the whole drug-dealing thing. But I'll help her find a better guy and do something about that brother who's driving her crazy. And when my hair falls out, she'll help me find a Farrah Fawcett wig. Finally, the hair I wanted in seventh grade. Hair that can't be mussed at night and saves me time in the morning - maybe this isn't so bad. Me stoned with good hair."

Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. I fell in love with the characters, and at one point felt a little guilty, as if I were watching this family through their kitchen window. So much emotion is exposed through Gail's descriptions, conversations and she reveals her most intimate thoughts that I now feel I know her so well.

"I want to be brave. I want to be big. I want to be gracious and cool. I want to be the Audrey Hepburn of cancer. I want to be like that girl who went to my high school, Heather Arnold. Tall and lithe and wide-eyed, she had leukemia and when her long diaphanous white-blond hair fell out, she tied the most gorgeous silk scarves around her delicate head, sloped bell-bottom pants off her jutting hips, wrapped her bony wrists in loose sheaves of silver bangles. She wore it well. She made cancer look sexy. As if the very fact that she wouldn't be here forever made her mysteroius and irresistible, more valuable than the rest of us."

The funny thing about this book is that it's not really about cancer. I know, many people would argue with me. But the way I see it, this book is about life. Life as a Mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a lover and a woman who just so happens to have breast cancer.

"I'm not sure I trust the future anymore. It doesn't exist until it happens and it doesn't happen if you don't exist."

For many of us, the crazy, scary things that life throws our way are oftentimes more uncomfortable and more distracting to those around us. Moms will relate to Gail's need to make everyone around her comfortable and secure instead of being concerned for herself.

"I stare out the window and count illuminated mile markers and think, I don't want Mike to lose me, because he hates losing things and I hate being lost so it really wouldn't work out for either of us."

I've read other memoirs about dealing with cancer but none are so real and raw as this one. Gail's family loves her to pieces and it's obvious from the way she refers to them that they are an amazing group of people who is lucky to have her in their lives.

"The things I want, I've told him, many times, in therapy and out, can't be bought.

I want a deep and abiding companionship and partnership. I want each of us to be the soft spot for the other to land on, I want our home and our family to nurture and enrich all of us, I want our level of trust to be so solid that we can laugh and cry out loud, with our entire being. I want us to feel open and free to be our best selves and now I want my health. But he can't buy that either, can't give me what I want, and that makes him feel utterly powerless as a physician and a husband."

Gail's cancer is definitely not something she takes lightly, but the fact that life must go on allows us to see that Gail, or anyone, can live a "normal" life despite a positive diagnosis.

Book Review: Nordie's at Noon

I can't recall where I first heard of this book, Nordie's at Noon, but I got the chills when I read the subtitle: The Personal Stories of Four Women "Too Young" for Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer kills approximately forty thousand women each year.

These are the true stories of the emotional ups and downs that four women faced during their mid twenties and early thirties after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Like any group of young women, they talked about their careers, their relationships, their dreams and more serious issues that brought them together once a month at a local Nordstrom department store: cancer.

Jen (diagnosed at 27): I decided to focus on living and taking chances. I would have no regrets whether I lived to a hundred or to thirty. I was sent here for a purpose: to raise my little boy and help other women who may follow in my footsteps. That's what I would do. (p. 149)

I am thankful that I can appreciate my parents now while they are still living, and I look forward to the day when my children have their own children and can begin to understand how very much I love them. (p. 173) Two life-changing experiences had happened to me at the same time. I brought a child into this world and faced my own mortality. Either one would have been a challenge on its own; facing both at the same time was pretty overwhelming. (p. 190)

Patti (diagnosed at 24): You don't realize that hormones are such an integral part of you until they're taken away. Most women lose their hormones gradually. Mine were gone in an instant. (p. 187)

A true celebration of friendship and living to the fullest, Nordie's at Noon is also a book that will encourage women everywhere to be proactive with their health - and to realize that no one is "too young" for breast cancer.

Click Here

I love sites that truly help others by having users simply click here or there. I have two sites like this to share and I'm equally excited about both.

FREE RICE is a site which not only helps feed the hungry but helps increase your English language vocabulary.

For every word you correctly define (you get four choices to select from), Free Rice will donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

I know, 20 grains of rice doesn't really sound like much, but this site is as addicting as solitaire once was.

I'm proud to say that I donated at least 200 grains of rice during my first 4 minutes on the site. I learned many new words and correctly defined even more.

The site does come with a warning, however: This game may make you smarter.

It can also help you:

• Formulate your ideas better
• Write better papers, emails and business letters
• Speak more precisely and persuasively
• Comprehend more of what you read
• Read faster because you comprehend better
• Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
• Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
• Perform better at job interviews and conferences
• Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
• Be more effective and successful at your job

After you have done Free Rice for a couple of days, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are speaking or writing. You will feel yourself using and knowing more words.

The Breast Cancer Site is a shopping site like many others, however, each and every purchase you make goes toward the donation of a mammogram for women in need.

They have something for just about everyone on your gift list: your sister, girlfriends, mom, kids and even pets.

International shipping options are offered on select products so take advantage of these low-cost gifts (check the SALE section) and help raise awareness and support a great cause.

Not in the mood for shopping? That's OK. Just CLICK HERE to donate mammograms.