CANCER versus cancer

Recently in the NYT's science column, there was an op-ed about perhaps renaming very early stage cancer, so-called Stage 0  or sometimes carcinoma in situ, to something other than cancer as generally these conditions are survivable with very little treatment. Proposed name? Abnormal cells.

Cancer is hardly a single disease and all cancers certainly aren't created equal. A Stage 4 diagnosis with one cancer means almost certain death and something 60% survivable in another. I do remember being a tad resentful of a breast cancer survivor who was currently battling cervical cancer saying Breast cancer was nothing; try having cervical cancer! No one likes to have their suffering trivialized.This was just another variation on what I like to call My Tumor is Bigger than Your Tumor.


And you never know. A woman I know was diagnosed with BC in situ the same time I was diagnosed with Stage 2 TNBC. She was told the chances of it turning into 'real' cancer was only 2% and it was treated minimally. I went to her funeral this fall.

But today I did read of a  situation that might truly be called cancer vs CANCER. The president of Argentina, a woman my age, had a swelling in her neck suggestive of thyroid cancer. Headlines: The President Has Cancer!
New headlines: after removing the thyroid, no cancer cells were found but now The President Will Need Hormone Replacement for the Rest of her Life!!!!!

Almost all my friends are on thyroid replacement, which I find amazing. Why do our thyroids so often become non-functional? But at any rate, not to trivialize, the president's suffering, but the headline might as well read The President Will Need to Brush her Teeth for the Rest of her Life.


Still relative 'spring' here. Almost another week of it before winter returns. I am taking a short exercise break. With so much ice free weather, I can afford to.

Are you smarter than a chimp?

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Spring in Winter

This picture has little to do with the post. I recently had it converted to a 16x20 canvas that I picked up
yesterday
 and hung on the wall. It looks real good. I tried to make photo to canvas prints about 2 months ago and was
 rewarded by being ripped off by a company that still advertises

For the past few days and for at least 2 days to come, it has been sunny and almost 50, a welcome
 relief to me who hates the ice and drabness of winter. I have been trying to take advantage of this 
as much as possible going out for long walks and runs. Yesterday I had Ms. Maya who happily
 toddled back and forth on the sidewalks chortling over her ability to jump curbs.

What is warm is relative. One morning in a small, Italian village on the Mediterranean in October,
 we awoke to temperatures in the 50s. Our Swiss hostess informed us that this was the coldest it
 ever got there. Being Swiss, it didn't stop her from her early morning hour long swim in the sea. 
We went to a bakery with me being dressed in shorts and a short sleeved shirt (my friend was
 dressed more warmly spoiled from living in California for 26 years). The local ladies were
 dressed for a blizzard. One laughed as she saw me.

A week before, we were in Switzerland. It was in the mid 40s there when we took our morning
 walk. A middle aged man dressed in only a Speedo crossed our path and then jumped into the
 swift moving Aar (crossword puzzle alert: Swiss river almost always is Aar or Aare). Our first
 thought was that he was mentally ill, second thought, he is Swiss.

Where we were staying wasn't well known to Americans (unlike the nearby Cinque Terre region
 overrun with them no thanks to Rick Steves). We took a long hike through the mountains. The
 Swiss could be identified from afar as they usually wore no shirts and had walking sticks. The 
Italians dressed way more warmly and didn't have the sticks.


I saw a few people yesterday wearing shorts even though they were not running. We Michiganders
 try to soak up the sun when we can.

Ms. Maya's remaining teeth seem to be all coming in at once making her crabby at night so we
 were giving Naomi a break. We took her shopping with us. She was dressed all in bright pink
 but still several commented on what a cute fellow ' he' was. She does have a lot more hair than
 in  picture above but it is mainly on the back of her head. In the bright sun, the front straight
 hairs glint blond but the longer hairs in back are curly and darker. The hair still isn't very thick. 
One can easily see her scalp. She also isn't speaking. The pediatrician was all concerned that 
she wasn't saying anything at one; can't wait until she sees how much little progress that has 
been made at 18 months. But she is in speech therapy; we are doing all that can be done. She
 does like to imitate all sorts of behavior that aren't  verbal and seems happy and engaged. Also
 fresh in my mind was the anxiety I had with Josh not speaking in a manner that anyone could
 understand for almost 4 years and how he was classified by one tester as 'slow' even though
 the little scamp could play chess and now look at him.

At one of the stores, I bought a fruit smoothie for myself. Maya instantly demanded her share
 happily slurping it up with a straw; the cold must have felt good on her gums.

As I drive off into the sunrise..

A Facebook friend from Ann Arbor posted this from today

Twice this week I have found myself driving into a sunrise. At least they have been pretty..all pink and orange providing a beautiful backdrop to the snow covered trees.  The first time was Tuesday rescuing Julia from my key stealing son: today to get some dreaded dental work done. On X-mas eve, a tooth broke in two. My dentist was gone until this Tuesday. Fortunately this thing did not hurt. For part of the 2 weeks I have lived with this, he had emergency back-up but I really didn't want to deal with that person. The dentist has a new way of pre-numbing one for the shot; instead of  just swabbing the area with a local, he sticks a huge wad of cotton impregnated with the local. Unfortunately, it dripped down my throat which felt like it was swelling shut. I thought I was going to choke to death.

My sleep cycle sucks. I was so happy the other night, I actually slept through the night. Usually I have no trouble falling asleep, I fell asleep just as Michigan was making a comeback in the Sugar Bowl for instance. Almost every night I wake up around 3 am and useless thoughts go through my mind. I read to think of something else. Last night, I couldn't even fall asleep and then once I finally did, I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to get up extra early to see the dentist. Well I guess I have all the time in the world to sleep..I just don't.

We will have a week of relative warmness. I've been gamely trying to keep up my running in very bad conditions (strong winds, ice). I will take a walk in the sun. Below is a photo I took in England. How I long for flowers again!

Jumping into that New Year

The point of no return

Lately our yellow rag, which sunk to new lows today with its sensationalistic story of a doctor looking out his own window, has been dutifully reporting on a spate of suicides around our fair city. The reasons were not given. In at least one case, mental problems were hinted at but in the other cases, everything on the surface looked just fine.  Well it is dark and around the holidays...and our economy really is bad here.

In the US, suicides are the 10th  most common cause of death versus cancer, which is number 2. Rates really vary according to sex and age. Teenage boys for instance are four times more likely to kill themselves than teenage girls. A boy a few years older than Shanna killed himself when he found out that he was not admitted to Harvard (though he got into all the other Ivies).  Over the years, various other boys have killed themselves, many just on an impulse.

Despite having  many family members that have had cancer, cancer never killed them but in two cases, suicide did. In one case, mental illness was involved; in the other, despair due to the Crash of 1929 led a great-uncle to shoot himself. He left behind a widow and two kids. He must not have lost everything because his widow was able to buy cheap and after the depression, was quite wealthy.

In Steve's family, cancer has killed more of his relatives than anything else.

I never knew anyone really well who killed themselves though I was acquainted with three women who did. One woman I had only met once but I thought I knew her as her significant other discussed her for hours with me over a period of a year. I knew that she was profoundly sad but she had a child, how could she leave her?
Another was a neighbor who I had spoken to on several occasions. She was a bright, pleasant woman giving no hint on the darkness brewing beneath the surface. Her two, young children found her, which she should have anticipated. Another woman was a co-worker who did a swan dive off a parking structure; again WTF?

Could these have been prevented? The ex-significant other beat himself up over this..he ignored a crisis call having dealt with them too many times before. Not too long ago, an older brother of a friend of Naomi's had some sort of break-down and left a note leaving parents frantically scrambling to try to intercede. They were too late. He seemed to be one of the most popular boys at school.

About 8 years ago, I came across, through snooping, a suicide attempt. I alerted the mother. Was there any gratitude here? No..far from it (See shooting the messenger) but I thought ( and still think) that potentially saving a life was worth it.

I was awakened quite early this morning with a request to drive my daughter-in-law to work as her keys were mistakenly taken. Argh! Of course it was near rush hour, the roads right around my house covered with snow and ice and  they live 15 miles away. Fortunately only a small area right around my house had the ice (although this sort of screws up my running schedule) but the whole adventure took an hour. Maybe she won't ignore my Facebook friend request...

A long, tall drink of water

We should have shot this from the side to show how big these stilettos were

Happy

A few years ago, the host in a restaurant looked at Naomi in amazement:

My, aren't you a long, tall drink of water!

Naomi hadn't heard  that expression before and found it hilarious. Teetering in her 4 inch bright red stilettos last night,  she was almost as tall as Don'tae. The mini skirt made her legs look especially long. This photo doesn't quite show how she looked. They went out last night for part of New Year's. We had Ms. Maya.
Josh and Julia were in Chicago having a night on the town while Naomi and her family kept Sunny company.

High wind advisory! Fortunately the winds didn't pick up to their gale force self until after my run. It felt good to be out in the relative warmth. Lots of people out there getting their runs and walks in before all turns sour.

A brand New Year! I won't put my resolutions out there but I have them.