Posted on 10/30/2010 11:01:02 PM PDT by Dengar01
First of all I want to say I support and pray for all with breast cancer, I know what you guys are going through. It is a nightmare and you guys are going through hell but I have to get this off my chest.
My mother died of pancreatic cancer suffering after 10 years of pain. Every day she vomited, suffered, was in pain. My grandfather died of prostate cancer. He suffered he died painfully. My brother in law has testicular cancer. He has almost died 10 times and has been hospitalized atleast 25 times since August 2008.
But we need to go to Animal Farm. Some cancers are more equal to others.
October is breast cancer month. I have looked at the survival statistics. Breast cancer has an amazing survival rate whereas pancreatic cancer has a 5% survival rate.
It has been two years since my mother passed so I will admit I am emotional. I cried like a baby at her grave tonight.
What I want to know is why Breast Cancer is somehow superior to every cancer and gets more attention and money??!!??
You can flame me, but my mother suffered for 10 years after her surgery till she finally passed. She vomited everyday, suffered horrific pain, and I lost my best friend.
This is not a flame towards breast cancer victims but I really want to know why one cancer is more superior to another? My mother suffered for 10 years until death and my brother and law is on the same path. If he survives this year it will be a miracle.
I had one of the "breast cancer panderers" confront my teenage employees while I was gone, and they acted like the SS.
My life will never be the same, I have lost so much and the pink mafia could care less, they want to chastise my business for not advertising for their "charity"
Yeah I am sad but please stop catering to the pink mafia and look at to where their funds goes. 97% of the breast cancer funds goes to overhead. Only 3% goes to research.
When they focus on the other cancers I'll take them seriously, but these people are taking advantage of breast cancer victims.
Stand up for mom!
Amen to everything you said.
You got all of that cancer in your family..start looking for a common denominator....food, pesticides...bad water..too many chemicals in your environment.
It runs in families for reasons.
Eat organic, stop using chemicals in your home and yard and forget about the Pink Mafia...
They are too busy bullying the NFL!
God Bless and best wishes.
D - I’m so very sorry for your loss and all the suffering you and yours have been going through.
I agree with your point, and think that perhaps breast cancer has become the latest fashionable and politically correct (”women’s”) cause. A very sad commentary on this increasingly sick society.
i think you’re on to something. it’s just a gut feeling, but it’s almost like there is some women’s health charity of the year that the political class and the big retail stores and companies conspire to push on us.
there are plenty of serious health conditions we never hear about that get no research money whatsoever, but are a tremendous liabilty to women’s health. endometriosis, a very debilitating condition, which my wife has suffered through, comes to mind.
the question would be, why? what exactly do they gain?
My wife died of breast cancer this year. My mother of pancreatic cancer last year, my sister is dying of lung cancer.
Why disparage any cause?
If you feel so engaged, why not start your own cause to rival the others? Or would you rather whine and feel dejected?
What are you doing to raise any awareness or money for any cause, aside from crying about others doing more than you are willing to do?
Stop adding to problems and start being a solution.
“the question would be, why? what exactly do they gain?”
If the statement that 97% goes to overhead and 3% goes to research is true then they gain by ripping off the very people that they are supposed to be helping.
A more direct way to state above is follow the money.
Dengar01
I am sorry for your loss and the pain your family is experiencing, I will add you to my prayer list.
It is not at all clear though that all the vast sums devoted to breast cancer awareness and research are well-spent, and in fact it, at least some of the money would be better devoted to research on other cancers. Medical science often moves in spurts, and an advance against one cancer may justify a boost in funding so that it may be exploited fully.
Also, as you point out, there is an element of preening and coercion about the annual breast cancer campaign. They are so well-funded that the main breast cancer organization sends funds to Planned Parenthood.
Worse, the focus on mammograms is excessive and results in much unnecessary surgery. Ever smaller abnormalities are detected and excised through biopsies even though many of them are benign and some would disappear on their own without any treatment. And the radiation used in mammograms is itself a significant cancer risk.
“Numbers tend to rule in the calculation of which cancer get the most funding and attention. Breast cancer has the highest incidence of any cancer in women, about twice that of lung and bronchial cancer.”
Actually, lung cancer has a somewhat greater incidence than breast cancer. The death rate, from lung cancer, is nearly 4 times higher than that from breast cancer.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/commoncancers
“What I want to know is why Breast Cancer is somehow superior to every cancer and gets more attention and money??!!??”
Since only women get breast cancer, so the feminists seized the opportunity to hold it up as some special cross that women must bear. Their ludicrous claims about discrimination being as pressing an issue as it was 50 years ago started to fall on deaf ears, but this sympathy play will keep the useless harpies funded for decades to come.
Whoops, I need to revise my #10.
You’re right about the incidence of breast cancer vs. lung cancer in women.
However, lung cancer does kill more women than breast cancer (nearly 2:1).
You are absolutely correct. My Dad died of adenocarcinoma of the bile ducts (same type of cancer as pancreatic...just located in the bile ducts outside of the pancreas). He was 62, and I am still devastated.
My Uncle died of what was probably the same type of cancer 30 years ago.
I know that YOU know this well. They have done NOTHING in 40 years for this type of cancer...they still use the same ridiculous chemotherapy drug (not just the same type...the actual SAME stupid drug) that has a 99% failure rate.
The oncologists that treat inoperable pancreatic cancer are despicable people who should be thrown out of their mansions, and placed in their proper position in society...under a bridge in a tent. In what other occupation could you be a complete failure, and get rich doing so?
You have an interesting post here. Sorry about your losing your mom to pancreatic cancer, and all the other cancer cases in the family. Like alcoholism, cancer is a family disease and affects not only the afflicted but the whole family. My mom died from lung cancer and brain cancer and suffered so I identify with your loss.
There are, however, good consequences of the pink ribbon brigade’s elevating the consciousness of our society about cancer in general. The statistic I read is that 1 of every 8 women is afflicted by breast cancer, which is a huge number. The sisterhood is very supportive of other cancer victims too in my experience.
My wife is a breast cancer patient this year. She had a biopsy following self-diagnosis in January (all clear mammogram 6 months prior), mastectomy in February to remove highly aggressive tumor and involved lymph nodes, (they got it all) chemo for the next 6 months, then reconstruction surgery 3 weeks ago including mastectomy of the other breast, various cysts all clear for cancer. Losing her 2 breasts and the disfigurement, plus hair loss and negative effects of the chemo took quite a toll on my wife. The support and caring of the pink mafia was a great help physically and mentally and psychologically. Our society puts so much emphasis on the value of having Barbie Boobs, youth and health, beautiful hair, etc, that a breast cancer diagnosis can be deeply depressing and even embarrassing for an otherwise stable mature, healthy woman. The disease works at a physical and spiritual level and is a mind-game and chickenshit. I told my wife that her boobs had been lovely but now they are trying to kill her, so she needs to get rid of them and get some new ones, after all this is Houston Texas, and there are loads of freshly store-bought boobs on display around town all the time, whether one needs them to survive or not - you can have the boobs of a 19 year old if you want, just get rid of the cancer! My view is that everything the pink ribbon ladies do to help the breast cancer victims is a gift. They have been wonderful and inspirational to my wife in her recovery, and have helped me support her.
I can understand also a feeling of resentment from other cancer sufferers against the great funding and attention obtained by the pink ribbon brigade. I too am a cancer patient, having been diagnosed nearly 3 1/2 years ago with stage 3 colon cancer. I too self diagnosed, felt a lump in my side, which turned out to be a tumor the size of a lemon. I too had the surgery, and 6 months of chemo, which nearly destroyed my liver but I survived a varices bleed. I was a very sick puppy but I survived and am in the clear at this point.
The thing is, breast cancer used to be something of an embarrassment for people to talk about. In fact it probably still is in many segments of society - my wife even has a lot of difficulty being open with friends about her diagnosis - despite the favorable support and publicity of the pink ribbon supporters. I am here to tell you that colon cancer can also be quite embarrassing but it is just as deadly. And, we colon cancer sufferers do not really have the marketing cachet available to us as do the women with “gift of life” and “run for the cure” and pink ribbons and all the wonderful things they do. I mean for colon cancer, what are we going to do? Plaster a magnetic brown-ribbon on the back of the car, with a polished-turd magnet next to it saying “fight colon cancer’? It is much more fun to say “save the ta-tas”.
No one takes on the disease of cancer and comes away from the battle unscathed. Many battles over time are lost. There is collateral damage to oneself and ones family and friends no matter the outcome of treatment. It is scary, very frightening in fact, time consuming and damn expensive. And yet, my experience is that you get to see the miracles almost daily if you keep eyes open for them. Miracles of healing and science and technology and helping hands and caring. And miracles from prayer. Even when the outcome is not what we want it to be, I can see how what has happened can be of benefit to someone else. We have been living in cancer-land for about 3 1/2 years now, and just take things one day at a time, celebrating our little victories, and digging for courage to recover from our setbacks. Some days are good days, and some not so good - some days are pretty rough actually. But we just stay close to those who love us and trudge forward with the best life we can have, and be thankful for that. It was my birthday yesterday, 55 years old. Honestly it did not look like I would see 52 after my cancer diagnosis, so 55 felt pretty good.
There is no way to explain the feelings one summons to take on a formidable disease like cancer. It is a daunting foe. If 12+% of the women in this country can be helped by the pink ribbonites, that is a good thing. I assure you that their caring and goodwill spills over tother cancer sufferers like me, and help place cancer in the right social perspective as a disease to be battled openly, while encouraging the victims with love and support.
A good way for everyone in the family to support the fight is to concentrate on nutrition and healthy living, good diet and cooking, and healthy practices to exercise, pray, meditate and otherwise combat stress. We have a generally healthier emphasis in life, and are closer having been such care-takers for one another. So there are good things that flow from opposing a common adversary. In that sense I support the pink ribbon crowd, wish them all the best, and hope for continued advances in treatment.
FE
Komen jumped the shark this year with their “boobies” campaign.
I won’t flame you. I have survived cancer twice although not breast cancer which they have tried to link me to 3 times; but with several biopsies proven wrong. Thank you MD Anderson. I have been fortunate that it was caught early enough.
I think the problem sometimes is they become so big and since they are non profit; they start acting like the government with the majority of the money going to anything but the actual cause it was intended for. It becomes big business and PR gets involved amongst other reasons to take the money away.
It’s like the foundations that have been created for say celebs. All they are is to escape paying taxes. These foundations have little or anything to do with charity other than the person they benefit. It’s a good way to steal money while pretending again through PR that the foundation is actually doing something. It’s also like the laws our Congress pass to really hide the money appropriated putting it into private slush funds which in the politicians; etc. case is their private little bank.
Because it’s easier to say “the sky is falling” if the sky is particularly good looking. But, just like anywhere else, the Chicken Littles are most of the time for gain and only very few actually care in a rational way about the stability of the sky.
I lost my Mom to Pancreatic Cancer. She wanted no treatment as she did not want to prolong suffering and die anyway. From diagnoses to death 2-1/2 months. When her primary dr’s partner, who knew my mother well and knew of her decision on no treatment he told her a true story. When in medical school there was a Dr teaching about the treatments of PC. Around the same time my mom was diagnosed, this doctor too, got the same diagnosis. He told my mothers dr that, he wasn’t going to be a hypocrite and go thru the treatment knowing it don’t work and he will die anyway. He wanted to spend the time he had, repenting for taking all that money from dying people, giving them hope, knowing there was none. It at least gave us a feeling of knowing we were doing the right thing (for us). Others may wish to get treatment and fight. My mom was given 6 mos and died 2 and 1/2 mos later peacefully (as is posible) with hospice at home surrounded by her loved ones. This was 3 years come December and it still feels like yesterday. She too, was my best friend.
My uncle died of breast cancer. He’s not the only one, either....
You are incorrect.
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