World Cancer Day 2010

I can’t believe it.  How weird is it that my diagnosis cancerversary is the same day as the World Cancer Day.  And I didn’t even know it?  Not that I was thinking about this two years ago when I got the phone call?  But how did I miss this last year?

So I think it’s so nice because I get to tell you WHY there is a World Cancer Day and I will do this every year on the day of my diagnosis.  So you wanna know why?  To help reduce these cancer causing risks:

• Stop tobacco use and avoid exposure to second-hand smoke

• Limit alcohol consumption

• Avoid excessive sun exposure

• Maintain a healthy weight, through eating healthily and exercising regularly

• Protect against cancer-causing infections

ACS CAN: Your words matter

(by Susan) The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network is a great source of information about legislative action in your community and nationwide that affects screening guidelines, insurance coverage, and standard of care for cancer treatment and detection. In a world where the problems loom ever larger and our ability to reach out and help each other feels so limited, ACS CAN is focused on providing you the information you need to email your Senator, participate in events on the Hill or at your statehouse, or just be informed about how the latest news may affect cancer patients in treatment or in recovery.

The ACS CAN also recruits cancer survivors and those who have loved someone with cancer to speak at Congressional hearings, hearings on the state level, and other events where your words can make a difference. I’ve responded to two requests this week, actually, and I am waiting and HOPING to hear that I’ve been selected to speak on the Hill on February 10. I need to talk about cancer research funding and what a difference research and clinical trials can make. After all, 20 years ago, only 1-2% of patients with IBC survived to the five-year mark. Today, 50% do.

I’m one of those 50%. I have to be. I have way too much to do to fight a relapse. And I WILL NOT let cancer beat me.

It’s not completely up to me, you know. My survival depends critically on new advances in research into inflammatory breast cancer and other locally advanced breast cancers, those that kill far too many of the women that they invade. Right now, there are only a few studies that are even investigating the mechanisms involved in inflammatory breast cancer. Komen sponsors one. The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation sponsors another. The others must compete against much more popular cancers in peer review, and since not many of us are around to advocate for IBC and other locally advanced breast cancers (LABC), they rarely receive funding.

We must change that. We must.

And we must do it before my friends and I have a recurrence, or more of our friends are diagnosed.

To find out more about how you can speak out against cancer in a real and meaningful way, visit the ACS CAN web page and sign up for updates to your inbox. You can also friend ACS CAN on Twitter and Facebook.

Cross posted at Toddler Planet.

Get Some Bliss!

I started twittering a few months ago.  The more I twitter, the more I like it.  Facebook is an opportunity for me to catch up with old friends and stay connected with new friends, but twitter opens me up to a whole new world.  I like that I get to meet people and learn from them in a way that I never would have before.  A lot of them write blogs.  Some of them are witty (I so wish I was witty), some redundant, some are a little obnoxious, but all have something to say and I enjoy most of them.  (OK….I don’t really care for the ones that tweet like 15 comments in a row….I call this a blog, and I would elect to follow their blog if I really wanted to, but I follow tweets on twitter.  Tweets are supposed to be short!)

So a couple of weeks ago I started seeing some women I follow tweet about something called Blissdom.  After a few days I saw it come across my phone enough that I decided to take a look.  This is what I found:

http://blissdomconference.com/  ….very pretty site, huh.  

Here is the second thing I found out.  It’s a conference for women who blog….cool, I blog. 

The third thing I found out is that it is SOLD OUT…..what a bummer!

But then, across my twitter this morning!  A small glimmer of hope!  A GIVEAWAY!  Yes!  I have a one-in-a-million chance of going, but, hey, I have played with odds before…lol.    I really shouldn’t link the giveaway site since that actually decreases my odds, but….well….I’m nice, what can I say.  I also love sharing excitement.  Fun is way better with friends. 

So here’s what I would say to the decision makers of the “Escape to Blissdom” conference if you’ve gotten to this part of my post.  My story is simple.  I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer in February of 2008.  I started a blog as a way to keep my friends and family informed and to write for my children because I was SURE they would be without a mom soon.  Whatever I read about IBC suggested it was not a survivor-friendly diagnosis (although chances are SO much better now!) and they had also found a grapefruit size tumor in the other breast.  I had no idea what a blog really was.  I suppose I had seen a few, but a friend of mine suggested I start one.  I had used clergygirl for my email address (I’m an ordained minister) since no one can spell my last name, so “clergygirl” fit for my cancer blog as well.

Much to my surprise I enjoyed writing.  I have thought repeatedly of quitting my blog, yet I feel compelled to write.  I look forward to writing.   In many ways it has been my creative outlet.  And going through cancer with people cheering me on and responding with love and compassion through comments always gave me a boost.  It was one of the things that emotionally got me through cancer.  When I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night I would go to my computer to write and in the morning I usually had an encouraging comment and I knew someone had prayed for me.  

Oh….and I suppose now would be a good time to say I am cancer free!.  Now I write purely to give women hope in the journey and because it makes me happy. 

I can’t say that I’m a great writer…..I’m surely not an editor…lol!  But I enjoy it enough to continue to pursue this door that God has opened for me in writing, even if it had to be through stinky cancer!   I am working on a book and plan to do more blog writing in the future.  I’d love to attend the conference, but if not….I will certainly put it on my “to do” list for next year and I’ll certainly register early!

Pray With Me For Haiti!

I’ve been thinking about the best way I can help Haiti heal and I decided prayer is the best way. Join me with a comment prayer at my blog site and let’s see how many prayers can go up from one little blog for Haiti! Pray along as you scroll through them! I’m starting with a few examples. Short or long prayers are all good! 

I’ll make sure our bishop in Haiti sees these to share with the Haitians!

If you’re not much in to praying….just say “thoughts” or “lighting a candle.” That would be fine too!

Haiti

Like you, I’ve been following Haiti in the aftermath of so much devastation and destruction.  I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful for current technology that brings us information in seconds.  I check twitter every morning, hoping and praying that our Bishops will report that our missionaries will all be accounted for.  I also get updates from our media relations guy Andy as he flew in to the Dominican Republic and crossed the border in to Haiti. 

But at the same time, in the same way I can instantly see and get information, I can’t respond in that same way.  I can’t zap medical supplies and blankets to Haiti, as quickly as I can receive information.  I wish we had technology like that don’t you?  Sometimes it feels like our prayers aren’t really doing anything.  But they are!  I know they are, because I felt your prayers a few years ago when I was sitting in the chemo room, or when I lay in pain under the radiation machine.  I felt them, and they comforted me.  Feeling that someone cared for me and was petitioning God on behalf for me was incredibly comforting.  I reported a study a while back that showed that people who were ill fared better if they knew they were being prayed for, more so than those who did not know they were being prayed for.

So I urge you to pray.  Hopefully down the road we can help in more tangible ways.  But right now, the best thing we can do is pray and send money to responsible charities.

I want to share a few people and organizations I’m connected with that need our prayers.  Maybe you’ll want to follow them with me.

Here is a friend from my days at seminary in Kentucky who teaches in Haiti at a Christian School down there.  Her family is fine, although her facebook reports sound like she is very tired and afraid.  There continue to be tremors in the night and she hasn’t gotten much sleep.  The last report is that she flew with her children back to the states but her husband is staying to help.  I will look forward to reading reports of how she is doing and her husband is doing in Haiti.

Here is the site for the Free Methodist Church and another site for video updates  from our Bishop, David Roller.  I’m looking forward to watching these regular updates to learn how to pray.

There are lots of great places to give, but this site through the Free Methodist Church gives 100% of the donations towards work in Haiti.  We had a new hospital that is gone now.  Lots of rebuilding for good works going on in Haiti.

As for comments made in the days following the earthquake by people who have a platform for good and who are abusing it, who shall remain nameless, but I’ll give you a hint….his initials are P.R.  Just so we’re all on the same page.  I refuse to give him any more publicity, because my feeling is, this is what he wants.  He’s like a 2 year old wanting attention.  When my two year old whines to get attention, I usually ignore him.  I don’t respond till he can talk to me in a normal voice.  And so, my thoughts are the same with PR.  Let’s ignore him and maybe he’ll grow up.  He doesn’t deserve our attention.

The Haitians were already a country with extremely low literacy rates, more than half did not have fresh water before this.  So if there is any goodness to come from this, my sincere prayer is simply that we might give Haiti the attention and help that they desperately needed before this earthquake but are virtually hopeless without at this point.  They need to know we are praying, they need to know we will help and they need to know Jesus is weeping with them.