I've posted before about ONJ (osteonecrosis of the jaw), a rotten side effect of taking too many bisphosphonates to strengthen my bones over the years, or in my case, too much Xgeva.
For the past ten days I've experienced annoying pain in my ONJ spot of exposed bone on the roof of my mouth. I saw the dentist, and she wasn't sure what might cause that pain. She doesn't think I need another root canal. The ONJ spot hasn't changed in appearance. So Dr Amy spoke to Dr G and together they decided I should have a CT of my mandible (jaw).
I had the CT and it revealed -- NOTHING. No tumor, no new ONJ, no nothing. But I still have the pain. I changed pain meds from Vicodin to fentanyl patches left from earlier this year. The fentanyl made me woozy and high at first; I didn't really sleep last night. But today I'm not woozy and the pain is gone. I see Dr Amy again next week.
I hate to judge myself on what to take, but since I have the fentanyl on hand and Dr G had prescribed it, I'll take it. And it works!
Apr 10, 2017
Apr 4, 2017
My AHA moment
A week or so ago, I did a live interview for Mutual of Omaha. They run public service-type announcements on television featuring regular people talking about their "AHA Moment."
MofO seems to want their interviewees to articulate something amazing, challenging, or out of the ordinary that somehow affected our lives in a big way. The employees travel around the USA seeking speakers and also interviewing passers-by. There is one person to interview both random folks and those who are prepared; one person to run the camera; one person as a greeter; and the driver of the van.
I wrote earlier that Gilda's Club Seattle had invited their members to speak, and I said yes. It's a good thing too, because the other person who agreed woke up feeling unwell and Anna Gottlieb, the founder and executive director of GCS, rushed over to the Seattle Center to tell her AHA Moment about deciding to start a Gilda's Club here.
You can view my story here and Anna's here. Remember to turn up the volume!
If you like my little video (I got on my personal hobbyhorse about the government's lack of funding for advanced cancers), please feel free to share it with others.
To paraphrase from Anna, you too can pursue a dream against all odds, and make your dream come true.
MofO seems to want their interviewees to articulate something amazing, challenging, or out of the ordinary that somehow affected our lives in a big way. The employees travel around the USA seeking speakers and also interviewing passers-by. There is one person to interview both random folks and those who are prepared; one person to run the camera; one person as a greeter; and the driver of the van.
I wrote earlier that Gilda's Club Seattle had invited their members to speak, and I said yes. It's a good thing too, because the other person who agreed woke up feeling unwell and Anna Gottlieb, the founder and executive director of GCS, rushed over to the Seattle Center to tell her AHA Moment about deciding to start a Gilda's Club here.
You can view my story here and Anna's here. Remember to turn up the volume!
If you like my little video (I got on my personal hobbyhorse about the government's lack of funding for advanced cancers), please feel free to share it with others.
To paraphrase from Anna, you too can pursue a dream against all odds, and make your dream come true.
Apr 3, 2017
The 'joys' and solitude of a second cancer
When diagnosed with a first cancer, we are all gobsmacked, appalled, overwhelmed, stunned, depressed, shocked, awed, overrun, and more as a result. You struggle through treatment and the ensuing body changes and emotions and slowly return to that so called 'new' normal and life resumes.
Then when cancer, the 'gift that keeps on giving', shows up again, you start all over again. It can be a dreaded recurrence or metastases or you can start all over again with a new cancer. Second cancers are not recurrences but new primaries. Such a joy. Not really.
When my second cancer showed up, in some ways it put me back to where I was emotionally but I was better prepared for it emotionally. And I was more proactive in coping with it. I joined support groups, on and off line, got therapy and worked hard at accepting this new health disaster.
However, I was basically the only one I knew who had had two cancers as me. Actually I know one other person in the world who had both breast cancer and thyroid cancer. (I know there are other people who have had these two cancers because it is not that uncommon that they show up in the same person but the only person I could connect to was in Europe.) We were both in the same online support group. She posted a message asking if anyone had had both and I responded.
With one cancer, you can find a ribbon to support you, a group of people like you with the cancer, and you can all bond with each other. Or you find a group of people have had a single cancer and you all can talk about the joys of treatment. But with a second cancer, you become an outlier. Most people only get one cancer. The multiple diagnoses are much fewer.
This is starting to change. New research (because we always need more research) shows that one in five cancer diagnoses are second cancers. In the 1970s only 9% of cancer diaganoses were second cancers. There are many reasons for this:
"About 19 percent of cancers in the United States now are second-or-more cases, a recent study found. In the 1970s, it was only 9 percent. Over that period, the number of first cancers rose 70 percent while the number of second cancers rose 300 percent.
Strange as it may sound, this is partly a success story: More people are surviving cancer and living long enough to get it again, because the risk of cancer rises with age."
So since I was young to get my first cancer, before age 20, and young to get my second cancer, before age 50, am I doomed to get more cancers? But at least it won't be as lonely as this second cancer rate continues to rise.
Then when cancer, the 'gift that keeps on giving', shows up again, you start all over again. It can be a dreaded recurrence or metastases or you can start all over again with a new cancer. Second cancers are not recurrences but new primaries. Such a joy. Not really.
When my second cancer showed up, in some ways it put me back to where I was emotionally but I was better prepared for it emotionally. And I was more proactive in coping with it. I joined support groups, on and off line, got therapy and worked hard at accepting this new health disaster.
However, I was basically the only one I knew who had had two cancers as me. Actually I know one other person in the world who had both breast cancer and thyroid cancer. (I know there are other people who have had these two cancers because it is not that uncommon that they show up in the same person but the only person I could connect to was in Europe.) We were both in the same online support group. She posted a message asking if anyone had had both and I responded.
With one cancer, you can find a ribbon to support you, a group of people like you with the cancer, and you can all bond with each other. Or you find a group of people have had a single cancer and you all can talk about the joys of treatment. But with a second cancer, you become an outlier. Most people only get one cancer. The multiple diagnoses are much fewer.
This is starting to change. New research (because we always need more research) shows that one in five cancer diagnoses are second cancers. In the 1970s only 9% of cancer diaganoses were second cancers. There are many reasons for this:
"About 19 percent of cancers in the United States now are second-or-more cases, a recent study found. In the 1970s, it was only 9 percent. Over that period, the number of first cancers rose 70 percent while the number of second cancers rose 300 percent.
Strange as it may sound, this is partly a success story: More people are surviving cancer and living long enough to get it again, because the risk of cancer rises with age."
So since I was young to get my first cancer, before age 20, and young to get my second cancer, before age 50, am I doomed to get more cancers? But at least it won't be as lonely as this second cancer rate continues to rise.
Mar 27, 2017
That awareness thing
Am I the only one on the planet who thinks we do not need more awareness of different cancer types? I mean yes there are some really obscure ones that need awareness and more treatment as well as metastatic cancer definitely needs more options. But really, do we really need an unending calendar of fashion shows, races, walks, and other events?
I may be cynical but I think most of us are too aware of cancer these days. Or is it just me because it has been part of my life for so long?
I may be cynical but I think most of us are too aware of cancer these days. Or is it just me because it has been part of my life for so long?
Mar 20, 2017
A great article
The pink culture of breast cancer is about to get an infusion of red hot.
A small but growing group of women with metastatic breast cancer and their supporters have formed MET UP, an activist group modelled on the confrontational AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and sharing the same inspiration of anger, rebellion, and fellowship/sisterhood.
"MET UP is…committed to direct action for a viable cure for breast cancer. We protest and demonstrate," reads a portion of the group's mission statement, which was recently posted online.
A changing of the guard — and of attitude and tone — is needed in advocacy, suggests the group. "The time for honey is over. Break out the vinegar. It's our turn now," the group states.
MET UP has its eye on some major powers-that-be: the federal government, Komen for the Cure, and sexploitative breast-related charities, said founding member Beth Caldwell, 38, of Seattle, Washington, a married mother of two small children whose initial breast cancer diagnosis was metastatic disease.
"We're very much in our infancy, but we have big plans," she told Medscape Medical News.
One of the roots of the rebellion is frustration over the fact that, despite 40 years of "breast cancer awareness," the average survival with metastatic breast cancer has not changed and remains 3 years. "We're not making any progress in keeping people alive," said Caldwell.
"There are many members of our group who are very angry at Komen," she continued, referring to the influential and controversial breast cancer organization.
Here's one of the reasons for the rage, said Caldwell: In 2013, Komen had $125 million in revenue but gave away only $38 million in grants (and even then, some grants were not for scientific research). "As an organization that pitches itself as 'for the cure,' they are not doing enough to actually seek the cure," she summarized.
Komen has also reportedly kept women with metastatic disease off the podiums of its rallies because the specter of death is an emotional downer, as highlighted by Medscape Medical News.
"We are excluded from the club," says Caldwell about the general aversion that pink culture — with its mantra of "beating" breast cancer — has for the people who are inexorably destined to die of the disease.
So, is MET UP — à la ACT UP — planning to storm Komen headquarters in Dallas? Not now, said Caldwell, but "Komen is definitely on our radar." The activists recognize the group has new leadership and they are waiting to see whether grant funding priorities change.
The first major direct action planned by the fledging organization is a nonviolent "die-in" on October 13, which is Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day, in Washington, DC, on the lawn of the US Capitol with 1430 men and women to symbolize the daily death toll of the disease worldwide.