The Great American Smokeout

Today is the Great American Smokeout! This is the day that smokers are encouraged to quit smoking just for one day. I could be the start of a new life for you.

I come from a house of smokers. My mom, dad, sister and two brothers all smoked from the time they were teens. And except for one brother, they all quit, some more permanently than others, nevertheless they were able to stop smoking at least for a period of time.

I have to say I am very proud of the victories my family has had over cigarettes. They all quit cold-turkey, mostly because there were not as many aids or support systems in place when they quit as there are today.

After Dad died, we found a small black notebook in he used as a day-planner. In it we noticed a number printed in red at the top of each page. We could not figure out what it was until finally we came across a page that mentioned a number that corresponded with the number in red. It was the number of days he’d been without a cigarette. He never told anyone, just went about the business of quitting.

Dad made this decision after he’d recovered from having a mass removed from his throat. The doctor had been sure it was cancer, but it turned out to be benign. We were all so relieved. Dad had said before the surgery “If it’s cancer, I’m not gonna keep on smoking because it won't matter anyway. If it’s not cancer, than I’m gonna quit”. So, without making any big deal about it, Dad kept the promise he’d made to himself and quit smoking.

I wish I could end this story more cheerfully. Dad did enjoy many more smoke-free years, at least 20. But in 2003 another mass was found in his esophagus. This cancer was much larger and found much later. It was so large anything Dad ate had to fit through the size of a small soda straw, mostly soups and other liquids. It was painful and frustrating. No one would choose to die this way. Did it begin years ago when Dad was still smoking? We'll never know for sure. But I am sure that quitting gave him many years of easier breathing and better health than he would've had if he'd kept smoking. And it gave us many more years to enjoy him, too.

So if you are a smoker, how about giving it a try? You know, just take the day off from smoking. It’ll be a gift to those who love you, but most of all, it will be your gift to yourself.

If you’re not a smoker, why not pledge to help someone quit? It’s a long, hard road and your support could be the thing that gives someone the courage to go one more day with out that smoke.

For more information and help about quitting, visit http://www.cancer.org/Healthy/StayAwayfromTobacco/GreatAmericanSmokeout/index

Hope you give quitting a try today. Praying you make it last forever.

10 Ways Not to Encourage Cancer Patients

Our guest blogger today is Yvonne Ortega. Yvonne shares some great reminders for friends and loved ones with a touch of humor any cancer survivor can identify with and appreciate. Thanks so much Yvonne!

10 Ways Not to Encourage Cancer Patients

Point out they shouldn’t be scared, angry or depressed, because they are Christians and that would ruin their testimony.

Suggest they have cancer because of the stress in their lives. You may not be a doctor, but you just know.

Remind them that lack of forgiveness causes cancer, and they need to forgive somebody.

Explain they probably got cancer because they didn’t eat right, and from now on they need to take responsibility for what they eat.

Make sure you tell them about your aunt, cousin, grandma, friend or neighbor who had cancer and died.

Mention the horror stories you’ve heard about chemotherapy.

Don’t forget to inform them about the friend you know whose skin burned because of radiation.

Visit them as soon as they return from the hospital and keep talking to them even when their eyes are at half-mast.

Tell them to call you if they need anything. They probably won’t call you, but you’re off the hook, like your telephone.

Insist that they must be strong because it could be worse.

Copyright © October 28, 2010 by Yvonne Ortega

Breast cancer affects everyone it touches, whether firsthand or through the life of a loved one. Counselor and teacher Yvonne Ortega discovered this when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began her journey. In Finding Hope for Your Journey through Breast Cancer, she shares with readers her personal triumphs and setbacks with humor and refreshing candor, always reminding us of God's desire to meet us exactly where we are. In this repackaged book, sixty devotions are divided into sections--diagnosis, surgery, treatment, and recovery--each incorporating Scripture into daily life. It also includes a new chapter on living with the possibility that cancer may return. Ortega's attention to even the most basic hopes and fears that a cancer patient faces each day offers encouragement that can come only from one who has been there herself.

Pink Glove Dance

Providence St. Vincent Medical Center (Portland, Oregon) employees put together this video to generate breast cancer awareness throughout their hospital system and hope it inspires others to join in the cause

Cancer After a New Heart

Thanks to Cindy Scinto for today's post. Cindy's incredible story has been published in her book "A Heart Like Mine".

From Cindy's website:

"I am passionate and intent on sharing my story of perseverance and how God has sustained my family and I during many years of turmoil and tragedy. Regardless of what comes my way, I am happy to be alive and trust that God will be with me every step of every hurdle. "

Thank you Cindy for sharing a small part of your story with us today.

Cancer After a New Heart

My body curled into a tight ball on the bunched up hospital sheets. They smelled like the sheets in a cheap hotel room; pungent bleach mixed with sanitizer. The chemotherapy treatment was done when the last drop of poison dripped into long tubing connected to the intrusive catheter in my chest. The second hand on the clocked ticked towards 1:00 pm. After four hours, the morning treatment was complete.

But the evening treatment would begin at 5:00 pm. Right when I started feeling like I might survive, the next bottle of rusty colored medicine would hang and begin dripping for hours of infiltration into my blood stream.

“It’s like pouring gasoline into your veins,” Dr. Nogle stated after a nurse rushed to rinse her hands at the sink. A few drops of chemo had splattered on top of her left hand and immediately singed her skin, leaving red blisters behind. I witnessed the burn. That’s going into my veins. How can they do this? Isn’t it burning me up inside?

Four months prior, I survived a dangerous heart transplant resulting from countless heart attacks, 30 angioplasties, an experimental thoracotomy, double bypass, open heart surgery, and dying twice in the ER. All this occurred like an ambush on my health in less than three years with no plausible reason for heart disease. The donor heart I received came a day after Dr. Nogle told me there was no hope. But this heart only became available because no other surgeon wanted to risk transplanting it. It needed extensive repair and came with a viral type cancer.

The cancer manifested four months later and after conventional chemo failed, a stronger, more lethal one had to be used. The doctors in my home town hospital exclaimed how that hadn’t used it in 20 years and it took that patient a year to recover from three weeks of treatment. I would have to endure 60 days of two treatments a day, seven days a week in an isolation room at the hospital. When I was released, a regimen of six months, everyday of the week, with home nursing care continued.

I lost most of my hair. Early on I prayed, “Lord, please don’t let me lose all my hair and be a pudgy Italian with a turban.” He extended grace to me. >smile<>

But I survived and recovered well. I kept my sense of humor and my hair grew back as curly and thick as it was before. Today, I do everything I can to avoid a recurrence. The virus that brought on this cancerous malignancy is permanent.

I am grateful for Cec’s book, When Someone You Love Has Cancer. I wish the people around me had read it when I was in need of care. He writes about the absolute needs instead of the perceived needs people conjure up. It’s like tradition to make meals or send flowers. When those gifts arrive for someone and their family suffering with cancer, their hearts sigh with disappointment. Read Cec’s book. He offers the practical gifts of true ministering when someone you know has cancer.

Has cancer attacked your life? Then keep your attitude on “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV)

By Cindy Valenti-Scinto, author, A Heart Like Mine, Finding God’s Will for Your Life, book one of the Heart Like Mine Trilogy, with book two, A Heart Like Yours, Understanding God’s Will for Your Life, to release later in 2011.

Online:

http://www.aheartlikemine.com/
http://www.cindyscinto.com/
http://cindyscinto.blogspot.com/

Find Cindy’s book at: https://www.winepressbooks.com/product.asp?pid=2751&search=a+heart+like+mine&select=Keywords&ss=1

Also available as an e-book compatible with all e-book readers.

"When Pink Is Just A Color Again" - Kal Hourd, for Breast Cancer Awareness

Remembering those who've lost the fight and those who won't give up the fight. And those who love them.

Childhood Cancer Awareness Day

Did you know that September 13 is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day?

Today's post comes from www.candlelighters.org. Please click on the link at the bottom of the post to read the entire proclamation.


"Senate Passes Allard-Clinton 'National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day' Resolution
May 23, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C.– September 13, 2008 will now be recognized as "National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day" as a result of a Senate resolution introduced by U.S. Senators Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).

"Never before in history has the dream of eliminating childhood cancer been so attainable, yet seemed so elusive," said Senator Allard. "We live in a nation where the effectiveness of treatments and technology offer hope to children who dream of a bright future. Each case of childhood cancer is a very personal tragedy that can strike any family with children, at anytime, anywhere. In setting aside September 13th to recognize this battle on cancer, we continue of our efforts to draw attention to the victims of childhood cancer and the great work of the families and organizations who continue the fight."

"We have made tremendous strides in the fight against childhood cancer, but far too many children still suffer and lose their lives to this illness. The more we know as a nation the better able we will be to prevent and treat the disease and help those who are battling and surviving pediatric cancers. National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day is an opportunity to reach out to all Americans with the facts about childhood cancer, and this day will be an important symbol of our commitment on all days to find a cure," said Senator Clinton.

Childhood cancer is the number one disease killer and the second overall leading cause of death of children in the United States. More than 10,000 children under the age of 15 in the United States are diagnosed with cancer annually."
http://www.candlelighters.org/Awareness/ChildhoodCancerAwarenessMonth.aspx

September is Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month

As the 1950's daughter of a mom who took DES this type cancer holds a special interest to me. "DES (Diethylstilbestrol) is a synthetic form of estrogen that was prescribed between 1938 and 1971 to help women with certain complications of pregnancy. DES has been linked to clear cell adenocarcinoma, an uncommon cancer of the vagina or cervix, in daughters of women who used DES during pregnancy."*
I've been tested somewhat extensively since the 80's and so far nothing has turned up. But it is important for all women to know about their risks, what the signs are and what can help prevent these cancers specific to our gender.

"Gynecologic Cancer is cancer of the female reproductive system, which includes cervical cancer, endometrial/uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, vaginal cancer, vulvar cancer and peritoneal cancer. In the last two decades, considerable gains have been made in the detection and treatment of these cancers. When detected in early stages, most gynecologic cancers have a good cure rate.

What you can do…

See your health care provider for a pelvic exam and Pap smear annually.

Use condoms to reduce the risk of all sexually transmitted diseases.

See your health care provider if you experience any vaginal bleeding between periods or postmenopausal bleeding, vaginal discharge or bleeding after intercourse, unusual abdominal bloating or changes in bladder or bowel function.

Quit smoking.

Maintain a healthy body weight.

Discuss your cancer risk factors and family history with your health care provider."

From http://www.cpmc.org/services/women/health/Gyn-cancers.html

And a couple more suggestions from me:

Watch this short, well-done video to become more informed about the dangers of gynecological cancer.

Share this information with a woman you love.

http://www.cancervideo.tv/video/K72MY6UKO16O/Gynecologic-Cancer

* Parker Waichman Alonso