After cancer, now what

Friday, July 10, 2009

Breast cancer patient wins lottery

The same day I was diagnosed with cancer I won an IPod. Not exactly a balanced trade but turns out that IPod was my best friend during months of chemotherapy.

Nicky Cusack, a 43 year old single mom in the U.K. has a better story. In the last six months she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, had to fight off a pack of dogs to protect her children and won 2.5 million pounds (just over 4 million dollars).

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving woman. Congrats Nicky!

Navajo Nation cancer conference

What: Fort Defiance Cancer Awareness and Advocacy Conference.

Where: Navajo Nation Museum, Arizona 264 and Postal Loop Road, Window Rock, Arizona.

When: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. July 18.

Who: Open to the public.

Cost: Free.

Why: To help provide Arizona's Native Americans with a higher awareness of cancer and greater access to medical care.

Details: http://www.azmyelomanetwork.org

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Greedy doctors going on strike?

If I never heard the name Ayn Rand again it would be too damn soon. You may have heard of her, conservatives have taken her philosophy and made it their own.

These are "free marketeers" who build their economic belief system on a work of fiction. Well now there’s a group, (heck for all I know it may just be the guy that put the page up) that is calling for doctors to go on strike in order to “preserve, protect, and promote freedom in healthcare”.

You see, according to Dr. Gregory Garamoni the problem in healthcare is that Washington politicians are poised to inject a lethal dose of statism into the heart of our healthcare system”. Not the fact that millions of Americans have no choice in health care because they have to see who ever is working at the free clinic that day.

He clearly despises the president, calling him the “Quack-in-Chief” and more and doesn’t have much good to say about the Congress or the media.

Dr. Garamoni has written a Declaration of Independence for Doctors and is calling for other physicians to e-mail him in order to sign it (hmm). Of course, that declaration doesn’t seem to say anything about health, it's a lot more concerned about the right to negotiate fees. (When was the last time you went to the doctor and negotiated the cost of your visit?)

They’re also trying to prepare doctors to go on strike “if the President signs into law any legislation that establishes another government healthcare plan” in the hope that the mere threat of such a strike would rile up the seniors and "help seniors focus their attention on this life-or-death issue”. Great, let me make sure I've got this straight, you want to get doctors to threaten to strike so you can scare old people into calling their legislators and cowing them into screwing over their grandchildren.

Why am I telling you about this? A couple of reasons.

First, it is just a matter of time before Dr. Garamoni or another one just like him is on the radio and Fox News as a legitimate representative of the “opposition”. If you are in favor of a public option in health care you need to know what we are up against. Combine this kind of philosophy with the $66.5 million dollars that PhRMA, has spent in the first three months of 2009 and the 1,300 lobbyists on payroll and that can buy a lot of television time.

How do you compete against a war chest like that?

By telling the truth and telling your stories.
By talking not just to your House Members or Senators but to your grandparents and your co-workers and your friends.
By helping people who have never been really sick understand that paying for cancer treatment (COPD, MS, or MD or any of the hundreds of others) is not the same as paying for a broken leg.
By writing letters to the editor and showing up at forums.
By coming out of the medical closet and sharing what you went through and by holding your elected officials accountable.

It’s the only hope that we, those who can’t afford to buy insurance in the “free market” because of a pre-existing condition, have in this fight.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

John Cullen

John Cullen is a former professional hockey player who played for 10 years in the NHL. Not a big stretch as he was going into the family business; his father and two uncles were all pro hockey players as well.

Cullen played for the Penguins, Whalers, Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning during his career as a centre.

Unfortunately he had to take a season off in 1997 when he battled non Hodgkin's lymphoma receiving cancer treatment including a bone marrow transplant. He came back to play four games before announcing his retirement.

Tell the FDA what you think

The FDA has announced that it wants your opinions on their overseeing tobacco products in the United States. Now I don't know if they really want your opinion or not but they are obligated to have an open comment period.

They are open to all comments from product content (read what's in my smokes) to advertising and marketing (Why can't I put Dora on a pack of Virginia Slims). All public comments will be posted online.

If you're reading my blog odds are you have opinions on any number of things. If tobacco is one of those things why not go over and share. Or, if you're feeling nosy you can see what other people are saying.

My suggestion? Stop selling cigarettes in drugstores. I was in the pharmacy just today and cigarettes were behind the checkout counter, right next to the nicotine patches and gums. I don't know why but that always strikes me as so wrong, it is just capitalism at work right?

Here's the link for the comments to the Federal Register.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Why are old people the only ones guaranteed health care?

Seriously? Why is it that in order to be guaranteed health care in this country you have to be in the last third of your life? The most expensive part of your life in terms of medical and healthcare?

Medicare was established in 1965 and was for adults over 65 years old when lifespan of the average American was 70.2 years. The average life span for an American is now 78 years old (and watch the Today Show to see people over 100 every day). Then in 2003 Medicare was expanded to provide a prescription drug benefit. The rest of us got nothing. More and more employers are not providing insurance, part time positions are generally not eligible and forget about it if you have a "pre-existing condition".

Medicaid? HA! If you are an adult, the income limit to qualify for Medicaid are incredible. I live in the state of North Carolina, for an adult to qualify for Medicaid they can not have a monthly income of more than $317 dollars for a family of two. Yes, you read that right, $317 for a family of two.

If you’re sick enough you can apply for disability but even then, no Medicare for TWO years. Well how does that work? If I am sick enough to qualify for disability which means I can’t work what am I supposed to do for the next two years?

When Medicare was approved there had been a national survey that found that only 56 percent of those 65 years of age or older had health insurance. The CDC reports that about 65 percent of non-elderly Americans had private insurance in 2008, the lowest it has been in 50 years.

Am I missing something? Is there a rule somewhere that says that it makes more sense to allow people of working age to be healthy and maybe even be able to work better or longer? That suffering through financial ruin to pay medical bills builds character? That late diagnosis and increase death is good for the soul?

So what’s it going to be? Do we have to wait until we’re at 56 percent, (which could be the end of the year if the economy doesn’t improve) or can we actually fight for ourselves and others to have a right to health care like the rest of the industrialized world?