After cancer, now what

Monday, February 8, 2010

Yoga and Breast Cancer

Breast cancer patients are needed for a senior research thesis and is looking at the effect of yoga on the immune system of breast cancer patients. Patients are recruited on a rolling basis in both the yoga and non yoga groups.

If you are receiving chemotherapy or have received it in the past two years you may be eligible for this study. The study lasts approximately four months from the period of enrollment and those who enroll in the Yoga group are asked to participate in yoga at least twice a week.

For more information contact Laura at ltb5@georgetown.edu.

For further information about the study there is an article here.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Technical difficulties, please stand by

Hi all - I am experiencing some problems with my wireless router having to a hard reboot at least daily. Once everything is unplugged and plugged back in the connection kicks back in. Am I missing something here? Advice welcome and in fact desired :)

Thursday, February 4, 2010

New York City Marathon openings

We've had a cold winter here in North Carolina but it will have to get a whole lot colder before you see me running in a marathon, whole or half.

The I'm Too Young for This organization has formed Team Stupid Cancer, the nation's first running team designed to support their mission and they have openings on their team.

Sign on with them and you have guaranteed entry into the New York City Half Marathon.

For more information on Team Stupid Cancer give a click.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

New Cancer Navigation resource

A new site has come on line and I have to share it with you.

Navigating Cancer is a site where you can get information about your diagnosis, get support from others who are dealing with cancer treatment and organize all of your teratment in one place.

First Organizing Your Care allows you to create an electronic health record, track things like side effects and then share reports with your treatment team. It also provides sample questions for you to discuss during visits with your medical team.

The support section allows you to set up a page to keep family and friends in the loop as well as give and receive support to others. I love the calendar feature they've got in here, it reminds me of Lotsa Helping Hands. You fill in what you need and your supporters ride in like the cavalry and help you out.

Finally the information section allows you to get information from other patients as well as from reputable web sites. If you haven't been warned before having cancer and being on the web can be a very dangerous combination.

When you join you register with some incredibly basic information and they send you an e-mail link to confirm but it comes quickly.

There still seem to be a couple of bugs in the section where you add you treatment history but they're being worked out. This is a new site and any problems I encountered were solved by using the back arrow, not too complicated.

Go check out Navigating Cancer and support them, these are the kinds of practical tools all patients can use.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Can middle schoolers say boobies?

What the hell is going on out in California?

First they've got folks out there trying to restrict access to the dictionary and now the kids have to be protected from the word boobies?

From what the rest of us are reading you've likely got some bigger fish to fry like how to keep your state from going bankrupt.

Unfortunately the organization behind these bracelets was not names so I don't know where to link you to. If you know where they are coming from let us know in the comments.

More from Dr. Grumpy

This guy cracks me up so I share my favorites with you....

Dr. Grumpy: "What kind of doctor did you see after that?"

Mr. Dimbulb: "The one my family doc said I should go to. I think she was a cardiologist or rheumatologist or something like that. You know, one of those 'ologist' docs. What do they do, anyway?"
****************************************************************************************
Mr. Behind: "At the hospital they told me I had a hemorrhoidic stroke."

Dr. Grumpy: "You mean hemorrhagic stroke?"

Mr. Behind: "Something like that."

Read the rest of Dr. Grumpy on his blog Dr. Grumpy in the House

Monday, February 1, 2010

Do you read and write?

I've decided to start a feature about things I've been reading. If the response is strong I'll make it a weekly feature. Please add links to the things that you have been reading or even better, writing this week. This is your opportunity to get my readers to read your work, take advantage!

Mom camps out to get spot in mental ward for son - This makes me so sad but hey, at least our college sports teams are doing well.

Household chemicals linked to reduced fertility

There goes America's democracy: I never thought I would be living in a dystopian cyberpunk novel.

The State of the Union drinking game - not for me nowadays but I know I would have definitely done this in college.

Listen to your body not your doctor talks about how thinks change after cancer when you look "normal" again.

Forget the politics and Remember Us LiveStrong speaks to health care reform

Man caught smuggling lizards in underwear sentenced - With a headline like that how do you not read?

Finally a poem, Foggy Brain Cloud Breakdown

Warning: Links to advertising and inappropriate content will be deleted

Chemo? There's an app for that

Seriously, when you're in treatment it can be hard to remember what you're taking and which things make you feel better or worse. Leave it to a drug company to come up with an app for chemo.

iChemoDiary let's you download the application which can be used not only on an iPhone but also on your regular computer/ The you enter your medications and can track side effects including nausea, vomiting, fever, fatigue, rash, constipation, diarrhea, tingling in feet and hands.

If you want to check this out go over to iChemoDiary.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Burr's veterans bill killed

I don't agree with Senator Richard Burr on the color of the sky, but he has been working hard to make sure that those who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune are taken care of.

Unfortunately Burr's bill that called for the VA to provide health care to veterans and their relatives who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune is dead.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr's bill failed on a 9-5 vote of the VA Committee yesterday. If it had passed it would have granted care at a VA facility to any veteran or family member who suffered health effects from toxic water.

The committee did pass an alternative to Burr's bill, requiring the DOD to provide care for five years.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Mapping lung and skin cancer

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have generated the first analysis of a malignant melanoma and a lung cancer genome. The results reveal nearly all the mutations in each of the genomes, providing powerful insights into the biology of cancer. It is hoped that this will increase the understanding of the causes and improve prevention, detection and treatment.

Researchers have learned that all cancers are caused by mutations in the DNA of cancer cells which are acquired during a person's lifetime. This research shows all of the mutations in the genomes of two cancers, lung cancer malignant melanoma.

In lung cancer the number of mutations found suggest that a typical smoker would acquire one mutation for every 15 cigarettes smoked.

Malignant melanoma is diagnosed in less than 5 percent of skin cancer cases, but is the cause of three out of four skin cancer deaths. The melanoma genome contained more than 30,000 mutations that carried a record of how and when they occurred during the patient's life.

As the two cancers that have a known primary cause; lung cancer and cigarette smoke and melanoma with sun exposure, it is hoped that greater understanding of how the genome attempts to defend against the mutations as well as finding the mutations before they become tumors.