Donna G

Wow! Great job. Also, Glad Dr. Stevenson is in our corner. Donna G

Did she also tutor you in the grasp of writing? That was wonderful! I am sure I would have really liked her. Wish I had met her when I lived in Montreal. Thanks for sharing. Donna G

I am so sorry. Your daughters story is so sad and poor Calem. I Pray in the coming years you will be able to share many stories of her with your grandson so he will know how precious she is. It is not common but sadly we have several people diagnosed in their teens, twenties, thirties and non smokers that get this dreadful disease. I pray for you and her son and the family for peace. Thank you so much for letting us know what happened. I know is was so difficult to do in this time of grief. Donna G

Sorry, did not have that problem allthough I know others have. I just wanted to welcome you to our family. Did you post a question about this in the Ask the Experts ribbon? Donna G

Wow, that's interesting! Thanks. Donna G

Great work. Donna G

I am so sorry to hear that you have lost your brother Mark. I pray for your peace and for that of the family. Donna G

All the best, Connie! (We'll talk soon, I hope) Just wanted to let everyone in on something I just read. An article in a magazine had info on apples being touted as prevention/healing in lung cancer. Also said they're very good in general for respiratory diseases. Who knows? But thought I'd share. The article said that Delicious Red are the best to choose. So, as I'm writing this, I'm biting into my apple! Cheers!

Just a thought , do you think sugar causes diabetes?

This article was in this mornings paper. Cancer survivors may not get needed care LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press WASHINGTON - The nation's 10 million cancer survivors require customized follow-up for years that too few now receive, says a major study that calls for oncologists to create a "survivorship plan" to guide every patient's future health care. Half of all men and one-third of women in the United States will develop cancer in their lifetimes. Thanks to advances in early detection and treatment, the number who survive has more than tripled over the past three decades. When active treatment ends, these people's special needs may be just beginning, said the study, released Monday. Yet, the legacy of physical, psychological and social consequences has largely been ignored by doctors, researchers, even patient-advocacy groups, leaving survivors too often unaware of simmering health risks or struggling to manage them on their own, said the report by the Institute of Medicine. "Successful cancer care doesn't end when patients walk out the door after completion of their initial treatments," said Dr. Sheldon Greenfield of the University of California, Irvine, who led the study for the institute, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. Yet, "you fall off a cliff when your treatment ends," said report co-author Ellen Stovall, president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, who speaks from personal experience as a two-time survivor. Busy oncologists' priority is to treat patients and they may have little time for the survivor, while physicians who don't specialize in cancer care may not know what special needs survivors have. "Nobody can take custody," said Stovall, who praises her own doctors but said even they lack information about long-term follow-up for the Hodgkin's disease that first struck her 33 years ago. "The doctor says you're done" with cancer treatment, she added. "But you're just beginning a whole new phase of your health care. Nobody's got the roadmap for that." Survivors are at risk of their initial cancer returning or a new one forming, and may need not just screening to detect that but also help handling the inevitable fear. Then there are the lingering health effects that various cancer treatments can cause: problems with mobility or memory, nerve damage, sexual dysfunction or infertility and impaired organ function. There may be distress over cosmetic changes. Other hurdles include keeping health insurance after that costly first cancer bout and discrimination from employers. Whether long-lasting effects seem acute or subtle, start to emerge just as treatment ends or not until years later, the report is unequivocal: "Importantly, the survivor's health care is forever altered." There are ways to avoid or ameliorate cancer's late health effects. But survivors, and their future doctors, have to know they're at risk to take those steps, the report stressed. For instance, it said, certain dosages of the chemotherapy doxorubicin can damage the heart, and survivors who know they're at risk can have their heart checked and early signs of failure treated. Some work is beginning to try to provide that kind of survivor care, sparked by the pediatric cancer community. The Children's Oncology Group, a leading research group, developed long-term follow-up guidelines that say every child cancer survivor should be given an explicit treatment record - complete with physicians' addresses and doses of every drug - to provide every doctor who treats them in the future. And the Lance Armstrong Foundation has begun funding centers at some leading hospitals to focus on specialized survivor care. Monday's recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, chartered by Congress to advise the government on medical matters, is sure to add momentum to those still-fledgling efforts. Among the recommendations: _Every patient completing cancer treatment should be given a customized "survivorship care plan" to guide future health care. _That plan should summarize their cancer care down to drug and radiation dosages, cite guidelines for detecting recurrence or new malignancies, and explain long-term consequences of their cancer treatment. It also should discuss prevention of future cancer, and cite the availability of local psychosocial services and legal protections regarding employment and insurance. _Specialists and primary care providers should coordinate to ensure survivors' needs are met. _Health insurers should pay for this report. _Scientists must improve, or in some case create, guidelines on exactly what screenings are needed for different cancers and their therapies. _Congress should fund research of survivorship care, to assess their needs and provide evidence for quality care.

Welcome Carol. This is tough. Glad you found us. Donna G

great job! Donna G

Hi Debra, glad you found us. Please keep us posted on how you are doing. Donna G

I have said goodbye to Baron ( terrier), Kenoe ( Siberian Husky) , Rusty (Airdale) , and Mitch ( tri-colored Collie) . It is always so hard to loose such a trusting, non judgemental, affectionate friend as your dog. Mitch was on Rimadyl the last year and it really helped him a lot to get going in the morning. He used to wake up stiff and hurting and struggle to get up off the floor. I have 2 half breed border collies now (Rocky and Sally). Donna G

Larry the good news is you have a plan! The fight continues! Praying for great results. Donna G

I now realize I already had a miracle today. This is deer mating season and early in the morning they are everywhere. Yesterday I saw one dead on county Rd 42. Last night on the news they were saying that a deer had tried to "bread into the state capital building" It broke a window then it headed to the governor and his daughter in the parking lot. Well this morning my husband has to go in for extra time at work and we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast at 6 am. He went to work and I drove home up county rd 5. I had stopped and looked over a display in the "country store" of Cracker Barrel then started home. Up ahead I saw a deer crossing the road. I realize now if I had not stopped for that moment I would problably hit that deer! Donna G

Socialized medicine is not all it is cracked up to be expecially if you happen to get "sick". I noticed that when I worked in Canada ( for a 1 and 1/2yrs.)

Wishing all goes well, have a great day. Donna G

Welcome , it sounds like you are not new to this disease. I am so sorry that it has again shown up in another loved one. Sounds like the tests are showing an early stage, I hope so. Please keep us posted. Donna G

You just reminded me of an incident when I was a young teenager. I had not "shared" with my mother that I was smoking cigarettes. I was in a corner restaurant after school with a few of my friends and we had a coke and sat and lit up. I looked up toward the door and their was my mother coming into the place. I dropped the cigarette on the floor and tried to act casual. My mother came over and said she had been shopping , could she join us. -Sure- She sat down and took out her cigarettes and handed one to me! She said she had seen me and didn't want me to be sneaking around , wanted it out in the open. Do you really think my mother would have handed me a cigarette if she thought I would get cancer?

Actually my parents, although they never went to college, were avid readers. We went to the library every week and they checked out a stack of books. I can picture in my mind my mother curled up in a chair with a good book and a cigarette. I am positive,however, they never read the American Journal of Medicine or Publications by the American Cancer Society Etc.. They may have read an article if it was published in the Readers Digest. We got TV when I was 5. We never subscibed to magazines for they were too expensive. Besides there were lots of books at the library.

Great!

You are younger than I am. My Dad was a police officer and Mom was a sectretary/typist. I went to Nursing school when you were in the 5th grade. The patients smoked at their bedside and the doctors smoked at the nurses station. It didn't take me long to figure out cigarettes were not good for me. My problem was I was really already addicted. I am a professional quiter! I quit nearly every day for years! Sometimes for months and a trigger would come my way and I would think maybe just one --- then there I was again. I am happy to tell you it is 8 years since I had a cigarette, I continue to teach anyone who will listen to quit or better yet never start. Most probably like most you were a kid when you started. You also did not even think of anything in the long term consequences. Most likely the nicotine soon took over and made your brain believe it was better because you had it, it increases dopamine and that is convincing. I also continue to dream at night that I am smoking! Thankfully those dreams don't come as often recently.

Welcome Abra, hope we can be of some help. Donna G

Here is a site that decribes the history of tobacco awareness. http://www.rjrt.com/smoking/awareTimeline12.aspx Believe me when I was a young teenager there was no warning on a pack of cigarettes. Most young teenagers wouldn't believe it referred to them anyhow, they are infalable. Donna G PS this is a pack of cigarettes sold prior to 1965, notice, no warning. ( I can't believe anyone would buy it!) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... ategory=44