cancer

Team WhyMommy Virtual Science Fair

by JavaMom on April 7, 2010 · 3 comments

in Uncategorized

There was a point in our lives when we were ALL scientists. We couldn’t help ourselves, we were born with a natural sense of curiosity and would investigate anything our minds and hearts desired. And then someone put the label SCIENCE on it and maybe some boring teacher droned on endlessly on it in a classroom or subjected us to a poorly written text book and that curiosity was drilled right out of us.

And then, if you are really lucky, you’ll meet someone in your life again like Dr. Susan Niebur (or like me, you’ll meet her as her alternate identity, “WhyMommy” and not realize for the longest time that her real-life identity is an ASTROPHYSICIST) and she may re-ignite your love of science.

I actually met Susan in an alternate world — seriously — in 2007. We “sat” near each other in a “conference room” at a BlogHer Conference in Second Life, a online 3D world. From that virtual world, we watched a live stream of the conference that was going on in real life in Chicago. We typed a few words between each other and I think we even “danced” at a Second Life dance club and that was the last I thought I’d ever see of WhyMommy. (That sounds far more tawdry than I mean for it to!) I hadn’t even launched my blog yet and never thought I’d run into her again. I looked at her site and it was then that I realized Susan was coping with a rare form of breast cancer called inflammatory breast cancer – a breast cancer that does not come with a telltale lump.

Imagine my surpise a year later when I joined the DC Metro Moms Blog group and one of the first people I met at a real-life gathering was WhyMommy! It took my mind mere seconds to connect the name with the person I had met in another world and I was so happy to see her looking so well — she had beaten the cancer! Since then, I’ve seen Susan at a few other gatherings, and I was thrilled beyond belief when she agreed to come as a “Celebrity Scientist” to speak at a Junior League of Northern Virginia fundraiser to explain the important role museums, particularly those that allow kids to have hands-on experiences, play in children’s lives. It was her moving speech about the impact of a museum visit at the tender age of 3 in shaping her ultimate career path to be a NASA astrophysicist that helped raise several thousand dollars for the Children’s Science Center.

And that’s what I love about Susan — her pure passion for science and her willingness to share it with anyone within earshot. Unfortunately, that night she was also in pain. A knot of pain in her back that was causing shockwaves of pain throughout her spine, which she found out only days later, was the sign of a re-occurrence of her cancer. She fought through the pain to come to the fundraiser, and yet this pain quickly became the beginning of a new journey.

Today Susan is having surgery to remove some nodes that are affected by the cancer — and I won’t even pretend that I can do a good job of explaining things, all I can say is that she has a scary journey ahead of her to fight the cancer once again. And she’s the mother of two small kids. And she has a ton of friends around her who wish they could take up the fight for her — but we can’t. We feel helpless to do anything but keep saying encouraging words to her.

So there’s two things we’re doing today. First — we’re going to encourage people to join the Avon Army of Women – a massive research project of ALL women — cancer-free, with cancer, cancer survivors. Please go sign up, and then look for a study you can participate in sometime this year (new studies open up all the time). Some are as simple as filling out a form.

Second, since Susan is NOT all about cancer, we are holding a virtual science fair! Today, all over the blogosphere, Susan’s blogging friends are remembering how fun science can be — with our kids or even on our own. As it happens, my son is having his Mad Science birthday party this week, so science is in the air in the Java household. But today, in Susan’s honor, we played with magnets!

For the first experiment, we studied the laws of repulsion. Take a toy car (it helps if it has wheels with a good bit of height) and strap a magnet on top with a rubber band. Take another magnet and figure out which end has the opposite pole and because opposing poles repel rather than attract, you can make the car move forward simply by holding the magnet close to the back of the car. (This is why you need a high wheelbase — so the rubberband doesn’t drag on the table). JavaBoy thought this was “Coooool!”

The second experiment makes a great magic trick for an audience. Drop a paper clip (make sure it is a metal, non-coated one!) into a glass of water, or if you are really coordinated, a water bottle. Ask anyone if they know how to get it out without getting their hands wet or spilling any of the water.

Then, whip out your handy magnet and run it along the side of your water container and you will be able to pull the paper clip right out of the water! This is due to the laws of attraction — if you have a strong enough magnet, you can attract the paper clip to the magnet, even through glass and water.

You don’t have to be a NASA astrophysicist to appreciate science. (You don’t even have to know one, although I recommend getting to know Susan, even if it is only through her blog!) Go check out what some of Susan’s other friends are doing today and try some things out with your kids. If you have a local science museum, plan a trip! And if you don’t have one (like those of us in Northern Virginia – and that’s a post for another day), then find out what you can do to help bring one to the area!

Perhaps one day your little one will be the scientist who rids us of this awful disease called cancer.

Susan — we’re all pulling for you today! I’m going a little heavier on the prayer than the caffeine!

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Get Smart, Get Screened

by JavaMom on January 6, 2010 · 4 comments

in Uncategorized

If you knew how to prevent more than 4,000 women from dying from cancer this year, would you take action? By the end of this post, you’ll know the answer. And this post is not just for women — men, I urge you to read this so you can be educated enough to make sure the women in your life (that means wives, DAUGHTERS, mothers, aunts, sisters, yes, even grandmothers, best friends — any woman in your life) are following the new health guidelines for screening and preventing cervical cancer.

January is National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month and the Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer is helping spread the word via a web site and pearl pins it hopes women will buy and give to their friends as a way to open conversation and as a reminder of the steps needed to screen for and prevent cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide. In the U.S., the American Cancer Society estimated that in 2009, 11,270 women would be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,070 women would die of the disease. Many more women will lose their fertility or experience pregnancy complications as a result of treatment for cervical cancer or cervical disease.

High-risk strains of a very common sexually transmitted infection called human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer. And if think you have never been exposed or never will be exposed to this, keep in mind that the Pearl of Wisdom Campaign says that 3 out of every 4 adults have had HPV at some time in their lives and the Centers for Disease Control say, “Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV. Another 6 million people become newly infected each year. HPV is so common that at least 50% of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.” Everywhere I’ve researched the number, it has ranged between 50-80% of the population being infected with HPV at some point in time.

There are hundreds of strains of HPV, about 40 of which cause forms of cancer (include cervical, oral and anal cancer), and MOST forms of HPV are asymptomatic to the naked eye. In other words, most people are completely unaware they’ve ever been infected. Most HPV infections heal on their own, but some do not and cause cells on a woman’s cervix to change and become abnormal. This can cause cervical dysplasia, and if allowed to continue to change, may cause cervical cancer.

However, with proper screening, cervical cancer can be prevented. And the Pearl of Wisdom people also say vaccination is part of the solution — which I will treat separately in this post.

Screening: Pap Test AND HPV Test

The highest form of routine screening for cervical cancer is a Pap Test AND an HPV Test. A Pap test only looks for abnormal cells, so a woman can get a “normal” Pap test while an HPV Test can reveal that there is HPV present. If your HPV test is positive, it does not mean you have abnormal cells or cervical cancer. It just means that you have HPV and that your healthcare provider will want to follow you more closely to see if that HPV infection clears on its own, or develops into abnormal cells.

Although both tests combined is the most cautious way to screen, recent guidelines came out from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that recommends Pap tests for women ages 21 to 29 every other year and then Pap test and the HPV test for women 30 and older every three years. The reason for waiting until after age 30 for adding the HPV test has to do with avoiding overly aggressive treatment of HPV infections that may clear on their own at a period of time in a woman’s life when the treatments — which can lead to infertility — may do more harm than good, based on what I understood from a conference call with Dr. Marie Savard, ABC News medical contributor and author of “Ask Dr. Marie: Straight Talk and Reassuring Answers to Your Most Private Questions.” She has an article on the topic here.

The Pap test and HPV test are done at the same time from the same sample if you do a liquid (“thin prep”) Pap test, so do request it at the time of your scheduled Pap test.

Preventing HPV at the Source

Okay — I’ll admit that when I first started my blog, the following sentences were not part of what I envisioned I’d be saying, but it is information you need to know: HPV is spread through skin-to-skin contact. Which means that it does not necessarily require intercourse. And that a condom does not necessarily prevent it because surrounding skin may carry the virus.

I am not anti-vaccine, nor am I the type of a parent to automatically follow the vaccination protocol without question. I research things and I am a bit leery of relatively new vaccines. With all the commercials for Gardasil, I did not understand why this vaccine was practically being crammed down the public’s throats and why at such a young age for girls. After talking to the Pearl of Wisdom people (who are a non-profit group, not a front for a vaccine company) and Dr. Marie, I am understanding it a little more, although I have not made a personal decision on where I stand on the cervical cancer vaccines yet. There are two now — Gardasil, which vaccinates against four types of HPV and Cervarix, which vaccinates against two — each of them vaccinate against the two most common types of high-risk HPV, 16 and 18, which are said to cause about 70% of all cervical cancers. HPV vaccinations are approved for girls as young as age 9 up to women age 26 (according to the Gardasil site). Because the vaccines do not prevent ALL high-risk HPV infections, they do not completely eliminate the risk of cervical cancer, and so these girls/women should still be screened to prevent cancer.

Vaccines are always a hot topic of debate. I recommend researching the pros and cons for yourself when making the decision about whether to vaccinate your daughter as this particular vaccine has generated a lot of passion online. Neither just take your doctor’s word nor fall for scare tactics — read, research and come up with a decision you are comfortable with.

What You Can Do

The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer is trying to reach at least 4070 women (the number of women estimated to die of cervical cancer in 2009) this month and get them to the take the Pearl Pledge. It’s really easy:

  • Call and make your appointment for your routine screening — if you are a man, remind the important women in your life to make that appointment
  • Go to: http://www.pearlofwisdom.us/pledge and check off “I’ve made my appointment!”
  • Email a reminder to 5 friends to do the same
  • Wear a pearl – earrings, necklace, whatever you have! Or buy one (proceeds support the campaign) from the Pearl of Wisdom campaign.

Are you ready to take action? Let me know by commenting below.

Giveaway! The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign is providing 5 pearl pins to my readers — I’ll select the readers from those who comment through midnight January 22, 2010 ET and use random.org to help me choose the winners. To be eligible, you will need to provide your email address so I may contact you to let you know you are the winner and get your snail mail address so they can send you your pin.

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Disclosures : I am not a doctor nor do I have a medical background. Any medical information should be discussed with your doctor, I relied on information provided by the Pearl of Wisdom Campaign, Dr. Marie Savard, the Centers for Disease Control, Gardasil, Cervarix and/or their web sites and reported it to the best of my layman’s understanding. Your specific health should be discussed with your personal doctor. As part of participating in an informational conference call with Dr. Marie Savard and the Pass the Pearl Campaign representatives, I received a copy of her book for more background information — which I found informative and useful, but did not impact my decision to write this post or what to write. I have linked to her book using my blog’s Amazon Associates link. Purchases made through Amazon affiliate links on this blog yield a small referral fee. This applies to all purchases made on Amazon regardless of whether the product the consumer purchased was mentioned by me or not. The consumer’s purchases are confidential; I don’t know who has purchased items using my blog’s Amazon Associate links.

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