Wyzga On Words

My Breasts Are Not For Scanning.

Like a good nurse and obedient weebus I have submitted to annual mammograms for a good long while.  As far as I know there is no history of breast cancer in my family. None whatsoever.  And yet I drank the Kool-aide that an annual mammogram was the way to be healthy; or at least to check on whether my breasts were healthy.  It's also a cop-out for those who *say* they do monthly breast exams (or have another to perform the breast touching service) but don't.  Let the machine catch it - more accurate, right?  Not necessarily so.  

I spent a good deal of time reading Jennifer Lunden's recent, lengthy and scientifically grounded article, Exposed, published in the September/October 2013 issue of ORION magazine.  A few highlights:

1. Not all radiologists are created equal.  Who reads the mammogram?  A radiologist.  Some catch tumors and others don't.  But the ones who score high to catch them also run women through the diagnostic testing mill when they have no cancer.
2. Mammograms catch slow-growing tumors. Those tumors may grow so slowly as to never be a problem.  Monthly breast checks can pick up the fast-growing tumors that appear in-between the annual mammogram.
3. Many tumors identified on a mammogram are not likely to develop into cancer.  And looking at a mammogram will not tell you which can be which.  So, doctors diagnose.  And diagnose with tests and other surgical procedures.
4. Breast cancer is responsible for less than 4% of female deaths.  This is not insignificant; but to show that breast cancer mortality risk is 0.05% for women who undergo a mammogram.
5. Radiation increases risk - mammograms over time accumulate radiation which translates to increased risk.
6. For years doctors recommended that women begin annual mammograms at age 40.  That recommendation has changed to every two years beginning at age 50.
7. Our environment with all its toxic ingredients plays a greater role in our health.  From nail polish to hair spray, bug killer, contraceptives and artificial hormones we are awash in carcinogens.  There are ways we can take control over what we eat and expose ourselves to.
8. There is a comprehensive complex of industries with deeply vested interests in breast cancer - not for the cure of it but for the money in it.
9. Chemicals cause cancer. Fix your environment.
10. Do your monthly breast exam & ask yourself: "Does this feel like this feel like this?"

Take a bit of time to read Lundens article.  Once you do, you may wish to click here for a link to a discussion about the article.  And decide for yourself.

As for me, my breasts are not for scanning.

Reaching For $1,500.00! Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation Fund-raising.

 

Hello Family, Friends, Colleagues, Compatriots, and Blog readers ~

Today, I'm asking for money. 

It's true what they say, "Once a nurse, always a nurse."  In my case pediatric nursing shaped who I am.  Over the years that I worked on hospital wards and in clinics I came face-to-face with kids with cancer.  These children were extra special in their grit, determination and perseverance to thrive despite the odds.  Over the course of time, some lived - others did not.  The common denominator: cancer and the on-going research for cures.

In the past 30 years, Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation ("PCRF") has raised over $30 million dollars for pediatric cancer research with donations to some of the leading pediatric cancer doctors, researchers and programs in the country.   How did they do that?  One way is the Annual  Reaching For the Cure Run/Walk/Bike Event.
 
Please consider supporting the fund-raising efforts of my co-captain, Gail Fox, our growing team of Fitness Elite women, and myself by joining us at the Irvine Spectrum on Race Day Sunday, May 5th 2013 as Team Fitness Elite walks and runs together to reach for the cure.  Imagine this: we might see it in our lifetime!
 
If you can't be with us in body, running shorts and Nikes, we welcome you to join us in spirit by making a donation to PCRF.  Our team's goal is $1,500.00.  No amount is too small - every dollar is appreciated - and it all goes to fund research to save children's lives!

Click This Link to visit the Team Fitness Elite web page and register for any event and/or make a donation.

Many companies will match (or even double) your donation to PCRF. Click here to see if your employer has a matching gift program.

With gratitude for your support ~ Diane and all of us.

You Know It's Been Too Long When.

I've been considering life of late.

I recently attended a memorial service for a friend's brother.  The service was held in a cozy meeting room of a nursing home where he worked as a recreational director for almost a quarter century.  Gathered around me were many residents of the assisted living home in various states of dis-ability, in wheelchairs, heads bent.  The fellow whose life we had come to celebrate lived almost 5 decades of his life in a wheelchair after a car accident at the age of 18 rendered him a quadriplegic. 

One of those speaking at the service said that his reply to the injury was, "I can do the same things I did before, just differently." He did not live dis-abled.  He advocated for the dis-abled to be accommodated to live independently.  He lived life fully and with a young heart.

I looked at my own arms and legs - still temporarily able-bodied - and sat wondering what I could be doing differently, for whom, where, and how.  You know it's been too long when a memorial service wakes you up to join the living.

Signs of life are all around me.  My very breath reminds me I am alive. As my dear story-friend Michelle says, "We are not here for a long time; but for a good time."  What are you going to do with that one wild precious life?

Here is a a poem I want to share with you.  All I know about the author is that she suffered some trauma that caused her traumatic brain injury.  And still she lives - looking to tomorrow:

YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW

Yesterday
I was a Brownie, a dancer, a baseball player.
I valued long walks, good friends, and horses.
I appreciated fine woodwork, the beach, and
my surroundings.
I enjoyed going to carnivals, staying out until 11,
then sneaking back into my house.
I hoped to grown old.

Today
I am disabled, more thoughtful,
and am a great writer.
I value handsome men, the past,
and all of the kitties I have owned.
I appreciate the fresh air coming through the door,
not being encumbered by anyone at the moment,
and all the vacations I have taken over the years.
I enjoy coffee, he theater, and cleaning fish tanks.
I hope to learn to drive, change oil,
and out gas in the car.

Tomorrow
I will be a good looking astronaut, an animal keeper,
a writer, and a woman whose body temperature
has gone up five degrees.
I will keep a special eye to not lose my body,
and I want to get closer to Jesus.
I want to join an astronaut school,
and go exploring up to the heavens.
I hope the cities will turn into George Jetson cities,
but I hope the pasture lands and
the beaches will be left as they are.
And I hope I will go out to dinner tonight.
And I really do want to live in Japan.

Lise Schurig

Breast-feeding & Chemicals. What's A Mother (& Baby) To Do?

    There are a million and one reasons why breast-feeding a newborn beats formula.  As reported by Pam Belluck writing for the NYTimes, "Hospitals Ditch Formula Samples to Promote Breast-Feeding," it's generally healthiest for mom and baby.  Excerpt.
  

"Breast-feeding decreases babies’ risk of ear infections, diarrhea, asthma and other diseases, and may reduce risk of obesity and slightly improve I.Q., experts say. "

So why send mom home from the hospital after giving birth with some nifty little gift bags packed with sample cans of formula?  Some argue that the samples are too convenient at helping to deter a mother from breast-feeding when she learns how easy it is to just pop the top.  Others argue that babies do just fine on formula.  And still others argue that hospitals should be in the business of health - spelled mother's natural breast milk - and not canned formula.  Excerpt.

 

"The question is whether samples tempt mothers who could breast-feed exclusively for the recommended six months to use formula when they’re exhausted or discouraged if nursing proves difficult. The C.D.C., the World Health Organization and breast-feeding advocates say samples turn hospitals into formula sales agents and imply that hospitals think formula is as healthy as breast-feeding. Health experts warn that even small amounts of formula dilute breast-feeding’s benefits by altering intestinal micro-organisms and decreasing breast milk supply, since women produce less when babies nurse less. They say that while some women face serious breast-feeding challenges, more could nurse longer with greater support, and that formula samples can weaken that support system."

Moms, like each of us, should know what's in what we ingest.  Click here to read more about the political nature of "Ban the Bags" program designed to eliminate samples of formula distributed by hospitals to new moms.

Then ask yourself about the more complex story of toxic chemicals that are passed through breast milk to nursing babies. Chemicals like DDT, PCBs, mercury, lead, benzene, perchlorane, and others.

For that information you will have to turn to Florence Williams' book, Breasts, recently reviewed by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez for ORION magazine, September/October 2012.  Excerpt:

 

"Yes, human milk is like ice cream, penicillin, and the drug ecstacy all wrapped up in two pretty packages.  But, women "off-load" up to90 percent of their own chemical loads  through their breast milk, prompting Norway, the country with "the single highest breast-feeding rate in the world," to consider recommending that women limit their breast-feeding to six months. Firstborn infants are at particular risk of chemical exposure through breast milk."

"Not only are babies and toddlers with high toxic levels of contaminants scoring lower on tests of mental, verbal, IQ, and physical development, chemicals are disrupting puberty.  "Today, half of all the girls in the United States start popping breasts by their tenth birthday," a statistic that is particularly  disturbing when paired with this one: "If you get your first period before age twelve, your risk of breast cancer is 50 percent higher than if you get it at age sixteen."

I guess like the canaries in the mine, womens' breasts are a window to an increasingly toxic world that calls for tighter regulations on food, chemicals, bottled water.  Maybe before banning formula samples we take another look at overall environmental, food and water health to learn who is feeding what to whom.   

 

 

Q&A Tuesday: How Does An Empty Boat Help You?

Q:    What's the use of an empty boat, especially at trial?

A:    It keeps you cool, calm, clear-headed, and collected, focused on your case and client, impervious to the devious distractions of your opponent designed to mess with your head and throw you off your game.

One of the Dharma talks I listened to during the "Be. Here. Now." retreat I attended at Deer Park Monastery was given by a monk who referred tongue-in-cheek to himself as "Young Brother" although he is actually quite an old brother. He told to a story I had not heard before which traces its telling back to Chuang Tzu, a Taoist sage living sometime before 250 B.C.  Briefly, it goes like this:

 “If a man is crossing a river and an empty boat collides with his own skiff, even though he be a bad-tempered man he will not become very angry. But if he sees a man in the boat, he will shout at him to steer clear. If the shout is not heard, he will shout again, and yet again, and begin cursing. And all because there is somebody in the boat. Yet if the boat were empty, he would not be shouting, and not angry."

His point was how to practice staying the course of calm in the face of some perceived action or word by another that might provoke us to unnecessary anger or rage.

So often it's our perceptions that make us crazy.  Zen Buddhism would say that most of our suffering is caused by our own perceptions.  And the notion of "colliding with an empty boat" is way to remind us that even if life is suffering we do not have to seek crucifixion.

In trial so often I've seen good lawyers go off the deep end because their opponent is just "messing with their head." If an emotion is true and serves you, by all means use it.  Those that distract you from the task at hand only dilute your effectiveness.

If you would like to read a bit more on the teachings of "An Empty Boat" click here to read David Nelson's post as he muses on the teachings during his drive home from our retreat on the mountain.

David's post is a good reminder that I have many many miles of river to practice.  At the very least I more fully appreciate a bumper sticker I saw recently that read, "When Jesus Christ said, 'Love your enemies' I think He probably meant 'Don't kill them.'"

Listen Well - A Website Of Spoken Word You May Enjoy.

As was told to me yesterday by a long-time litigator, the law is not only a jealous mistress, she can be a lethal one.  Peace, quiet, a moment of serenity, the opportunity to breathe and listen are not often part of the litigator's (or litigation consultant's) lifestyle.  But we can adjust that.

You never know where you'll find an idea.  One of the delightful features of The New Yorker magazine is the side column advertisements, each one about the size of a postage stamp.

Here is a site you may enjoy visiting:

Listen Well: a spoken word website of stories.

 

50 Years - 50 Steps - How We Silenced Rachel Carson.

Books change us.  50 years ago this September Rachel Carson published Silent Spring.  The Environmental Protection Agency is a product of Carson's book.

How did this woman take on the chemical companies?  Click here to read more.

How have we repaid that debt?  We fracked her.

Take time now to read ORION Magazine's report on fracking, how the chemical companies can turn land into a toxic waste dump, convert kitchen faucet tap water into methane, and force families to take it on the chin in the name of natural gas for energy.

Over the weekend I was talking with a family member who was extolling our recent Mars accomplishment.  The idea, I was told, is to investigate that planet as the next Earth. 

I am curious to know how come we would spend all that time, money, ingenuity, effort, creativity, imagination, and intelligence to land a scooter on Mars when we could apply it to figuring out how to heal the wreckage we've caused on this planet and make it a sustainable place to live.  

Sometimes, I have no explanation.

What will we do when we can no longer suck a million gallons of water out of a river to open the gullet of each fracking station?

What will we do when lethal gases trapped a mile under the Earth's crust continue to leak into what used to be clean air?

What will we do when the natural gas runs out? 

What can we rape and pillage then?

 

 

A Good Story About A Man & A Dog.

When we befriend an animal, we always get more than we bargained for.  Today The Feline Four and I are celebrating Week #83 of Barney still living well (albeit a bit breathless at times) with feline chylothorax as I wrote about in January 2011.

I am reminded once again of a bumper sticker on a local car: "Who rescued whom?" with a little paw print on it.

As Timothy Braun reminds us, "Four-Legged Reason to Keep It Together," love comes in many shapes and sizes.  

 

Do Not Swim, Hike Or Go To The Hospital Alone.

Let's begin here.  "The Short Life and Lonely Death of Sabrina Seelig" as reported by Anemona Hartocollis for the NYTimes reads as a cautionary tale: don't take Ephedra; make sure your jury relates to the story of your dead client; be aware of struggling hospitals, and so on.

What happened?  A 22 year old college student took Ephedra to stay up all night to complete a paper.  Feeling ill in the morning she called 911, an ambulance was dispatched, she was taken to a struggling Brooklyn hospital where she was given sedatives, strapped to a bed, slipped into a coma that evening unattended by the hospital staff and died 6 days after admission.

Her lawyer lost her case for any number of reasons.  I was not there nor part of the trial team.  I do not know.  What is reported is that there was (as there will always be) conflicting testimony, an uneven balance in the gaggle of experts, blame on the plaintiff for bringing about her own death, and juror distancing:

"After a day and a half of deliberations, the jury of four men and two women returned its verdict: Wyckoff and the individuals working there had not been negligent.

The jury did not seem to identify with Ms. Seelig."

As I have written and spoken before, the decision-maker must have some connection to your client.  The decision-maker does not need to have lost a sister or daughter or loved one to death.  The decision-maker does not need to have experience with medical malpractice.  But that decision-maker must be reminded of the values of safety, trust, and vulnerability, taught the medical rules including the simple four-step process of differential diagnosis, as well as the hospital rules of charting, monitoring, and vital signs. 

So often these cases turn on the inevitability of the outcome.  Apparently, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center was just the place.  Excerpt.

"In 2007, when Ms. Seelig was a patient, the state ordered Wyckoff to hire a management consultant to improve its governance and finances. Five years later, it is still struggling. The Brooklyn district attorney has been investigating allegations of mismanagement. A three-month investigation by The New York Times, the results of which were published in March, found a history of insider dealing and positions being given to people with political ties. The hospital officials involved denied any wrongdoing. The hospital does not carry malpractice insurance." 

One thing is for sure: if we have not yet gone to an emergency room or a hospital for treatment, we know someone who has.  One day we will most certainly be there ourselves. 

Here's the rule: Do not go to any hospital alone.  If you must, let someone know where you are going and when and why.

Several years ago I created a website for Vincent DeAngelo, an accomplished, highly-regarded medical malpractice attorney in Hartford, CT.  Mr. DeAngelo insisted that his website provide critical information to the public in five areas of potential medical malpractice: Vbacs, emergency rooms, medication errors, hospital infections, and nursing homes.

Click here to access DeAngelo's educational website complete with detailed downloadable pdfs you can read to learn more about these areas and information to take with you before going to the hospital.  

Our moms were right when they told us not to go swimming alone.  From the grave Sabrina Seelig is reminding us not to go to the hospital alone.

Wilderness As Antidote To Postindustrial Self-Absorption.

The message after 200 miles, getting lost, snow pits, mosquito attacks, and slogging with backpacks is still the same: get out in the woods.

Nicholas Kristof and his daughter headed for the Pacific Crest Trail.  Their adventure is recounted in his NYTimes OpEd piece, "Blissfully Lost in the Woods."  Apart from a nice father-daughter saga, their experiences illustrate how much we need the outdoors and Nature needs us.  Excerpt.

"This trip, even more than most backpacking slogs, was a reminder that we humans are mere bricks in a vast natural cathedral. As we tumbled in snow pits, as rain fell on us, we mused that we’re not landlords of our planet, or even its prime tenants. We’re just guests.

In short, the wilderness humbled us, and that’s why it is indispensable.

In our modern society, we have structured the world to obey us; we can often use a keyboard or remote to alter our surroundings. Yet all this gadgetry focused on our comfort doesn’t always leave us more content or grounded. It is striking how often people who are feeling bewildered or troubled seek remedy in the wilderness. That’s the point of the best-selling new book “Wild,” by Cheryl Strayed, about how she escaped from heroin and grief over her mother’s death by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

“Wild” is a terrific yarn, opening with a moment in which Strayed loses one precious hiking boot over a precipice — and then angrily hurls the other after it. Over time, the forests tame her, providing free therapy and the setting for her maturation. Strayed’s book has been successful, largely by word of mouth, partly because it reflects a truth we recognize.

For decades, youth programs have found benefit in sending troubled adolescents to drink from wilderness streams and lap up truths about themselves. Outward Bound takes a similar path, for everyone from at-risk kids to returning veterans to corporate executives.

Perhaps wilderness is an antidote to our postindustrial self-absorption. It’s a place to be deflated, humbled and awed all at once. It’s a window into a world larger than ourselves, one that doesn’t respond to a remote. It’s an Olympiad for all of us."

I can testify to the life changing experience of Outward Bound treks into the Canadian Rockies with a 50 pound backpack and another two week adventure kayaking Baja, Mexico with what I could stuff in a duffel.  I was exposed early on.  My family always camped in a tent with sleeping bags on the ground - where can you take 7 kids for cheap?

Kristof's parting message is urgent: Folks are just not out there like they used to be.  Excerpt.

"To guarantee wilderness in the long run, we first need to ensure a constituency for it. Environmentalists focus on preserving wilderness, because that’s the immediate priority, but they perhaps should be as energetic at getting young people to interact with it. We need more Americans working through their challenges, like Cheryl Strayed, by hurling boots off precipices. We need more schools and universities to offer classes on the wild, in the wild — with extra credit for students who get lost."