Raising funds, awareness and making a difference.......

There's a season for everything. Spring is peak season for the ACS Relay For Life events and they continue through out the summer. Team Boobiehead participated in our first Pre-Relay event (April 2nd) hosting a concert with Nashville stars, Bomshel, along with opening act, 12 year old Sydney Rhame from Atlanta. Many, many thanks go out to the these talented performers and all the volunteers it takes to make a venue of this size come to fruition. Next, we had our own Glynn County RFL held April 15th. Family flew in to walk the survivor lap with me and my other survivor buddies. It was a day of celebration, for sure. This time last year, i was bald, super skinny and still going through weekly chemo treatments. I looked like cancer. This year, mid-January, my chemo port came out, hair has grown back crazy curly and now it's time to march for those who can't. I never, in a million years, would've thought I'd get cancer but it happened. No history, no DNA, young at 42 and in picture perfect health.....what are the odds? No one knows why we get the fight of our lives but we do. Just because i'm done with treatment, doesn't mean i'm done. I'm here to help those who can't. The seasons may change but the mission doesn't.

Help Team Boobiehead continue to raise funds, awareness and make a difference everyday.

Buy a tshirt, have a laugh at being a Boobiehead and help.......It's why we're here in on this planet. Again, thank you to everyone for helping out the last three weeks. We couldn't have done it without you!

What an inspiration!

Last week, I overheard a wonderful conversation. A local lady was gushing about what a hero my boss, Britt Figueroa, has become in our St Simons Island/Brunswick, Georgia community.

Most mortal humans, rightfully so, cannot handle the pressures of having cancer, telling loved ones, going through treatments, and perhaps even having one of your precious breasts chopped off your body.

Britt not only handled it for herself and her children, but she also listened to the pleas of all the other cancer patients she kept meeting. These people with cancer were talking about the ever-expanding bills for cancer treatments and that many would have to file bankruptcy in order to save their homes. Or they would choose to have the cancer removed, but have absolutely no followup care.

Britt knew that, in order to regain health, the last thing these people should be worrying about is money, yet all too frequently, this is the harsh reality. They were too young to get benefits from Medicare and had too many assets to qualify for other aid agencies.

So, in the midst of her own cancer nightmare (and while caring for her two lovely children), she conceived, created, and coalesced her new company, BoobieHeadInc. and started Your Cancer Care foundation. The sole purpose of the fund is to assist cancer patients to pay their bills and prevent bankruptcies. She works with our local hospital Southeast Georgia Health System and others to pay for Glynn County Georgia patient bills. Later, her plan is to expand way beyond Glynn County to assist other Americans.

I knew her story and admire her courage: that's why I work with her. But, somehow, listening to that woman enthusiastically fawning over Britt, what she has overcome and created to help others in a very few months, I am inspired anew.

Let's do this, people!

Get active and get involved!

Ever hear in the news, that the “FDA advisory committee has recommended (or not recommended) approval for a particular drug therapy”? The FDA typically follows those recommendations, but who is the FDA advisory committee? Certainly, the committee is made up of well-respected scientists and the like, but 15 years ago, cancer patient representatives got a boost in the arm; people with an interest in cancer got the ability to be active participants with full voting rights included!

Bolstered by the experience and success of HIV/AIDS patient representative program, the government added a cancer patient representative program.

Staff is located in the
Office of Special Health Issues.
Contact info:
Office of Special Health Issues
Phone: 301-796-8460
Email: OSHI@fda.hhs.gov
10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Bld 32, Room 5367
Silver Spring, MD 20993

Check out the site www.fda.gov. Then put in “cancer liaison” in the search bar at the top right. When I went to the site, the cancer liaison program was the first link.
Or go directly to the site at: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForPatientAdvocates/CancerLiaisonProgram/default.htm
The site is fairly user friendly, and chock full of information on a variety of topics including patient advocacy and drug development. You can download a pdf brochure
which explains the program and how to apply.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForPatientAdvocates/PatientInvolvement/UCM143432.pdf
Here’s a couple of quotes from actual patient representative that I found particulary astute.
Patients can offer a point of view that no one else on the committee can provide because we've had the experience to share what they haven't," says patient representative Martha Solonche, a five-year survivor of both uterine and ovarian cancer. Solonche believes that the "emotionally charged" nature of some of the issues is "all the more reason for someone with the disease to argue a point."
"One of the biggest hurdles at a committee meeting," says Sallie Forman, a patient representative who suffers from colon cancer, "is convincing the rest of the panel that the approval of a drug that may buy me three or four more years may also take away my quality of life. In other words, a drug that is so toxic to the system, but gives one more week of life, isn't worth it."
Solonche agrees. "No one on the panel could understand this. Only someone who's lived through constant side effects, every time they take a certain drug, can know what that's like."

Enjoy the site and you may be the next patient representative!

Best Books on Cancer

"PlanetCancer" by Heidi Schultz Adams and Christopher Schultz

"Crazy, Sexy Cancer" by Kris Carr

"Everything Changes: The Insider's Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s" by Kairol Rosenthal

"Hope Begins in the Dark" by Jamie Reno

"Keep Climbing: How I Beat Cancer and Reached the Top of the World," by Sean Swarner

"Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer" by Michael Lerner

"Living Well with Cancer: A Nurse Tells You Everything You Need to Know" by Libby Schmais

"The Breast Cancer Survival Manual: A Step-by-Step Guide for the Woman with Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer" by John Link

"Diagnosis Cancer: Your Guide Through the First Few Months" by Wendy Schlessel Harpham

"Cancer: 50 Essential Things to Do: Revised and Updated Edition" by Greg Anderson

"It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life" by Lance Armstrong

... More to come in further posts!

A New Way of Looking at Good Health vs. Cancer

Returning from TEDMED, an astonishing meeting of exceptional minds from science, medicine, business and technology, Dr. Mark Hyman says: “we have been asking the wrong question about cancer. We have asked "what": What tumor do you have? What kind of chemotherapy, surgery or radiation is needed for that tumor? What is your prognosis? Instead, we need to be asking "why" and "how": Why did this cancer grow? How can you change the conditions that feed and support cancer-cell growth? How did the terrain of your garden become a host to such an invasive weed?”

I wasn’t aware of this man’s work before reading about him in the Huffington Post, but I am following him on Twitter now. He reminds us that “scientific literature is abundant with evidence that diet, exercise, thoughts, feelings and environmental toxins all influence the initiation, growth and progression of cancer. If a nutrient-poor diet full of sugar, lack of exercise, chronic stress, persistent pollutants and heavy metals can cause cancer, could it be that a nutrient-dense, plant-based diet, physical activity, changing thoughts and reactions to stress, and detoxification might treat the garden in which cancer grows? Treat the soil, not the plant. It is a foundational principle of sustainable agriculture, and of sustainable health.”

This is a manageable approach: enhance immune function through diet and lifestyle changes, nutrient or phytonutrient therapies. We can enhance our body's own detoxification system to promote the elimination of carcinogenic compounds. To improve hormone metabolism and reduce the carcinogenic effects of too much insulin, we can reduce our high sugar and refined carbohydrate diet as well as eliminate use of hormone-disrupting xenobiotics and petrochemicals.

Furthermore, Hyman believes we can alter our genes by changing the inputs that control their expression: diet, nutrients, phytonutrients, toxins, stress and other sources of inflammation. Finally, if we focus on less troublesome and more generative thoughts, we create more uplifting emotions. Hyman sums it up: “all good fertilizer for the soil in the garden of our body.”

Wow, this is what great healthcare can become! In the meantime, you can do this!

Tattoo Artist Helps Cancer Patients Reclaim Their Identity

I just found this article in the Syracuse Post Standard about a nurse-turned-tattoo artist who puts finishing touches on the reconstructed breasts of central New York cancer survivors. A local plastic surgeon came to her to tattoo areolas and nipples on their patients' breasts after reconstruction. Some women come to her to cover their scars and others as a way to celebrate the years after surgery. Whatever their reasons for wanting their tattoos, this strikes me as a wonderful way for a former nurse to continue caring: it helps to heal the women's psyche as it covers the scars.

The first cancer patient Kim Leach ever tattooed presented the biggest challenge: a woman who had serious complications that left her with no breasts and a heavily scarred chest. "She said, 'My chest is destroyed and I feel like I lost my womanhood to cancer,'" Leach recalled. "I said, 'I can give you something you are so proud of on your chest that it won't matter whether you have breasts or not.'" It took almost a year to complete the uniquely personal montage.

"I get these girls on a good day," Leach said. "Their cancer is gone and this is their last step to getting their body back. It's an act with deep meaning, about reclaiming their identity as a woman. I give them that last kick of empowerment over breast cancer."

Quite an amazing story and person!

Lung Cancer Treatment News

The American College of Chest Physicians presented new data that some drugs commonly used for diabetes treatment may also help slow the spread of lung cancer. Some drugs including metformin or thiazolidedione (TZDs) could also increase the life expectancy of lung cancer patients.

Ask your doctor if this treatment could be beneficial to you or your loved ones.

Palliative Care helps cancer patients live longer, better

“Adding the services of a care team focused on quality of life without altering patient’s cancer treatments could both enhance and extend life”, says Jennnifer Temel, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center as reported by the New England Journal of Medicine. Combining palliative care early in treatment improved patient’s moods, helped them deal emotionally and spiritually with their disease, eased pain, nausea, and breathing difficulties which made their lives better, happier, as well as extending their lifespan.

This seems like a no-brainer to me, but cancer treatment typically only deals with the disease, not the symptoms which come along with it. And in the past, if palliative care was done, it was done late. We know now, by this medical study, that it should be done immediately or at least early into treatment. One of my goals for this blog is to bring you practical ways to make you feel better every day.

Funding help on the way

“Many cancer patients in Glynn County are uninsured or underinsured and do not qualify for financial help programs due to their age or assets”, explains Britt Figueroa, the founder and CEO of BoobieHead Inc. Britt is working to change that. She has the inspiration, the experience, and the plan.

You see, Britt is a recent survivor of breast cancer. She learned first hand many of cancer patient’s needs, which inspired her to create a line of ultra-soft casual apparel for sensitive skin, tender from chemotherapy treatments. This was just a start, of course, because Britt had a larger purpose in mind.

“A portion of the monies created from BoobieHead Inc. will go to Your Cancer Care Foundation , which will act as a pass through to pay those financial gaps for qualified candidates who would otherwise have to file for bankruptcy”, says Figueroa. Qualifying patients would be below Medicare age and have assets above Medicaid levels, but are still unable to pay hefty healthcare bills. “We first want to take care of the needs of cancer patients in Glynn County, and then we will grow to support people in other areas.”

Figueroa has the business acumen and experience to back it up. Remember Monkey Love, the fun dessert bar and gallery at Red Fern Village in St. Simons? That was her successful previous venture, so she knows business.

She also knows cancer and has a plan to help our family, friends, and neighbors who are in need.