April 07, 2017 06:20AM
Quote
RamUK
Helen (my wife) is an oncology nurse specializing in head and neck. She is just working toward her doctorate (equivalent it's called a DNP) and crushing it with the equivalent to a 4.0 grade.

Apart from doing her job and working through school she has spent the last few weeks in what spare time she has organizing a free head and neck screening (which is today) for people who don't have insurance.

She has cajoled most (sadly not all, some aren't interested in anything that doesn't pay highly) of the doctors she works with to give up a morning and I am super proud of her.

But here's the thing, and I'm hoping mama can offer some input on this bearing in mind what she has had to endure.

Who here knew this month was head and neck cancer awareness month?

My guess is nobody.

Yet, I bet you all know October is breast awareness month just by the NFL involvement.

What's your thoughts on some cancers being sexier than others? I'm sorry to use that expression because it sounds crass, but I'm talking from a media perspective?

Helen got nowhere with most of the local TV stations covering what she was doing even with the help of the PR department, yet Breast awareness get's blanket coverage.

The same goes for lung cancer, it get's almost zero publicity (every conceivable cancer has an awareness month), yet it kills almost four times as many people as breast cancer and is often way more preventable and thus could benefit from more coverage.

I suppose being married to Helen means I see things from a different perspective and I'm sure if every month was full of cancer awareness fatigue would set in, so I get I'm just rambling.

I

I didn't realize there was a month for it, RamUK.

Good for Helen, of course. How many times can we say how wonderful she is?

Anyway, my guess is my particular form of cancer isn't considered "sexy," either. I almost never see it mentioned: follicular lymphoma. It's incurable, and it's everywhere -- blood, bone marrow, the entire lymph system, etc. etc. So that falls into Helen's area of expertise, too. But it's rarely talked about, even though it's guaranteed to be fatal if not treated.

Lung cancer: Yep. Smoking kills nearly 500,000 Americans a year (most of them via lung cancer), and roughly 40,000 who don't smoke themselves, but take in second-hand smoke. Obviously, the former is "preventable," while the latter is a much dicier issue. Luckily, America has seen a fantastic drop of smokers as a percentage. It's down to roughly 18%. Used to be double that. Not sure what the percentages are in Britain or the EU, but they've taken important steps to cut down on public area smoking too. Should help reduce the second-hand smoking carnage at least.

Again, major kudos to Helen.
SubjectAuthorViewsPosted

  Cancer

RamUK521April 07, 2017 04:54AM

  That's awesome UK...

sstrams247April 07, 2017 05:07AM

  You'll love this.

RamUK286April 07, 2017 05:59AM

  Go Helen Go!

sstrams241April 07, 2017 07:59AM

  having met you.........

21Dog210April 07, 2017 06:19AM

  Re: Cancer

Billy_T270April 07, 2017 06:20AM

  Different types of Cancer Awareness Calendar

MamaRAMa315April 07, 2017 07:47AM

  Re: Cancer

MamaRAMa243April 07, 2017 07:50AM