November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

Please, if you are thinking of giving to a charity this holiday season, I would ask you to consider including the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research (www.lustgarten.org) on your list. They raise funds to support independent, non-government funded research into the causes and a potential cure for pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), in 2008 an anticipated 37,680 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and 34,290 will die from the disease. For all stages of pancreatic cancer combined, the overall survival rate is less than 5%. For patients with advanced (metastatic) disease, the overall survival rate is less than 1% at 5 years. Most patients with advanced disease die within a year; average life expectancy is 6 to 9 months. Unless surgically removed in its earliest (localized) stages, there is no cure. Less than 20% of all cases are found in a localized stage.

The disease is highly aggressive and resistive to standard cancer treatments. Despite the high mortality rate associated with pancreatic cancer, its etiology is poorly understood. No tumor-specific markers exist for pancreatic cancer.
Source:
Pancreatic Cancer Treatment (PDQ®) from The National Cancer Institute

Let's increase funding for and awareness of this disease. I've written letters to editors of local papers in support of The National Plan to Advance Pancreatic Cancer Research Act (H.R. 7045). Would you consider doing the same?

http://www.pancan.org/Public/take.html

Thanks.

VOTE

That's it. Vote. Really. The country doesn't work if we don't participate. I could go into a riff about how our ancestors fought for the right to vote, and how democracy is expanded every time one of us exercises our right/ responsibility, and especially how so many people in other countries walk miles and wait hours for the privilege of voting..... but you know all that, don't you. So, I'll keep it to one word:


VOTE

Happy post!

Time for a happy update! The weather is beautiful this weekend, I'm well into a knitting project that I'm really loving (see Lady Eleanor link), and I'm finally finishing my laundry! Every weekend I swear to myself that I will not only wash and dry all my dirty clothes, but I will also fold them and put them away. Well, today is the first time that's happened in about a month now. I've been living out of my laundry basket (what? It's clean!), shaking out wrinkles, or hanging stuff I want to wear in the bathroom as I take my shower, hoping it will unwrinkle. Or, just wearing it with the wrinkles and hoping nobody will notice.

Such a little thing, but such a feeling of accomplishment and control over my life. That's what it comes down to, really, just feeling like I have some control over where my time goes. I'm getting there, slowly.

I got my LSAT score in my e-mail yesterday. Sorry to say, it went down by 3 points. Sigh. And I thought I did so well. It's disappointing to say the least. Still, I'm trying to stay my usual positive self. I won't give up on the idea until I hear if I've been accepted to my first choice or not.

Meanwhile, I'm going to concentrate on my good knitting and laundry day, and enjoy the weather.

Random whining...

Ok, so I don't want to become the kind of blogger who always whines, but this morning I feel like I need to. And, lucky readers, you get to be the recipients of my general malaise!

Let's start with Ted Kennedy. Or, more accurately, the media coverage of Ted Kennedy. I haven't been out of my house since I got home at 3:30 yesterday, but poor Ted had another seizure last night, and went to the hospital. I can only imagine the media circus that is now downtown Hyannis. Why, oh why, do the TV stations have to flood tiny little Hy-port every time the poor man burps??? He has brain cancer, for heaven's sake! His doctors, if they're doing their job, will want him to get checked out for every little anomaly! And, having some experience with the absolutely excellent cancer center at Cape Cod Hospital, let me tell you -- the doctors are always doing their job, and are extremely careful. Sheesh. Guess I'm not going downtown to do my shopping today!

In other news, my rampant tendinitis flared up again yesterday. It's usually on my right side -- shoulder, elbow, hip, knee, and ankle -- but this time it flared up in my left shoulder. MAN does it hurt! I must have slept wrong Thursday night, because when I woke up yesterday I could hardly move my arm. It zings right up to where the tendon connects to the shoulder joint. Ask me exactly where that is -- I can put my finger right on it at the moment! It was better with ibuprofen, of course, but that wears off every 6 hours, so I was awake at 4:30 this morning looking for more. I'm trying to knit with it, but my arm gets tired very fast, since I have to hold it at a funny angle to avoid moving my shoulder. Also, my hand started feeling numb after about 20 minutes of knitting, so I had to put it down for a bit. I so hope this doesn't go on all day -- rainy Saturdays are best for knitting! I also have massive cleaning and laundry to do, which will take twice as long if I have to favor my arm.

Times like these, I really miss Steve. When this happened, he would bring me ibuprofen, sit me on the couch with the remote, and take care of everything else for me. It was so wonderful to have him to wait on me when I felt yucky. Now, I just let stuff go when I don't have the energy, or when my stuff flares up. Oh, well. I've said before -- the dust-bunny police haven't taken me away yet, so I think I'm pretty much off their radar screen.

Ok, enough whining for today. I might take a nap in my recliner this morning -- arm hurts less when I'm sitting up -- and try knitting again in a little while.