ENCORE #88! – A Vaccine Against Breast Cancer!?!?!?!?!?!?!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry appeared in April of 2015.

NOTE THE UPDATE ON LAST SATURDAY'S POST BELOW!

NOT TODAY OR TOMORROW!!!!!

But maybe someday in the not-too-distant-future!

One of the things that sometimes bugs me about science fiction that’s supposed to be set in the distant future, is when they pull a stunt with the sole intent of making the “futuristic story” relevant to today. I’m reading a novel right now in which soldiers swear with the “f-word”. I can’t help think, “Oh, come on! You don’t REALLY think cuss words are going to stay exactly the same and have the same shock value five hundred or a thousand years in the future, do you?”

Another one, this time relevant to breast cancer, is when the President of the Twelve Colonies on the re-imagined BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is diagnosed with breast cancer. “At her doctor's appointment, Roslin is told that she has breast cancer and a year to live.”

Far be it from me to second-guess a writer and argue for dramatic impact, but this society has TWELVE separate worlds it governs; it has the capability to build (from scratch) TWELVE massive, monstrous, huge star ships capable of traveling at trans-light speeds – but not a single person ever thought to apply technology to breast cancer research?

Thanks be to God we live in this society! While the BC vaccine is by no means “just around the corner”, there is excellent evidence from a few small studies that it may be something that young adults may experience as a matter of course. There’s a glimmer of hope of creating a vaccine against breast cancer!

Something called “Mammaglobin-A (MAM-A) is overexpressed in 40% to 80% of primary breast cancers.” Because it is so common in breast cancers, researchers can use it as a marker – like a blinking light on top of a water tower! – and design T-cells (also known as white blood cells – the kind that fight disease and infection in Humans) that will specifically attack and eat the cancer cells. “This makes MAM-A a great target for a new cancer therapy as it could hopefully be used for the vast majority of patients with early stage and metastatic disease, where the protein is also found to be overexpressed. The vaccine works by priming white blood cells to target and destroy other cells presenting MAM-A, and the vaccination study was the first of this type against this target.”

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT #42…Causes Again!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

Updated 5/26/2018

I have been “funding” for causes ever since I rode in my very first March of Dimes Bike-a-thon in 1972. It was late spring, but the day we started it was snowing. Not blizzarding; not blinding…but snowing.

I finished the twenty-five-mile ride that had taken me around the Minneapolis lakes and out to Anoka. As weary as I was, I realized that I was hooked.

I did a few more of those, a couple of other “-a-thons” and then nothing really for several years.

A dozen years ago, my wife was diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes. I joined several bikes and walks, and one summer, my son and I did the 45-mile bike for diabetes. We did that twice, and one summer I did it alone. The next summer, my son invited me to ride with him on a fund raiser against MS, as a friend of my wife’s passed away because of it.

Then came breast cancer seven years ago. There were no “doable” biking events for me then – I was in no shape to do the Susan G. Komen bike-a-thons at the time, so for a while I did nothing.

Five years ago, my school district sponsored the Relay for Life and we finally “came out of the closet”. We’d avoided it before then, though I’d been asked and we’d discussed it. For whatever deep-seated reason, we didn’t feel ready to join the even. We took the big step four years ago (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2014/05/guys-gotta-talk-about-2the-relay-for.html) and then again two summers ago (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2016/05/relay-for-life-2016-today.html). The group of young people with whom we walked was vital and dedicated. It was delightful!

Today, I will walk again for the Robbinsdale Relay for Life

I have yet another cause as well – Alzheimer’s. My father was diagnosed a few years ago, and now the disease rears its hideous head on a daily basis. He lives in a memory care unit, but the sad fact is that there is absolutely nothing that can be done for him. Though undiagnosed, I think my mother suffered from it as well; though with her other issues, I’m not sure if it was a cause or effect. I only that know she’d been in a major fog for months before she passed in July of 2016. Even as they have an impact on my own life, there were far too many “causes”; far too many medical problems with events to raise money to fight for a cure.

While I’ve recently started to feel a pressure of “can this go on?”, I also realize that while we do in fact, live in the 21^st Century and there are many things we CAN do; there are still so many things we CAN’T do that it can seem overwhelming…

The wife of a pastor of mine once said, “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

I pondered this for many years, not really understanding it. Having just celebrated my 61^st birthday, I think I may have a handle on it: I will keep this blog rather than start another. I only have so many candles and I’ve tended this one for the past seven years. While it’s not comfortable, it’s a candle I now know well – and it’s a candle that has truly pierced the darkness. I will keep lighting this one for a long time to come.

THOUGHTS FROM THE RELAY:

It's cold...but the spirit here is warm! The people are warm, caring, and so full of energy and life -- it's weird because the thing that draws them together often leads to death.

The young people, so full of life, contrast so sharply with the images and stories of chemotherapy and the very real threat that cancer poses. Here now, there is the music, dogs, tents, food (lots of food!), laughter, and lots of "stuff". The wind blows wildly, knocking over tents and young people scramble after them.

While in hospital rooms around the world, men, women, children, teens, and young adults exhale their last breath and are gone.

This event not only flies in the face of the hundred cancers that plague even this 21st Century -- where kids speak across miles as if they were chatting with someone next to them -- but it celebrates the FIGHT; the only fight perhaps that deserves celebration.

I'm going now, but it's a night of life that perhaps few of these youngsters miss the significance of. I cannot miss the significance of it...

Image: http://wrex.images.worldnow.com/images/23784252_SA.jpg

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #61: Breast Cancer Cells Power Themselves Differently Than Regular Cells – and There May Be A Way To TURN THEM OFF!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you.

There are lots of kinds of sugar – lactose is one of them (as in, “Leonard Hofstadter is lactose intolerant.”) Another kind of sugar is sucrose – that’s the kind that clings to Apple Jacks. The third type most people recognize is glucose, most often when paired with another word, as in “blood glucose”.

OK – we got that. Sucrose, when we eat a bowlful of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs (Calvin and Hobbes), is broken down in the body into glucose and fructose – another sugar some people are familiar with, also known as “fruit sugar” by enzymes whose purpose is to snap the bonds to make sugars the body can use.

Usually, a cell will take the glucose that is moved around the body through the bloodstream, pull it inside itself and let the super tiny organs (the science word is “organelles”) that are the powerhouse of the cell (aka “mitochondria”) break it down even farther so that the cell can use the energy to grow, divide, and stay healthy.

Cancer cells do that to some extent, but scientists have long known that cancer cells FERMENT sugar for energy. Most of us know what fermenting sugar does: it makes alcohol. The cancer cell takes that product, breaks it down further. One of the proteins – an enzyme, actually – that causes a cancer cell to ferment glucose instead of sending it to the mitochondria is called SRC-3. It's this enzyme that can turn on the genes in a cell and set it on its way to becoming a cancer.

Fermentation doesn’t make as much energy as the mitochondria can, but according to researchers, when the cell ferments glucose instead of metabolizing it in the mitochondria, they discovered than an enzyme (SRC-3) “which is overproduced in most cancer cells…transforms [another molecule that] can turn on genes involved in abnormal growth, invasion, metastasis and resistance to anti-cancer drugs. If cancer cells modify [a different molecule by adding a chemical group, the molecule] becomes hyperactive, a hallmark of many tumors.”

While the discovery and discussion is far from being a treatment, the study group found that if they interfere with either molecule, they can stop the cancer cell cold and prevent breast cancer that has been cured from returning or breaking out and growing somewhere else in the body (metastasizing). So don't ask your doctor for the "sugar treatment" next week -- BUT there are some good signs that this might be a new way to treat metastasis.

I’ll be watching for more news as time goes on!

Resources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180403115952.htm

Image: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/candh/images/2/20/CFSB.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20120306033841

ENCORE #87! – Giving Thanks

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry appeared on Thanksgiving Day in 2015.

While the article linked below is about forgiveness, and references Matthew 18 in which a man who was forgiven a HUGE debt went out and when he couldn’t collect on a small debt someone else owed him – he had the man thrown into prison.

I’m sure the end outcome is obvious, but I want to emphasize the lesson implied here. I think it implies that when you are forgiven a debt; when something that you expected to happen doesn’t, you GIVE THANKS.

I forget, now that the initial horror is over seven years past, to give thanks. So at this time, I offer up my heartfelt thanks that my wife is healthy and that I have learned.

Thank you.

That is all...

Resource: http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2015/June/The-Deadly-Consequences-of-Unforgiveness/

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…Alzheimer’s #15: The Wedding Ring

Dad’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s stayed hidden from everyone until I took over the medical administration of my parents in 2015. Once I found out, there was a deafening silence from most of the people I know even though virtually all of them would add, “My _____ had Alzheimer’s…” But there was little help, little beyond people sadly shaking heads. Or horror stories. Lots of those. Even the ones who knew about the disease seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Alzheimer’s Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this part of my blog…

Dad lost his wedding ring a few days ago.

This time, I searched for it by moving all the furniture and bringing in my industrial flashlight. In the bathroom; under the dorm refrigerator; under the couch – those three were long shots. He lost his wedding ring while fiddling with and seated on the edge of his bed.

It’s a simple ring, actually – something like the one above, though not quite. I couldn’t find an exact copy…

At one time, the sterling silver had been diamond cut, but wearing it for sixty-two years had worn it essentially smooth. It wasn’t fancy and had matched my mom’s wedding ring, which is resting with her now these past twenty months. His had known hard use – construction sites, home repair, auto repair, lawn mowing, deck building, tree planting, driving long distances, touring Europe, running spotlight, discipling children, moving furniture, remodeling, playing softball, drinking beer, holding grandchildren, holding great-grandchildren, and an endless procession of life’s small but meaningful events that called for gripping with a hand bearing a ring that promised fidelity until death stepped in to cause a permanent part.

I don’t know if we’ll find it. We’ve found the wallet and apartment keys that have vanished only to reappear a few days or weeks or months later. But I don’t know this time. It’s such a small thing…

The worst part for me?

For a man whose memory is slipping away, the wedding ring was a concrete reminder of sixty-three years spent with one person with whom he had made more memories than any other person…

Image: http://s3.weddbook.com/t4/2/8/0/2803828/perfect-hammered-5mm-band-men39s-silver-wedding-ring-wedding-band-simple-and-unique-solid-sterling-silver-hammered-band-rustic-band.jpg

ENCORE #86! – 10 Exercise TIPS for Cancer Folk (and don’t forget the significant others!)

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry appeared in December of 2015.

“You should just exercise! It will take away the stress! It will help you heal faster! Exercise will make you better!”

Cool.

Fine. Sign me up for the next Grandma’s Marathon! Running twenty-six miles should be good for at least one chemotherapy session, right?

Exercise…

What exactly does this mean? How do I turn “exercise is good for you” into something I can DO? Oh, and is the “exercise is good for you” mantra only for the loved one with cancer? What about me – who put on something over ten pounds during the chemo sessions and can’t seem to shake the weight now?

The answers to these questions a literally scattered all over the internet, so I’ll try and analyze and condense them here into TEN workable breast cancer treatment and after-treatment practical exercise tips (ALWAYS TALK TO OR CALL YOUR CANCER CARE CENTER BEFORE YOU START ANY KIND OF EXERCISE TO SEE IF IT’S SAFE FOR YOU):

1)      “‘You don't have to be Lance Armstrong,’ stresses Dr. Julia Rowland of the National Cancer Institute, speaking from a survivorship meeting this month that highlighted exercise research. ‘Walk the dog, play a little golf.’” Walk the dog, walk to the end of the block, walk somewhere. Several people recommended finding a neighborhood indoor mall that opens early and walk the perimeter before the stores open. Walk!

2)     “Researchers think exercising together may help both partners stick with it. They also are testing whether the shared activity improves both physical functioning and eases the strain that cancer puts on the caregiver and the marriage.” Walk with a loved one (in my case, ME! I should be walking and exercising WITH my wife. WALKING. Doing DANCE FEVER to an enjoyable music routine. Life weights – or cans of soup if you don’t have weights. A little weight lifted a number of times during a day counts as exercise! Hide the weight in your work locker or in a desk drawer – or leave it out and tell people what you’re doing. You will find a remarkable amount of support.

3)     “For example, Schmitz led a major study that found careful weight training can protect against lymphedema, reversing years of advice to coddle the at-risk arm…” See #2 – lift anything! (By the way, this is called resistance training – the weight “resists” being lifted.)

4)     “…at-home exercises with some muscle-strengthening, plus a better diet, could slow physical decline.” There are dozens of DVD exercise programs. If you can’t buy one, check one out from your local library or ask to borrow one from a local gym, YMCA or school. Do as much as you can, then stop. (See #1 above!) Also, lifting the DVD into the player is exercise! Here’s the address for a DVD specifically for breast cancer survivors: http://www.strengthandcourage.net/

5)     Arms at your side, hold a towel in both hands. Using the unaffected arm, pull the other behind the back. Alternate Pain is to be respected and the stretch should be held to the point of discomfort not pain .The stretches should be held from 5-10 seconds at first, gradually increasing the length of time. It’s better to do this several times during the day, rather than all at once. With arms bent (on either side of the head), hold a towel in both hands. Using the unaffected arm, pull the other behind the head.

6)      “If lymphedema is a concern, you…should be fitted with a sleeve which is worn while exercising especially when lifting weights. Progress…slowly and start with a light weight – ONE pound is just fine.”

7)     Walking and cycling are quite beneficial as are swimming, cross training, or aerobics. It is best to begin with a 5-10 minute walk to judge...if a long period is too much, multiple shorter aerobic sessions are fine. Your goal will be to gradually increase the time period engaged in aerobic exercise and to slowly increase your exercise tolerance.

8)    Doing yoga can provide flexibility benefits as well as instruction in stress reduction techniques that can prove beneficial. [I know nothing about yoga, so start with a library visit or a YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3vLZqPZxZE]

9)     Yep, I’m sayin’ it again: “Walking, a common fitness choice, offers the benefits of aerobic exercise without overly straining the body. According to a 2005 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the benefits of walking peak when a breast cancer patient or survivor walks 3 to 5 hours weekly at a pace of 2 to 3 miles per hour.”

10) Find a swimming pool and join a waterobics class; if you can’t join a class, get this CD: http://www.maryessert.com/bcr.htm This site lists the exercises and exactly how to do them!

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT #41…Gilda’s Club & New Directions

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

I haven’t said much about Gilda’s Club because after my brief interest, I found I really didn’t have time to do much with the information.

A week or so ago, Gilda’s Club Twin Cities reached out to the local school districts, inviting someone from the district to attend Imagine A Place Breakfast, A Free Fundraiser to Benefit Gilda’s Club (http://www.gildasclubtwincities.org/news/imagine-a-place-breakfast-thursday-april-26/) “…we regularly get calls from schools asking how we can provide support when a student, teacher, or staff member is impacted by cancer. In the next few years, we will be more fully developing our children, teen, and family programming. As part of this, we are looking to work closely with local school districts to create awareness of our program as a community-based resource. Additionally, we are developing creative programs such as a teen essay contest as well as a “Gilda on the Go” program that will take elements of our program out into the community, with schools being a key partner…I am inviting leadership from the surrounding school districts to our Imagine a Place Breakfast…it is also a powerful hour of inspiration and education to learn more about the psychosocial impact cancer has on our community and how Gilda’s Club addresses these needs…I thought this might be ideal timing to learn about our local resource…We would love for you and/or individuals from the Robbinsdale School District to attend to learn more.”

I had never heard of Gilda’s Club until a few years ago, when my daughter interviewed there for a position as a sort of “field test” or “pre-internship” in her master’s degree program in art therapy.

According to Wikipedia, “Gilda's Club was founded by Joanna Bull, Radner's cancer psychotherapist along with Radner's widower, Gene Wilder (himself a cancer survivor) and broadcaster Joel Siegel (who died after a long battle with the disease). The first club opened in New York City in 1995, after a long fundraising campaign that included movie trailers featuring Wilder in theaters around the country. The organization took its former name from Radner's comment that cancer gave her "membership to an elite club I'd rather not belong to".”

My first reaction was, “WHERE THE F…WAS THIS PLACE WHEN WE STARTED THE HIDEOUS JOURNEY THROUGH CANCER?”

Yeah, my reaction, in my head, really WAS that strong.

The main reason we didn’t know about it was that it wasn’t here. Gilda’s Club opened here in 2014. We started our journey in March of 2011. We’ll be “celebrating” the fifth anniversary of that date this year.

I confess, I still have bitter (VERY) feelings about the lack of support we got at the beginning. My daughter shared something of the same sense after she started working at Gilda’s Club a few weeks ago. In fact, she mentioned that this experience AS a therapist intern might actually BECOME therapeutic for her.

It’s still been a lonely slog. I KNOW I have nearly 50,000 hits here over the past seven years, yet I still don’t talk to any other “male caregiver” about the journey. Even though one of the men I work with and chat with on occasion is also a “male caregiver”. The atmosphere at work isn’t conducive to talking at depth, even though I am, ironically, a counselor!

And so I continue on pretty much in silence, except for these blog entries.

Anyway, it’s GOOD to know that others won’t have to go it alone anymore. Gilda’s Club has twenty-something affiliates in places like New York, Chicago, Seattle, Palm Desert, Fort Lauderdale, Davenport, and besides here, another fifteen or so places. If you want a place near you, click on the link below in Resources. If you’re in the Twin Cities, email me and I can give you a little bit of info.

I’d like to try going to GC, but I still haven’t decided if I want to wallow in my bitterness a little longer or maybe find other men willing to talk about being a caregiver of a breast cancer survivor. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ll be going to the breakfast with the intent of getting the tools necessary for me to create a Fight Cancer group at the high school I work at (I was thinking of using a different name, but I’m pretty sure Admin wouldn’t much care for it, though I think we can call it that among ourselves (You might want to read this to get the gist of my true feelings… http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2016/03/guys-gotta-talk-about-23f-cancer.html)

Again, I’ll keep you posted!

Resources: http://www.cancersupportcommunity.org/,

Image: http://wrex.images.worldnow.com/images/23784252_SA.jpg