Happy New Year!

From Loop!!!

Twin sisters with breast cancer face metastasis and remission together

Since I started this blog I have read gazillions of articles about breast cancer but never one like this. These sisters show an amazing grace as they come to terms with different fates.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1342530/Breast-cancer-twins-discover-die-tell-moving-story.html

Breast Cancer Survivor Skydives for Support Center

How cool is this!
http://ultimatebaytown.com/stories/225274-breast-cancer-survivor-organizes-skydive-fundraiser
photo from ultimatebaytown.com

4 Year Old Breast Cancer Survivor

Wow. Next time I am feeling sorry for myself I will think of this little girl.
http://www.thespec.com/news/ontario/article/306184--cambridge-girl-canada-s-youngest-known-breast-cancer-survivor

Beautiful Blooms Benefit Breast Cancer Research Foundation

On I personal note, I really like this fund raiser. I grew up surrounded by hydrangeas, and they were the flower theme at my wedding. Now a special pink one will benefit the BCRF.

http://www.invincibellespirit.net/

Merry Christmas!

From Loop!


Greeting card from Zazzle.com

Suspicious Mammogram? Wisconsin nurse is ready to help.

http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/article/20101220/WRT04/12200329/Mammography-nurse-leads-the-way

I heart boobies. A ridiculous court case over a plastic bracelet.

So the Easton Area Middle School/ACLU "I heart boobies" lawsuit has reached federal court.
And even though this blog specializes in pop culture and breast cancer, I couldn't care less.

I am just fine with sassy breast cancer awareness messages. I will admit before I was a survivor I found the whole pink haze around BC overwhelming and preferred to never think about it. I was just the sort of person that Save the Ta-Ta's or "Feel Your Boobies" was made for. The first makes very comfy T-shirts, the second does some of the best graphic design I have ever seen.

The pink bracelets from the Keep a breast foundation? Not my taste, but hey it's a free country. Or so we thought.

The irony is that the kids will grow up. But the adults who turned this into a federal case literally, probably not. Instead of making this into a teachable moment, the school and the kids' parents lawyer up.

How about this?

Stop fighting over a pink plastic bracelet, acknowledge that women are suffering, women are dying. and do something about it!

Easton Area Middle School...how about making a different bracelet that raises more money for a local hospital or the Breast Cancer Research foundation?

Instead you are using public money to litigate against 7th graders for being silly?


Here is the story that the Associated Press posted online:

Pa. girls fight 'boobies' bracelet ban in US court

(AP) – 1 day ago

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — In a test case of whether breast cancer fundraising bracelets that proclaim "I (heart) boobies!" can be banned in public schools, one district is calling the slogan a sexually charged double entendre.
The free-speech case involves Easton Area Middle School, whose seventh-grade principal struggled on the witness stand Thursday when asked if T-shirts with the words "breast cancer" should be permitted on the school's Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
The middle school, a 90-minute drive north of Philadelphia, suspended two girls in October for refusing to remove the colorful rubber bracelets, which have become wildly popular among teens across the country.
Some school officials are far less enthusiastic. But the Easton Area School District is the first to try to defend a ban in court, according to the Keep A Breast Foundation, the small Carlsbad, Calif., nonprofit that sells the bracelets to engage young people in breast cancer awareness.
In U.S. court Thursday, a school district lawyer asked the suspended girls, Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez, if they wore the bracelets as fashion statements or simply to make waves by defying a school rule.

New cold cap options could be on the horizon

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_16869332

New study identifies the lymphedema gap

http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/852576140048867C852577FA0078E532

New technique may help prevent lymphedema!

Sadly it's too late for me on this...but if I was newly diagnosed I would pursue this!

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101211005006/en/Imaging-Technique-Reduce-Lymphedema-Breast-Cancer-Patients

Now PLEASE somebody help those of us who already have it!

Elizabeth

There has already been a lot written about Elizabeth Edwards and her death from breast cancer. Here is a link to a story that really described her best qualities.

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/12/07/elizabeth-edwards-r-i-p/

Here is a link to a really interesting essay by a cancer survivor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-petrow/elizabeth-edwards_b_793499.html?ir=Politics

I am hoping that someone makes this a teachable moment about metastatic breast cancer
I watched several network reports tonight that said she died of cancer, but barely mentioned the word breast.

I really do think that there is some confusion about the fact that BC can move out of the breast into the rest of the body, and that is when the disease can be fatal.

What Elizabeth's passing shows is that that being famous, or smart, or powerful is no protection against this disease. We have seen so many prominent women overcome breast cancer recently, but the truth is that this disease can kill any of us.

Edwards didn't want to be described as "losing her battle with cancer," and I give her a lot of credit for this. It is a tired metaphor.

Cancer is not a prize fight that can be won with a punch. Some of us have cancer that responds to treatment well, others are not as lucky.

Edwards wanted to be remembered for how she lived not how she died. I don't blame her.