A post over at Sassy's, the Sunday paper, and events of the day have all combined to bring you this post.
No one ever likes to lose a parent, no disease is a "good" disease, we hate them all, most especially the ones that take our loved ones from us.
I found out after my Mother died of lung cancer, that it is the # 1 cancer killer of women. It far outpaces, breast, ovarian, colorectal combined. We fund research for breast cancer at the rate of around $22,000.00 per cancer death. That number for lung cancer is only $1700.00. $1700.00!!! What is worse is that the differences in how this disease affects men vs women are not understood or really even being studied. So many women who are stricken with lung cancer, like Dana Reeve, NEVER smoked.
According to Sunday's Parade magazine the five year survival rate for breast cancer victims is 89%. The five year survival rate for women with lung cancer is 16% . By the time we knew Mom was sick, it had already invaded her brain. I'm so glad that breast cancer has gotten so much attention and funding that they've been able to make such great strides. I hope that lung cancer will get the same treatment soon.
If you still have your parents, be glad, call them and tell them you love them.
5 comments:
I like the picture, lovey. I remember when your mom died- you hid away from everyone for months- i went looking for you- you were very depressed and it was such a hard time- i found you practically holed up in your bedroom watching talking heads 24-7 You tell me sometimes that I rescued you. I think we rescued each other.
Yes honey I love this picture too. It's one of my favorites of Mom with my kids. She didn't really like having her picture taken and was behind the camera most of the time rather than in front of it. I love how she has her hand on P's shoulder like he's going to run off, lol. She always called him "the white tornado" because he was constantly in motion!
"If you still have your parents, be glad, call them and tell them you love them."
It always really bothers me when people treat their parents like crap, or make a fuss about spending time with them. I know that not everyone has the greatest parents in the world, but they don't realize how freakin' lucky they are to even still have them.
You know, the disparity of the lung cancer v breast cancer funding brings up a larger issue- that there is a HUGE problem in the way many diseases affect women are researched. For instance, many of the prominent heart attack studies in the 90's focused on men, and as a result, there is a great deal of misinformation out there about the symptoms women should be looking for.
Maddening. Thanks for bringing this up.
Lachlan- you're so right- so much of the research is based on how the dieases affect men. I hate lung cancer and I hate that there's such a stigma attached to lung cancer, that its a disease of smokers. I think that's one reason the funding disparity is so huge- people think only smokers get it and it's their own fault for smoking.
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