A screening colonoscopy potentially saved my life and at the very least, prevented me from having to go through chemotherapy. 11 1/2 years later I am cancer free. I think the issue for me is figuring out a way to offer cancer screening for the disadvantaged and uninsured. Taxing the middle and upper classes to support such a program seems very fair to me. If we can just stop focusing on “me” and focus more on generosity and altruism, we can make significant strides in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
It can be tricky territory. Glad to hear your cancer was caught early. There should be a better data-driven screening test for things like colon cancer, etc. I have actually heard surgeons discuss w/awe other surgeons who could do 40 colonoscopies/day, or heart catheritizations in a day and how the CEO's like them because it makes them more $$$. But we also don't want to miss the genuinely at-risk folks. Many of whom can be those people without finances and access to healthcare as you have mentioned. More education needed too. My sister just died of Inflammatory Breast Cancer. It was incorrectly diagnosed. IBC is never diagnosed before Stage 3 or 4 and it is very fast-moving though rare. I suspect one of the reasons for that is the symptoms are very different from the majority of BC. And women are only trained to look for the common symptoms of BC. A greater % of Black women are more susceptible to IBC than white women so we should be especially teaching Black women (and their physicians) what the symptoms of IBC are, for instance.
With covid-19 finally catching me last Thanksgiving 2023, I am thinking I will get the new covid-19 booster as soon as possible.
We just finished the 3rd week of the new school year. As I predicted, about midweek last week and especially this week, I have had endless students dropping like flies getting sick with covid-19 and their families too! The district is not allowing us to test students for covid-19 anymore, like we once were if the parent signed the consent. Most parents did sign that consent. However, the district is still providing rapid antigen testing for free for our students and their families. So that is a positive! Thank goodness! This week, I began to notice staff at my high school wearing a mask, after they have seen me proudly wearing my N95, 24/7!
Jenny, must be just crazy to work at a school these days for so many reasons. I like your point about being a good role model for others with our own healthy personal practices like masks when there is high community spread.
Options and choice are good so I’d like to know more about the stool and blood tests people can ask their doctors for instead of colonoscopy or upper endoscopy thanks
Thanks for all subjects touched on here. It is still pretty appalling to me, a severely immune compromised person (like many others) who must navigate and spend exorbitant time (billable hours missed) in order to make important decisions to protect myself and others concerning COVID. With an MS-damaged diaphragm, almost 0 level B and T cells due to Ocrevus (MS drug), CVID (Common Variable Immune Deficiency disease), and this week I was diagnosed with Cushings disease, I get almost no doc initiated advice on planning vaccines let alone protections within the healthcare system. And the new COVID vax are a commercial product this time which means not everyone will carry them and immunologists have warned that we may very well find it all a very messy process to actually obtain one. I plan on getting the Phizer or Moderna as the Novavax is very different/unknown & protein base and it's been 5 months since I had my updated booster. Even as I was getting my breast cancer biopsies and MRI's due to re-diagnosis of BC, technicians were not wearing masks and no masks required in crowded waiting rooms. Taking my husband in 2 days ago to Cooley Dickinson for his colonoscopy (he is 67 and his father had Colon Cancer), no one was wearing masks. And even when I asked them to wear masks as I was severely immune compromised and his designated driver and live-in wife, I was treated very cooly, and Jeff said they never did wear masks with him until he actually was in the OR. COVID cases are very high in Western MA right now as you know for summer. And figures are likely artificially low as many people do not test and/or report, and hospitals don't report COVID as the cause of death if there are co-comorbidities as that gives them a "loophole" to under report. And as you have said, if word gets out that they have lots of COVID cases then they can't do all those mass-production money-makers like colonoscopies. So, I so appreciate your candor and data driven logic with compassion. But it is REALLY scary out there for people like me who wish to maintain a quality of life for ourselves and our families, and still contribute to our communities.
I’m looking forward to reading your advice on when to get the latest Covid shot. I had Covid almost a year ago, and got a booster 5 months later in Feb. I have a big trip coming up a month from now, so I’m trying to figure out the best time to get my next shot.
Good news on the gun safety subject, and a reminder to look at whole picture and over time when assessing the value of a new law like that of the one in Florida.
A screening colonoscopy potentially saved my life and at the very least, prevented me from having to go through chemotherapy. 11 1/2 years later I am cancer free. I think the issue for me is figuring out a way to offer cancer screening for the disadvantaged and uninsured. Taxing the middle and upper classes to support such a program seems very fair to me. If we can just stop focusing on “me” and focus more on generosity and altruism, we can make significant strides in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
It can be tricky territory. Glad to hear your cancer was caught early. There should be a better data-driven screening test for things like colon cancer, etc. I have actually heard surgeons discuss w/awe other surgeons who could do 40 colonoscopies/day, or heart catheritizations in a day and how the CEO's like them because it makes them more $$$. But we also don't want to miss the genuinely at-risk folks. Many of whom can be those people without finances and access to healthcare as you have mentioned. More education needed too. My sister just died of Inflammatory Breast Cancer. It was incorrectly diagnosed. IBC is never diagnosed before Stage 3 or 4 and it is very fast-moving though rare. I suspect one of the reasons for that is the symptoms are very different from the majority of BC. And women are only trained to look for the common symptoms of BC. A greater % of Black women are more susceptible to IBC than white women so we should be especially teaching Black women (and their physicians) what the symptoms of IBC are, for instance.
With covid-19 finally catching me last Thanksgiving 2023, I am thinking I will get the new covid-19 booster as soon as possible.
We just finished the 3rd week of the new school year. As I predicted, about midweek last week and especially this week, I have had endless students dropping like flies getting sick with covid-19 and their families too! The district is not allowing us to test students for covid-19 anymore, like we once were if the parent signed the consent. Most parents did sign that consent. However, the district is still providing rapid antigen testing for free for our students and their families. So that is a positive! Thank goodness! This week, I began to notice staff at my high school wearing a mask, after they have seen me proudly wearing my N95, 24/7!
Jenny, must be just crazy to work at a school these days for so many reasons. I like your point about being a good role model for others with our own healthy personal practices like masks when there is high community spread.
Options and choice are good so I’d like to know more about the stool and blood tests people can ask their doctors for instead of colonoscopy or upper endoscopy thanks
Thanks for all subjects touched on here. It is still pretty appalling to me, a severely immune compromised person (like many others) who must navigate and spend exorbitant time (billable hours missed) in order to make important decisions to protect myself and others concerning COVID. With an MS-damaged diaphragm, almost 0 level B and T cells due to Ocrevus (MS drug), CVID (Common Variable Immune Deficiency disease), and this week I was diagnosed with Cushings disease, I get almost no doc initiated advice on planning vaccines let alone protections within the healthcare system. And the new COVID vax are a commercial product this time which means not everyone will carry them and immunologists have warned that we may very well find it all a very messy process to actually obtain one. I plan on getting the Phizer or Moderna as the Novavax is very different/unknown & protein base and it's been 5 months since I had my updated booster. Even as I was getting my breast cancer biopsies and MRI's due to re-diagnosis of BC, technicians were not wearing masks and no masks required in crowded waiting rooms. Taking my husband in 2 days ago to Cooley Dickinson for his colonoscopy (he is 67 and his father had Colon Cancer), no one was wearing masks. And even when I asked them to wear masks as I was severely immune compromised and his designated driver and live-in wife, I was treated very cooly, and Jeff said they never did wear masks with him until he actually was in the OR. COVID cases are very high in Western MA right now as you know for summer. And figures are likely artificially low as many people do not test and/or report, and hospitals don't report COVID as the cause of death if there are co-comorbidities as that gives them a "loophole" to under report. And as you have said, if word gets out that they have lots of COVID cases then they can't do all those mass-production money-makers like colonoscopies. So, I so appreciate your candor and data driven logic with compassion. But it is REALLY scary out there for people like me who wish to maintain a quality of life for ourselves and our families, and still contribute to our communities.
I’m looking forward to reading your advice on when to get the latest Covid shot. I had Covid almost a year ago, and got a booster 5 months later in Feb. I have a big trip coming up a month from now, so I’m trying to figure out the best time to get my next shot.
Good news on the gun safety subject, and a reminder to look at whole picture and over time when assessing the value of a new law like that of the one in Florida.
Thanks for this, and I really appreciate your father-in-law’s contributions!
Any comment about the delay on Novavax approval? Seems pretty egregious to me and increases distrust of our regulatory agencies.