breast cancer

From Pink to Green: Disease Prevention and the Environmental Breast Cancer Movement

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:01:00 +0000

...the environmental breast cancer movement is well positioned to use its breast cancer work as a way to contribute not only to the eradication of the disease itself but also to the environmental health of all humans and other living beings.

When I was diagnosed with Stage II invasive ductile carcinoma, I was angry not just because I now had cancer, but because no one seemed to be talking about its causes or, better yet, prevention. When my husband spied an opportunity for me to review From Pink to Green, I jumped at the chance: finally, someone was addressing prevention.

From Pink to Green consists of eight chapters, useful notes, and a largely accurate index of the names of researchers, cancer-related organizations, and several score topics. The first chapter, "A Movement in the Making," considers a postcard from 1994 depicting breast cancer survivor and activist Raven Light. She stands with her hand on her hip while holding a sign that reads, "Invisibility Equals Death." Light is bare-chested, her mastectomy scar exposed. The postcard says the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer increased from one in twenty in 1964 to one in eight by 1994, but what does this mean? That the incidence of breast cancer in women has tripled? That the rates of diagnosis have tripled? Both? Something else? The already visually arresting postcard implicitly asks whether the dominant paradigm of breast cancer research—diagnosis, treatment, and cure—overlooks something even more fundamental: prevention.

Ley's fascinating account is multi-sited and multi-method in scope. She volunteered in both a small, one-room office at WomenCARE (Women's Cancer Advocacy, Resources and Education) and at the American Cancer Society, and was also a research associate for the environmental health scientist Devra Lee Davis. She thus simultaneously inhabits the worlds of social activism and scientific research.

Much of the text is devoted to the science of multiple exposures to cancer-causing pathogens. Readers will appreciate how xenoestrogens "share chemical properties with the hormone estrogen and can act on the body's cells and tissue as false estrogen molecules, disrupting the ability of natural estrogen to function normally." They will be challenged to find that phthalates found in cosmetics, deodorants, shampoos, plastics are known breast cancer carcinogens and have been linked to increased rates of testicular sterility in male offspring of women using these products.

Because From Pink to Green shines the light on precautionary prevention, not secondary cure, I want to quote from Mary O'Brien, breast cancer survivor and environmental health activist: _Our breasts are simply ONE marvelous part in Earth's system... If we're going to put our bodies and our breasts back together... we're going to have to restore the hormone systems of the frogs. ... We're going to have to put estuaries, streams, grasslands, the winds and the ozone layer back together. ... We are going to have to reconstruct our agriculture so that farms are not hazardous chemical sites... we're going to have to consider what it means to know and care for children, to avoid forcing them into a world that has no room for anything but humans.__From Pink to Green_ is designed for women's studies and public health courses. I will share it with other women whom I have met through my experience with breast cancer.

Written by: Cassandra Lee, December 18th 2009

Anna In-Between

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

By Elizabeth Nunez

Akashic Books

The premise of Anna In-Between is simple: Anna Sinclair, a thirty-nine-year-old editor at a big book publishing company in New York City returns to the (unnamed) Caribbean nation where she was born and raised in order to visit her parents, Beatrice and John Sinclair. While there, she learns her mother has advanced breast cancer, but refuses to go to the United States, which has better hospitals and equipment, for the operation that could save her life. Far from being melodramatic, Nunez's straightforward prose and subtle characterizations give the story a sense of truth.

Anna has always felt she is not good enough for her mother. Her failed marriage is a bone of contention between the two women—as is Beatrice's lack of physical affection towards her daughter—and her feeling that she is now an outsider in the land of her birth is a recurring motif. Afraid of disappointing her mother, Anna allows her to believe she is an editor at the large publishing company, Windsor, rather than at the small Windsor imprint, Equiano, which prints “urban lit” by and primarily for people of color. We get a glimpse of Anna's struggle with the ghettoization of her authors into racial categories and her efforts to promote serious works by authors of color to a wider audience.

In addition to exploring the complicated relationships between an adult child and her parents, Anna In-Between touches on issues of colonialism and collaboration. Anna's father became one of the top men at the British-run state oil company shortly before England granted the island independence. He is seen as a traitor by some, but explains his decisions towards the workers with dignity. We also see how his new job affected his wife and young daughter as they moved away from the neighborhood and people they knew, but were not accepted in their new surroundings, providing an incisive depiction of intersecting class and racial prejudices.

The Sinclairs' domestic help—Singh the gardener and Lydia the maid—are well-drawn, compassionate portraits. Anna feels that her mother talks down to them, but they protest that they are used to her mother's sometimes harsh tone. With Lydia, in particular, we see how despite her outward appearance of strictness and conformity Beatrice truly cares for her maid, going out of her way to protect her from an abusive ex-husband and providing school uniforms for her grandchildren. The message is clear: even the people we have known the longest may surprise us.

Beatrice's illness allows for an intimacy between mother and daughter that is much closer than they've experienced before and the two reveal aspects of their lives that were previously hidden. Nunez does not give these revelations too much weight; she allows them to shift the characters' feelings and viewpoints to a degree, but not to cause a complete seismic shift in the relationships. And not all of Anna's problems—her relationship with her mother or her struggle to better advocate for her authors— are solved in 347 pages.

Nunez has written a contemplative and absorbing examination of a woman standing in two worlds: the land of her birth and the country she now inhabits. While I felt I gained a new perspective on life in the Caribbean, the well-drawn characters are what ultimately make this story resonate.

Written by: Karen Duda, December 11th 2009

Howdy Booby Time Organic Body Wash (Rosewood Lavender)

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:10:00 +0000

By Sun Feather Natural Soap Company

Breast cancer. I hate it. Obviously it is not that I like any type of cancer, but I have a very special place in my dark chest of hatred for breast cancer. I do not know what it is exactly… maybe that most of its victims are women? Or maybe it is because it nearly took my beloved Aunt Anny away from me, twice. So I take it personally and everyone else should too.

If statistics are correct (and I hope they aren't) one in six women over the age of fifty will develop breast cancer during their lifetime, which means that we are all potential targets of this terrible transgressor. It is everybody's problem, and we should all try to cure it together.

Now, there are many ways we can try to defeat this lumpy nemesis, and some are easier than others. My favorite, because I like the oft-mischaracterized activity of shopping, is buying items from companies that donate a portion of their sales to research. The people at Sun Feather Natural Soap Company have made it especially easy for me by creating Howdy Booby Time Organic Body Wash, which they've labeled a "Breast Cancer Early Detection Soap." The body wash is designed for women to use for monthly breast self exams during bath or shower time, instructions included.

The wash consists of a blend of rosewood and lavender oil, and it smells ridiculously delicious. It makes my skin so clean and soft that it will really be impossible to wait a whole month before using it again. Whenever I open the bottle my whole bathroom smells like a fancy garden, and it makes me feel luxurious. Apparently, it makes my husband feel luxurious too because I am mysteriously running out of it really fast.

Something else that makes me feel luxurious (and philanthropic!) is to support a socially responsible, women-owned and operated company that is completely cruelty free, organic, and helps fight our collective battle by donating a portion of its Pink Ribbon profits to The American Cancer Foundation.

Written by: Laura Koffler, September 2nd 2009

The Adventures of Cancer Bitch

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:48:00 +0000

By S. L. Wisenberg

University of Iowa Press

Laying it out there with stunning realness, incorporating funny yet saddening as well as humorous but serious moments, S. L. Wisenberg presents blog entries of her journey through breast cancer discovery, surgery, and recovery in The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. Sharing many—if not all—of her life’s vulnerable moments with the reader, the author demonstrates the humanness of living through cancer.

Illuminating but difficult experiences fill Wisenberg’s writing. She delves into self-absorption as well as utter hysterics due to her bare bones admittance of recovery drugs and daily living through the painful process. As a reader, it is easy to feel her stress and sympathize as if you are on the sofa next to her as she wallows in her pain. This pain does not make Wisenberg bitchy; on the contrary, it reveals her true character questioning the world around her and why the commodified pink ribbons have become a "catch-all" for the destructive disease we all encounter at some point in our lives.

In addition, Wisenberg feeds background to the reader: both her Jewish culture and Texas childhood pop up at different moments throughout the book. These points give Wisenberg even more credibility and realness as she elaborates on her mother, her attendance at seder, her self-proclaimed yuppiness, and her interactions with close friends who lost their son to cancer at a very young age. Literary allusions as well as other anecdotal stories lend a substantive and creative fill to the book.

I found myself laughing at the author's antics while dealing with the seriousness of her condition, and I found myself sobbing at points where her depression and darkness haunts her recovery through chemotherapy. Weisenberg is so real. I find her journey an adventure indeed, but her "bitch" title more of a friend who puts it out there, no lies, no holds barred. Folks, if you have cancer, you may attest that this person's story is very close to yours.

Written by: Carolyn Espe, August 7th 2009

Cancer is a Bitch: (Or, I'd Rather Be Having A Midlife Crisis)

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:09:00 +0000

By Gail Konop Baker

De Capo Press

After completing her second novel (one about a woman dealing with breast cancer that her agent wasn't very excited about), Gail Konop Baker was actually diagnosed with the disease herself. In this book, she takes the journals that kick started her column "Bare-Breasted Mama" and turns them into this smart, funny, insightful, and intimate book about an event in her life that really rocked her world.

I selected this read because it seems like cancer has been creeping around the six-degree-edges of my life lately. Neighbors, coworkers, friends of friends—every week I hear about someone else who was diagnosed. People who seemed to be the picture of good health are suddenly meeting with doctors and surgeons to form battle plans, knowing that any treatment they select is still going to be unpleasant. And I imagine some of their experiences are not so unlike Baker's description of trying to dress for the exam:

...waking that morning in disbelief that I had an appointment with an oncologist. Oncologist? That word was for other people, older people, unlucky people. People who die. I stared into my bureau drawers, agonizing over what to wear, wondering why they didn't send that information with the postcard appointment reminder and how I was supposed to navigate all these decisions without more guidance? You get an instruction booklet with a toaster oven but no instructions for marriage or motherhood or cancer.

Cancer is the antagonist in this story, but the real trip is an inside look at the messy, emotional, day-to-day of a woman's life, a woman who by chance also happens to be a very funny, witty, and exuberant writer. I not only laughed out loud reading Cancer Is a Bitch; I also paused to consider my life as a mother and as a human being while continually nodding my head as I thought of yet another friend that I wanted to recommend it to.

It is the small observations that make this book. Her own analysis of her twenty-year marriage, of how love can ebb and flow with seemingly irrational meandering and then come back to center. Like when she describes dropping her daughter off to start college:

And as I stand here in the quad I feel the rush of all the years passing in this moment. I didn't mean to rush it. I didn't mean to ever feel frustrated and bored, to want to get everything done, to ever think, 'When she finally grows up I'll get my life back,' because it isn't true. She was and is my life and I'm not ready to let go...and we're both crying now, our bodies trembling as she whispers, 'It's okay, Mom. We're both going to be okay.'

That voice is what I enjoyed so much, because of its ablity to freak out and yet still see the irony, and the humor.

Written by: Jen Wilson Lloyd, January 11th 2009

Five Lessons I Didn't Learn From Breast Cancer (And One Big One I Did)

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:02:00 +0000

By Shelley Lewis

New American Library

I’ve never had to battle cancer, but I’ve had many family members - including my mother right now - diagnosed with other forms of cancer. It’s difficult to find a light side to cancer when you’re fighting for your life. Shelley Lewis, however, writes about her experience with humor and advice for a world that has marketed breast cancer.

One thing that sets Lewis’ book apart is that she makes a point to say that breast cancer didn’t change her or give her a profound realization about her life; she’s the same person she was before the cancer. After talking to other women with breast cancer, she found that she wasn’t the only person who didn’t feel cancer changed her, which is quite a different conclusion than the media gives.

Five Lessons I Didn't Learn From Breast Cancer traces Lewis’ treatment (it includes important information on chemotherapy and radiation) and the experiences of other women. From this, Lewis offers wise advice for others with cancer, such as using the Cancer Card. She discusses how each treatment is different (she chose the longer period of small dosage chemo so she could keep most of her hair), and how every woman will react differently.

At the end of the book, Lewis includes a history lesson about how breast cancer awareness started and continues to grow. What is disturbing, though, is the inattention other cancers and diseases have gotten. And because breast cancer has been getting so much media attention, there have been conflicting images (i.e., Pink Ribbon Barbie).

There is no sugarcoating of how serious breast cancer is, but has valuable advice from someone who has gone through it with a bit of humor attached. In addition, it’s a helpful book for family and friends of a cancer patient, as it gives a better insight to what a loved one is going through.

Written by: Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, June 9th 2008

Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy

admin — Wed, 09 May 2007 20:04:00 +0000

By Samantha King

University Of Minnesota Press

Who hasn’t done it? Who hasn’t bought that extra cup of yogurt or that pink scarf that matches nothing in the closet just to show support for the breast cancer cause? Most women have seen what breast cancer can do in the lives of real women, whether we have endured it first-hand or watched a loved one struggle to survive. I have always felt that sweet inner glow after making a purchase if I knew that a small percentage of the proceeds would go to support breast cancer research. As a consumer, I felt that I was doing my part. I never questioned why my philanthropy needed to be tied directly to my consumerism. I never questioned it, that is, until I read Pink Ribbons, Inc.

What do big corporations and politicians have in common? According to Samantha King, an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Physical and Health Education, both groups have profited from our society’s fascination with breast cancer. King offers a searing discussion of the push toward “strategic philanthropy” in the last two decades of the 20th Century. With the current stress on cause-related marketing, corporations exploit the public’s civic goodwill as they fight “to gain ownership over the issue.”

According to King, politicians have not failed to cash in on the moral authority of the breast cancer cause. Many “women’s issues” are viewed as political landmines for legislators. Breast cancer, however, has proven to be a safe issue, allowing legislators to present themselves as “pro-woman” without the danger of being associated with the “F” word—Feminism.

King also focuses on the effect of the recent “tyranny of cheerfulness” surrounding the issue of breast cancer. Because society desires to see the results of its philanthropy, women are perhaps not allowed to acknowledge the flood of emotions that accompanies the diagnosis and the struggle against the disease. Our focus has shifted to the “survivor.” Anything less is unacceptable. In this struggle to find the cure, we have lost sight of the importance of prevention. Reading King’s analysis of the issue made me for the first time question who really benefits when I “think pink” at the cash register. Who really wins in what the_ New York Times_ termed “the battle for the breast?”

Written by: Misty McCormick Chisum, May 9th 2007