Friday, February 10, 2012

Cancer Wasting

When one of the nurses early on told me that patients often gain weight with breast cancer treatment I was horrified and immediately went into denial. And while I  haven't gained weight, nor have I lost much which doesn't seem fair. When you're eating a fraction of what you normally do and chocolate is repellent, you deserve to lose some weight. In fact, when someone tells you have cancer, I think it would be just and fair to lose 20 lbs. on the spot. If I'm going to have cancer, I just assumed I'd have a little cancer wasting as a fringe benefit, another goody bag item, so I'm finding reality in this regard a tad frustrating.

I've never been a fan of the Susan Komen Foundation because I know that comparatively, they give a very low percentage of their haul to actual research despite wanting to trademark "for the cure" to prevent other health-based groups from using this common phrase. In fact, Komen only gives 17 cents on the dollar to research. What I learned from the Planned Parenthood dust up is that they also don't fund any research involving stem cells, which isn't surprising from a right-leaning organization. However, I'm stunned to learn that neither does the American Cancer Society. Other mainstream seeking-a-cure foundations, such as diabetes, do fund stem cell research, as I think they all should. I wonder if anyone is currently doing stem cell research as regards cancer and if not, what a waste. We humans are our own worst enemy. Who thought in 2012 we'd be arguing about birth control, is there such a thing as de-evolution? Rick Santorum is pretty compelling evidence that there is. A few years ago, the voters in his state were able to see him as the fringadelic, cuckoo bird neanderthal that he is, and now, all of a sudden, he's mainstream, viable. Yep, we are de-evolving, maybe when the clock gets turned back far enough, my cancer will go away because it won't have existed yet.

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