onco-semitism?

I don't know how many of you have heard the latest thing buzzing about Komen? You can read about it here. They are helping to sponsor a bunch of breast cancer conferences/events in Egypt, for scientists in the Middle East, and the Egyptian Minister of Health has rescinded all the invites issued to Israeli doctors. The ADL put out a press release urging Komen to condemn the action, and so far, Komen has been silent. This is disgraceful. Where are all the Jewish groups speaking up? Where are all the feminist groups speaking up?

Komen, I am disappointed in you, more than I have been in the past...this is a new low.

not so rare.

I got an email from my supervisor, Jennifer, at MSKCC today. She is riding in MSKCC's Cycle for Survival, which is an indoor cycling event to raise money for rare cancers. More than half of all cancers are "rare", and it includes childhood cancers, uterine cancer, cervical cancer, sarcoma, appendix cancer, brain cancer, and others. These rare cancers do not get as much research money as the "common" cancers, and as such, there are generally fewer options for treatment. My supervisor is riding in memory of her mother, and I'd really like to see her surpass her fundraising goal. Click here to go to her fundraising page.

I had an amazing summer in 2008, and really felt like I was learning a ton and had a purpose in life. Every day, I would tell my parents, "Today was the best day ever..." Jennifer helped make my experience at Memorial one of the best experiences of my life, and I'd like to help her with this.

Go to the website, read more about rare cancers, and learn what you can do to help raise money for research and treatment.

We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love. - Mother Teresa

hope.

Hope. What is hope? Is it the "thing with feathers/That perches in the soul", as Emily Dickinson wrote? Is it an empty campaign slogan used by a Presidential candidate? I like a quote from author Barbara Kingsolver, that goes "The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof." But living inside that hope is very hard. I know the medical side of it. I know the clinical terms, am familiar with the statistics. And yes, we've all heard statistics are just numbers, blah blah blah....and to a certain extent, that's true. But there's also that cold hard truth of the matter. The black and white words written in the medical chart that detail the cancer. The doctor's sobering prognosis. Hope takes on a different meaning, you apply it to different things. I've blogged about this before; I struggle with hope. But sometimes, that's all you have.

what the heart sees.

I am reading a book, The Best American Medical Writing 2009. It's a collection of essays about, duh, medicine. All the essays are really great, but one in particular struck me today. It was a story about how this woman's 2 year old niece had retinoblastoma, a cancer of the eye -- and the grandfather was a well-respected opthamologist who suspected something months before, and blamed himself for not insisting she be seen earlier. It made me think of my nephew, and I swear to G-d, it physically hurt me to think of anything like that happening to him. I could not imagine life without him. G-d forbid. He is filled with such joy and love, and has brought happiness to everyone in our family, and I would not want to see him hurt for a second. I would rather hurt for years than have him hurt for a minute. But it made me think. And it made me look at pictures of him to make sure there was no white spot in his eyes. (A common sign of retinoblastoma). And I know I love my nephew - and at this point, I'm sure everyone else knows, too....but reading this essay truly brought it to my heart's attention. I would move mountains if Trey needed medical attention. But I hope I never have to.