I met an english prostate cancer survivor in a support group, and he told me that he wrote a book to document his experience with Prostate Cancer with some humor. This is truly an amazing story both very informative and funny.
Prostate Cancer, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To A Cure!
Who should read this ?
- Must Reading
- For All
- Baby Boomers.
- IT could Be The Difference
- Between ProSperity And Probate.
Jack and I are not usually not the label hovering, calorie counting consumer. Recently a friend of ours who is doing research in Stanford, told us about Sugar's evil twin called "High Fructose Corn Syrup". It's a cheap alternative to sugar widely used by large food manufacturers in sweetened drinks, frozen food , yogurt and much more... High Fructose Corn Syrup is
- More readily converted to fat by the liver, increasing fat in your bloodstream in the form of triglycerides.
"Those who drank fructose-sweetened beverages showed signs of increasing risk of heart disease. Those who drank glucose-sweetened beverages did not. The fructose drinkers' LDL "bad" cholesterol, blood fats, and other signs of worsening heart risk all increased. And alarmingly, their insulinsensitivity decreased -- a sign that their diabetes risk was increasing, too." -WebMD,Read Full Article
- Fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin
Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the
appetite and control body weight -SF Chronical, Read Full Article
Another article on Washington Post, Read Full Article
- It is found in so many unexpected places
We started reading the labels on Yogurt, there are some that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup and some don't. Those that do cost 1/3 the price of those that don't. I think we are reverting to buying plain yogurt and add our own fruit !!
If you are a newly diagnosed cancer patient in the Mountain View, Los Altos area who need emotional support or questions you need answers related to chemo or other treatments, feel free to join the El Camino Hospital Cancer Support group.
El Camino Hospital Cancer Support Group
Venue: El Camino Hospital | Melchor Pavilion | Suite 111
2500 Grant Road
Mountain View, CA 94040
Date: Every Wednesday
@ 5:15pm
FREE and Open to Public
I attended the San Jose support group meeting today, and it's a forum where newly diagnosed patient should consider attending if you are within the San Jose vacinity. It's a forum where you can share you prostate history to a group of survivors that are actively involved in the Prostate Cancer world. If you have questions like
- What type of treatment is better suited for your condition,
- What kind of test you should take to identify the cancer location,
- What kind of side effects to expect from each treatment
- When, what and how long you should be on Hormone Therapyand more...
They provide you with the answers to questions that your doctor's don't give you, because they have been through real life experiences which is priceless.
San Jose Prostate Cancer Support Group
Monthly meeting
12:30 Wednesday
Click on the address for a link to a MapQuest map.
Do you know that there are only 2 support group for bladder cancer?
Bladder Cancer Education and Support Group
UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center
Mt Zion Campus
1600 Divisadero St, Conference Rm H3906
San Francisco, CA
September 12, 2007
4-6pm
Presentation and Group Discussion on:
“Bladder Cancer Pathology 101”
-
- How is your cancer staged?
- What do all those letters and numbers actually mean?
- Medical nomenclature and meaning
Presented by Jared Whitson, MD,
UCSF Urology Oncology Dept.
Bring your pathology report if available
Additional Agenda Items:
- Making Community Connections
- Update on formation of Patient
Advocacy Committee
- Other Announcements
Let’s Strengthen One Another with Support!
Partners,Caregivers, and Family welcome.
Light refreshments served. Please RSVP to:
Karen Schanche, LCSW – (415)353-7632
Group Facilitators: Janelle Wenger, RN, UCSF Urologic Oncology
Practice and
Karen Schanche, MSW,LCSW UCSF Symptom
Management Service,Urologic Oncology Practice
Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 10,2007
from 4-6pm, same location. Topic TBA
In conjuction to Prostate Cancer month (Sept) and the opening of the new cancer center in El Camino Hospital, Mountain View they will be giving free PSA screening
| Category | Screenings | |
|---|---|---|
| Ongoing | No | |
| Start Date | Sep 17, 2007 | |
| End Date | Sep 29, 2007 | |
| Start Time | 10:00 am | |
| End Time | 02:30 pm | |
| Day/Date | PSA Blood Test 9/17-9/21/07 & Follow Up Exam 9/29/2007 | |
| Location | El Camino Hospital | |
| Cost/Fee | Free, open to men ages 40 to 75. Pre-registration is required. | |
| Description | Prostate
cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death for U.S. men. The
screenings coincide with the September 18-24 national observance of Prostate Cancer Awareness Week.
This national observance stresses the importance of early detection and
education about prostate cancer because if it's caught early this
disease with no symptoms can be successfully treated. What often frightens patients more than the cancer itself are the typical side effects of surgery. El Camino Hospital is proud to offer robotic-assisted prostatectomy, perhaps the most effective, least invasive prostate surgery available today. |
|
| Registration |
Register early! Space is limited. Pre-registration is required but there is no fee for the screening. Open to men ages 40 to 75 only. To register please call the El Camino Health Line at 800.216.5556. |
|
If you are at 50 or your parents are 50 you might want to ask them if they have paid a friendly visit to their gas·tro·en·ter·ol·o·gist recently. It is very important to get those pipes checked for polyps which can benign, but they need to be removed.
If you fall into the category of "Fear or discomfort" pick colonoscopy vs. sigmoidoscopy, you don't feel anything during the procedure and it's more thorough as it goes through the whole colon instead of partial way through the colon.
5 years wait can sometimes be too long, story from one support group patient:
Went for a sigmoidoscopy found some benign polyps was asked to do a colonoscopy instead and found 12 polyps (benign) all removed. 5 years later found to have stage 2 cancer, symptoms include weight loss, anemic. The moral of this story if you found that many polyps, maybe shorten the frequency of a colonoscopy to 3 years?
Signs are too late don't wait for them to show it's ugly face,
story from another support group patient:
40 yr old, has stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. Signs were constipation!
Be responsible for your own health and your parents health. Ask questions. Error on the safe side.
Donald graciously joined us for tennis this week, and he brought his professional SLR. Here are some footage of court 1 in action. We usually get at least 8-12 people on mondays.
Learning more about prostate cancer helps you understand the disease, make treatment decisions, and cope with possible side effects. The books listed here offer a great way to start participating in your treatment and recovery.
*I have personally read these books and highly recommend to newly diagnosed patients. Please leave a comment if you have read any of these other books and what you thought of them.
1) 100 Questions and Answers about Prostate Cancer by Pamela Ellsworth, John H, Oliver G.
2) American Cancer Society's Complete Guide to Prostate Cancer by David G. Bostwick and more...
3) The Cancer Dictionary by Roberta Altman and more ...
4) Cancer Fitness : Excercise Programs for Patients and Survivors by Anna L Schwartz
5) Caregiving by Peter S. Houts and more ...
6) Eating Wel, Staying Well During and after Cancer by Abby Bloch and more...
7) Man to Man: Surviving Prostate Cancer by Michel korda
*8) A Primer on Prostate Caner: The Empowered Patient's Guide by Stephen B. Strum and Donna L Pogliano
*9) Prostate and Cancer: A family guide to diagnosis, Treatment and Survival by Sheldon Marks
10) A patient's guide to Treatment by Arthur Centeno
11) Prostate Health Workbook: A Practical guide for the prostate cancer patient by Newton Malerman
12) Updated Guidelines for Surviving Prostate Cancer by James Lewis, Jr. and more..
This Tuesday, Choon and I went to our first cancer support group meeting. It was in ECH next to Cuesta Park. It was a group of survivors, caregivers, and some who has lost their loved ones to the disease. Everyone there was providing much positive energy, from taking about their fishing trip to baja to making beautiful chinese painting to each other. I told them about my story with Dad, and how Laine (aka the sister) and I had to do lots of reading, organize his medical records and results and keep the whole family informed on how he was doing. It made me realize that I wanted to give something back to the community by solving some of these obstacles a caregiver experience. So I told them how StriveWell have blog tools to help you organize your medical records, share your status with your family, and help you communicate between your caregivers. I came home with some delicious Yellow tail sashimi, compliments from a member's recent fishing trip to baja but I don't think they understand what StriveWell has to offer after my short speech.
On Wednesday, I went back to the support group meeting. They were trying to start this new session, the new members did not show up. So the ladies asked me to elaborate more about StriveWell. So I thought I should just do a demo on how it works. After the demo, all the ladies commented they had no idea this was what I was trying to explain to them. They thought I was some person wanting to share more information about cancer with them, and had no idea StriveWell was interactive. They were excited about it, and even suggested I give the group a demo class to teach them how to use StriveWell. It was one of the happiest day of my life. I was getting worried that I had gone down the wrong path developing the features of this site. The enthusiasm from these 4 ladies reassured me on my decision to build StriveWell. I am so excited about teaching all the members of the support group to use StriveWell, and to continue and reaching more cancer patients.
jackwu
Doing Well
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