Those of you who have been around for a while will have already read this, or have taken the opportunity to skip it
, I sent it to the NYT last year, and they weren't interested. I might try again this year in time for CRC Awareness Month. It touches on a lot of stuff we're talking about in this thread.
It’s Not
All About Pink
Who among us hasn’t known someone with breast cancer?
I certainly have, and have had a couple of scares with it myself. My scares with it however, haven’t been too bad, because I’ve already got stage IV colorectal cancer. With three major surgeries, seventeen hospitalizations and many months of chemo in the past 18 months, I’ve sort of felt like, “Ah, well, what’s one more cancer going to add up to in the whole scheme of things?”
The things I’d like to talk about have to do not so much with breast cancer, but with colorectal cancer, for fairly obvious reasons. Also, as a disclaimer, chemotherapy has destroyed my super-ego, so I am quite likely to say anything, and the consequences be damned!
I stand in solidarity with all women with cancer, whatever the type. And all men with cancer. Oh, and all children with cancer. And all dogs with cancer: My grand-dog Bailey, the smartest, sweetest and most obsessive-compulsive Chocolate Labrador in the universe has cancer. Cancer, by and large, is an equal opportunity killer.
Unfortunately, it is not an equal opportunity donation magnet.
Almost 200,000 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States, and about 40,000 die of the wretched disease. The National Cancer Institute funding for breast cancer research tops $630 million dollars a year. Their funding for colorectal cancer is $270 million dollars a year,
even though there are more deaths caused by colorectal cancer each year than by breast cancer and AIDS combined. (note: now I have to double-check this, I'm no longer sure it's true based upon the advice Gaelen and CR gave me)Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, second only to lung cancer. It kills many, many women each year, and is gender-blind, about 50,000 die a year, and these deaths are pretty evenly split between men and women. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to talk about CRC without talking about (shhhh!) poop. And who wants to talk about poop, except perhaps a four year old?
When I was in college to become a nurse, in the mid-70s, it wasn’t cool to talk about breasts, despite the 60s; at least not in public. Virtually no one talked about breast cancer, and there were certainly no opportunities to go in the grocery store and see virtually everything tied with a pink ribbon.
Then, Lance Armstrong! Oh my gosh! I think the only way the public would ever be talking about (double shhhh!)
testicles was for some great looking man who is a superb athlete to be diagnosed with testicular cancer, a very rare cancer indeed. Yet how often do we see the ubiquitous yellow wrists bands? Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s a fantastic effort, and I applaud anything that raises cancer awareness, but why must we keep our heads so pitifully buried in the sand regarding CRC?
Could all of this denial just be the YICK factor?
No, I don’t think so. It’s other stuff too. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) can be the great masquerader for colorectal cancer. Frequent diarrhea, bloated abdomens, cramping abdominal pain. Many folks with metastatic CRC were told they had fairly benign IBS, myself included.
Lots of people don’t get a colonoscopy screening because they are terrified by the procedure, or their doctors won’t refer them for one. The incidence of metastatic colorectal cancer is increasing among the young (20-30 something’s) and they are not typically referred for testing, even if they are symptomatic. I know of several women who have been diagnosed during their pregnancies, in their mid-twenties, and they are currently battling to stay alive.
Most people, probably, have heard that the preparation for a colonoscopy is horrible. It is. There are no two ways about it. That is unless one likes horribly cramping diarrhea that goes on and on for hours. And, the joy of drinking a gallon or so of what tastes for all the world like thick sea water with a little lemon flavoring for good measure is, thank God, hard to compare to anything.
Oh, wait though, I can think of something worse than a colonoscopy prep.
Chemotherapy. A colon resection. A liver resection. A lung resection. The funny thing about CRC is that one prays for the opportunity for a major, life threatening surgery (liver and/or lung resection) when they have metastatic disease, because it is the only possibility for cure. 70% of people with metastatic disease never even become candidates for a surgery to remove the metastatic lesions. But, yes, I think I would take a colonoscopy prep any day over chemo.
Colorectal cancer is the
only cancer that can be almost entirely prevented. Almost all CRC starts with a benign polyp. Remove that polyp when it is young via colonoscopy, before it has an opportunity to become malignant, and voila! You’re cured. Wait too long, and you’ve got a problem on your hands, and your colon or rectum, and your liver, and your lungs, and your bones, etc.
People, it would be magnificent to find a cure for breast cancer, and thus relinquish some of the pink to the lingerie drawers, where it all used to be. Then again, it would also be magnificent to find cures for the less posh cancers: colon, blood, bone, ovarian, lung, brain, pancreatic…you know, the list goes on and on…it’s
not all about pink.