For the past week I have been obsessing over how to expose our "venerable" ACS & the damage & sabotage they inflict on our efforts to raise awareness.
For every walk we walk , every letter we write,every person we enlighten-ACS is reaching thousands w/ their one & only "support" for LC. The Great American Smoke OUT.Digging us further into the hole.
But GET THIS-By some weird twist of fate I was "invited" today to speak at their upcoming
Great American Smoke Out.( What were they thinking?)
Soooo, besides my spiel I want to be OUR collective voice. Please give me what you've got (concisely) so I can carry our message into the "enemy's camp".
Betsy
P.S.-Start raising Bail $$$ cause I don't plan to sugar-coat the disregard that LC is shown....!! Bring it on...
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The Enemy's Camp
- By BetsyT
- Posted November 2, 2009 at 10:00 pm · 28 replies
- In Non-small cell lung cancer - General
- Shared with the public
Explore topics in this discussion:
Cancer Falls Allergies Breast cancer Pneumonia Pain Osteoporosis Lung cancer Stress
28 replies
- Oldest first
- Newest first
- By Marylou1
- Posted November 2, 2009 at 10:19 pm
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Betsy:
I don't know if this is what you may be looking for but I will write it anyway. If you can use it ok, and if not, no harm done.
I am 71 years old, Dx with Lung Cancer January 2007. Some 30 years ago, I quit smoking cold turkey and never picked up another cigarette. I was not a teen smoker, but a married woman when I started, so my guess is that I smoked for tops, 20 years.
In year 2000 my Primary Care Doctor decided he wanted me to take HRT. He said it would be good for my heart and also to keep me from having Osteoporosis. And so I did take it for several years, then just quit because I always felt bloated, and I am not very big.
So my question is, did my former smoking give me cancer, or since it's been recently been brought up, did the HRT give me cancer since I was diagnosed 7 years after starting to take it.
OR, was it the Dry cleaning plant chemicals that could have contributed to cancer. Who know? Until some of these things have recently surfaced, I always blamed myself for smoking many years ago.
Even after quitting smoking all those years ago, we were still bombarded in restaurants and bars, breathing in second hand smoke until the last decade.
If you can use any of this and you wish you use my name, please feel free to do so.
Much Love and appreciation for what you and everyone does.
Marylou
- By cuddles53
- Posted November 2, 2009 at 10:19 pm
- Report post
I have some of your bail money, LOL You go girl and give em all you have got! Someone put a post on the other day it was blood boiling! She said that she was at the pharmacy, and asked what they were doing about November for lung cancer awareness month since they had little pink tops on all of the medicine bottles for breast cancer awareness, and this lady pharmacist said to her "This could be avoided" Do you believe that one! Blood boiling or what?
Love Sandy
- By BetsyT
- Posted November 2, 2009 at 11:07 pm
- Report post
Thanks Marylou & Sandy,
I will copy every word-Our stories need to be heard.
- By misself
- Posted November 2, 2009 at 11:38 pm
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You go Betsy T .I have bail money too.Make sure you have a friend to let us know you need it and where etc.Don't think they'll get that dramatic.They are obsessed and wouldn't want to look bad.AndiB
- By tiffmomiff
- Posted November 2, 2009 at 11:38 pm
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how about this one,,,,,, 28yr old father of two NEVER SMOKER diagnosed stage four lung cancer!!!
- By tiffmomiff
- Posted November 2, 2009 at 11:39 pm
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you sock it right to them, blow the smoke right back in their faces! ; )
- By beckylynn
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 12:31 am
- Report post
Betsy, wonderful news, we need to stress, it's not just smokers/former smokers who are getting lung cancer, more and more nonsmokers are being dx daily.
When I read about sweet Chelsea being just 20 years old and getting ready to start her adult life having to deal with this life threatening disease it makes me mad we haven't made greater strides in detecting and treating Lung Cancer since President Nixon declared a War on Cancer back in the 70's. More than 10 years before she was even born.
Thank you for making your voice count.
Becky :)
- By lbp08
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 12:42 am
- Report post
Betsy - there is an old saying - a friend will bail you out and true friend will be sitting there with you......I swear if I lived close enough I would be sitting in jail with you...Did my mom smoke? - yes - as did 8 of her older 10 siblings --- any other LC in the family? NO. Was she stressed beyond the breaking point? YES. Would her doctor refer her out for a CT scan? NO, for over two years he assured her there was nothing wrong - AND BESIDES THEY ARE EXPENSIVE TESTS AND HER INSURANCE WOULD NOT WANT TO PAY FOR IT. I don't think that it was his freaking pocket book and if he had paid attention to her complaints he COULD have written a referral for the CT. Could her LC be caused from other things? YES, possibly living next to a major highway for the past 40 years. Living in mobile homes for 10 years. STRESS - that is being acknowledged more and more. Her diet was increasingly higher in fast foods. Working in an enviroment with chemical exposure.
You know that while she was being tx. at MDAnderson, I decided to have a scan done - on my lungs. HAHAHA!!!! I could have my mamo's grammed, I could have my ovaries pokes, I could have my pap-smeared, I could have my mouth checked - I could go to their prevention center and sign up for any number of tests and participate in a number of studies.....but I could not even pay out of pocket to have a CT done on my lungs!!!! I did enroll in an international study that Baylor is participating in, that I found out about on this site. When we first got to MDAnderson, I was venting my frustration to the Onc. there about mother's cancer being Stage 4 before getting an official dx. Even she said, insurance companies do not want to pay for the screenings - that is where the trouble starts. Doctors get "dinged" for ordering un-necessary tests - insurance companies do not want to pay for the screenings....no real early signs/symptoms..... There you go!! Look up some of the entries from hhhdai on this site.
Bridget
- By brooklynda
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 6:49 am
- Report post
Dear Betsy:
I'm smilin' thinking about what ACS doesn't know! What they don't know is when they invited you they did not know that they got a tiger by the tail!
I was dx'd with stage 3A, adenocarcinoma, NSCLC, with mets to 4 lymph nodes, had not smoked for 25 years. Many years ago (actually nearly 40 years prior to my being diagnosed) my father also had lung cancer - same lung - and ultimately died from the disease. Genetics? Environment? Radon? Pollution?
Food? Smoking? Second-Hand Smoke?
Sic 'em, Tiger! You can count on bail money! Love Ya!
Blessings!
Brooklynda
- By sojourner
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 7:43 am
- Report post
Hi BetsyT,
I am a never smoker diagnosed with IIIB NSCLC and last year lost two friends to this dreadful cancer, both never smokers - one 34 year old mother of 3 an done late fifties.
I recently spent a week in ICU with pneumonia and took every opportunity I could to get on my soapbox and educate.
Some ammunition - if you watched the Discovery Health segment on advanced NSCLC a couple weeks ago, one of the doctors stated "if everyone in the world quit smoking right now, twenty years from now lung cancer would still be a leading killer". I thought that was a very powerful statement from an "expert".
Thanks for doing this for all of us. I, too, could contribute some for bail money!!!!
Blessings, Donna
- By Barb267
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 8:11 am
- Report post
Betsy,
This is a dream come true. Really. I want to so very badly be asked to talk at one of their functions. I would tell everyone there the FACTS about LC, then I would let them have it by letting ACS dirty little secret out of the bag (how they don't support LC) The end would be something like "And the American Cancer Society doesn't give one damn dime to it". Then I would put the mike down and walk out before the cops showed up. If you need bail, I got ya covered. Can't wait to hear what happens. Kick ass and take no names.
Barb
Please if you get a chance, talk about how those of us that did smoke HATE being asked that question.
- By mawoni
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 8:24 am
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WOW, Betsy!!! You GO, girl!! If you write down what you'll say, please do let us all see it! I'm sending up big prayers that you will have the strength to really let 'em have it between the eyes! Wish I could be there with you. Count me in on the bail money pool.
Love you ... Hugs ... Deb
- By jc1
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 8:36 am
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Betsy,
You can tell our story. My husband 57years old , never smoker, exercised all his life , drank water, ate fruit and vegtables , never over weight. All the doctors he had said he was a healthy man other than having stage IV lung cancer. He didn't even have any allergies.
Jan
- By tumi
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 9:47 am
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Betsy,
I am thrilled you will be our voice. My take on LC is early detection/screening. Until that is offered, LC will continue to be the #1 killer. I am a former smoker, quit 21 years before dx with stage 4 nslcl. I had been to numerous pulmonary docs over 15 years with complaints of chronic cough. Only breathing tests, no CT scans. Recently a thoracic surgeon told me an xray machine can pick up a lung tumor when it's the size of a golf ball, a CT scan can pick up a tumor the size of a pencil eraser. If it's grown to the size of a golf ball, chances are its metastasized. WE NEED CT SCREENINGS. I have 3 children! I pray they will have the opportunity to have LC screening.
Go get 'em, Betsy!
- By jazzbo
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 10:01 am
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Betsy how awesome is this! You go and give them heck for us. Tell all to come and visit this site to see the real lung cancer story. I am embaressed that we have an orginization like ACS saying they are doing all they can do. When we can't even get them to support any funding for lung cancer because they can get" better results from other cancers". I go into Boston every few months and on the ACS's headquarters for the last 2 months was a giant banner supporting breast cancer. I know that it probably is still up because we all know breasts are much more appealing than lungs. I hope to go to the Shine a Light program this week at the Prudential Center in Boston and I will travel by the ACS again and see if it is still there. If it wasn't about 5 stories up I might want to help them take it down. John
- By bigbadbob
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 10:01 am
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Wonderful opportunity, Betsy! Go get 'em! What is the date of this event, so we can be thinking about you? Be sure to report how it went (if you can keep a laptop in your jail cell). Someone from ACS visited me in the hospital after my pneumonectomy, and left me with a pile of worthless pamphlets including "Reach to Recovery"--WTF???? Why did I need that? There was nothing in the folder she gave me that pertained to lung cancer.
Bob
- By RMSSyr
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 10:49 am
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Saying smoking was the cause is just an easy out. There are many things in our environments that can cause LC. I was a smoker and was Dx at Stage IV.
I'm glad you're invited to speak at an ACS event. Pink has become their money maker and provides the funding for their annual budgets. Maybe they should just change their name to match their focus.
Good luck,
RMS
- By PattyLynn
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 11:00 am
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You go girl. Tell them like it is. So glad you will be our voice. Good Luck, Pat
- By Khari
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 11:05 am
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Hi Betsy,
Just wanted to tell you I'm behind you all the way and I'll help with the bail money too!!!
I was driving just last week and listening to the local PBS station and not really paying attention, but some woman was on talking about quitting smoking. She said in her commentary that "lung cancer was the most preventable of all cancers" and that if nobody smoked "it would be eradicated in 50 years". Seriously????
We have to fight this awful stigma that is preventing research to find ways to treat this disease. Your speech is a step in the right direction.
Thank you.
Khari
- By bayrealtor
- Posted November 3, 2009 at 11:09 am
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Cathy, at age 34 diagnosed stage 4 NSCLS, never smoked, never ill, not even a cavity in her head.
I'd like to give ACS a swift kick in the %*@!
Bill
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