Why does this make me angry

I am so tired of receiving emails and mail re donations to breast cancer. Even the Steeler (my football team) are wearing pink. Finally, I responded to one email with the following. Am I being self centered?
I would be more than happy to refer a friend for breast cancer awareness but donâ€™t you think EVERYBODY in the whole wide world knows about this type cancer by now? They receive millions of dollars for research and it is easy to diagnose and treatable. There are other cancers out there that are not so easily diagnosed and some deadly such as pancreatic cancer. I, myself, have Ovarian Cancer and we have been trying to get the word out about this deadly disease. It is very difficult to diagnose and is usually stage 3 or 4 by the time it is diagnosed. It is a silent killer and it affects women young and old with many symptoms mimicking gall bladder disease or IBS. We have tried to get companies to jump on the band wagon and support our cause as well but it seems as though breast cancer is the only cancer out there. We need more research money to diagnose this deadly disease and treat it in its early stages. At present, it has a 5 year survival rate if you make it that long. Pancreatic cancer is usually less than a year.
I may end up getting breast cancer too, but I think they have raked in enough funds in the last 20 years, they should have a cure by now. How about supporting ALL cancers.

Ovarian Cancer
Symptoms:
â€¢ Bloating
â€¢ Feeling of fullness
â€¢ Gas
â€¢ Frequent or urgent urination
â€¢ Nausea
â€¢ Indigestion
â€¢ Constipation or diarrhea
â€¢ Menstrual disorders
â€¢ Pain during intercourse
â€¢ Fatigue and backache

â€¢ Leading cause of death from all gynecological cancers and 5th leading cause of death among women.

â€¢ Estimated 22,430 women wee diagnosed with this cancers in 2007 and about 15,280 women will die of this disease.

â€¢ In a womanâ€™s lifetime, the risk of ovarian cancer are 1 in 67.

â€¢ Insidious disease that strikes without warning or cause and is difficult to diagnose.

â€¢ No effective means of early detection resulting in being diagnosed in advanced stages and only 50% of women survive longer than 5 years.

â€¢ Currently, only 25% are diagnosed in early stages.

â€¢ If detected early, the 5 year survival rate is 90%.

By lifeisgrand
Posted October 5, 2009 at 2:08 pm
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You're a Steeler fan :) Yeah... but really, they did look ridiculous in those pink shoes. Get a grip already. I was sick of the pink campaign even before I got ovarian cancer. Now it just really ticks me off.

By Cheryl4Teal
Posted October 5, 2009 at 2:09 pm
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I agree it is. Like I stated in another post I was pretty tired of seeing it. In my place for treatment its bells and whistles already for it. IT could not get going fast enough. I just had to keep walking.
It hits in the gut. I think that until more people see a connection to the cancers or care to be educated it wont chance. It was great for september to see teal ribbons in the towns in NJ. New Brunswick, Edison, and Highland Park all turned teal. Its on my route to get the the treartment center, so I cried the few miles I saw all that teal . It got to me .

By momanderson920
Posted October 5, 2009 at 2:19 pm
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I just read an article that says that these companies are doing the breast cancer awareness to sell, not necessarily to be humanitarian. Very little of what you buy from them actually goes to breast cancer so other than publicity and information, they are not necessarily making as much money as perceived for the cause. HOWEVER, it gives people the false sense that they have donated and they could do more good to send in a real donation of cash. It makes sense. But the list of organizations promoting and donating is vast compared to ovarian and other cancers.

By EMteal
Posted October 6, 2009 at 10:14 am
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I'm both an ovarian and breast cancer survivor who never wears or buys "pink"! I've gotten to the point if I see a pink ribbon on a product I will not buy it!

By FavoriteAunt
Posted October 6, 2009 at 10:22 am
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You are not alone in how you feel. I'm sick of pink but am very sympathetic to the cause because I have 2 cousins who are survivors. That being said, there are many cancers with very deadly outcomes, but no one pays attention. The breast cancer thing caught on and it is the politically correct thing to do - like a steamroller that's hard to stop. I agree with momanderson920 that not all the money donated goes to the research. Groups like the Koman Fund are fine, but I do question some of the commercial pitches.

We ovca girls are trying hard to get help, but it is an uphill battle. I still think that if the breast cancer people publicized the link between breast cancer and ovca, it might get more attention. It's only when someone gets diagnosed with ovca, or it affects someone close to them, that people pay attention. All of these big name people who are on the pink bankwagon probably do not know they are just as susceptible to ovca as they are to breast cancer, but they have no clue about the sumptoms.

By lynnpamela
Posted October 6, 2009 at 10:32 am
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I can't agree with you more. Over 20 years ago when my kids were young two of my close friend's lost mothers with ovarian cancer. Then years later my husband's cousin died of ovarian cancer and a good friend got ovarian cancer (8 years in remission!).

It bothered me for years but didn't really register until my mother was diagnosed in August of '06 with primary peritoneal cancer and has been fighting it ever since. Everywhere I go with the constant soliciting for money for breast cancer I ask them why they're not also soliciting for ovarian cancer, where are the sheets for that. It just really pisses me off. Even if I end up with breast cancer, it would still piss me off.

Hopefully things will change but your feelings are completely understandable and shared by many of us who are either fighting the disease personally or with loved ones going through it.

I don't know why ovarian cancer is not given the same attention as breast cancer. Everywhere you go all you see is the pink .

By TvlBeach
Posted October 6, 2009 at 10:49 am
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All those teal ribbons were put in place by a OC Survivor who also goes to "The Cancer Institute of NJ". It takes volunteers to help spread the word, so start SHOUTING the symtoms to everyone that will listen and maybe the new pink will become TEAL.

Pam
5 Year Stage IIIC OC Survivor

By pegart
Posted October 6, 2009 at 11:55 am
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My mother died of breast cancer, but enough already. They were even selling pink ribbon cookies by a local business at Zupans. good grief.

By ErinH
Posted October 6, 2009 at 12:10 pm
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OH MY GOODNESS!!!
Reading this post has just changed my life!

You cannot know how incredible it is to hear that OTHER WOMEN feel how I do!!!

I have been judged, rebuked, chastised and downright scolded any and EVERY time I have uttered my very strong views on this subject.

I had a two-hour long conversation with a female friend about my feelings for breast cancer last year and she basically told me to be VERY careful who I said this to, or in what context I brought it up, and how feminists and the general public would castigate me for my views!

While I was undergoing treatment for metastasized Stage IV OvCa that had been misdiagnosed and neglected for 22 - 28 months, Kylie Minogue got BREAST CANCER! That just was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I had session upon session upon session with my psychiatrist about Kylie/breast cancer, and it was the thing that finally made me give up and want to die at that stage.

She got all the attention, thousands upon thousands of letters of support and love flowed in from around the world for her, donations to breast cancer charities skyrocketed, she plastered every poster and magazine cover when she lost her hair - the top of it was when I got the news that she had her chemo-ward CLEARED of other patients so that she could have chemo privately!!! And at that young age, all but one (literally) of my friends had deserted me because they couldn't cope with my illness. I had no-one, except one friend - Kylie had hundreds of thousands of friends all around the world!

I just could not cope with this.

On top of that, my auntie had died of breast cancer in her early thirties (I was 23 fighting my cancer) and upon genetic investigation, my geneticist told me to inform my cousins that they needed to be screened and tested, and they REFUSED!

Then, during chemo I got an unsolicited call from breast cancer charity - to my private, home phone number - asking me to hand out donation envelopes in my local area - I just broke down, in anger, revulsion, outrage and heartbreak! My mum took the phone off me, told me to leave the room and had an enormous confrontation with them.

The truth is - breast cancer is SEXY and SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE. Men can talk about breasts, women can talk about breasts, the general population is very comfortable with breasts.

Add to that the fact that, after surgery, breast cancer survivors have a VISIBLE loss, and a wound/scar that they can wear like a badge, and the whole thing becomes very marketable. It makes people feel good about themselves to pity breast cancer patients and survivors.

The loss of a breast/both breasts might have a small, physical effect upon a woman - sex must be different I suppose, she may experience a drop in self-confidence, but COME ON -it has NO effect WHATSOEVER upon the woman's physical health - given the diminishing numbers these days of women who choose to breastfeed.

And the injury of all injuries - breasts can be SURGICALLY RECONSTRUCTED!!! So where is the damage?!?!?

Losing one or both ovaries, not to mention your womb is inconceivably traumatizing and permanently scarring for a woman - physically, emotionally, mentally.

The repercussions of the loss of a woman's reproductive system cannot be quantified. I faced menopause and infertility at 23. It took me six months of intense counselling to even begin to contemplate the prospect of being infertile at that age, before I had the chance to start a family.

There is no outward wound.

There is no free speech about this loss.

When do women ever talk to men about their ovaries and womb? What man do you know who will sit and discuss menstruation/fertility/monthly cycles/reproductive systems with a woman? Think of it, how many women do you know who will openly discuss their ovarian function and wombs/thoughts about gynaecological cancer? There is only we survivors!

No-one will publicise gynae cancers, especially not OvCa - it is TOTALLY taboo here in Northern Ireland.

Hysterectomy is NEVER discussed. Women who have Gynaecological problems are made to feel ashamed here and outcast. Most people don't even know what the word oophorectomy means!

I am sorry to go on, but it is so life-changing to hear that others share my feelings. I am almost crying with relief, I feel overwhelmed by this discussion. I have felt so alone with my feelings for four years now - and ashamed of myself, since no-one seemed to think it was acceptable for me to feel this way.

I began reading Gloria Honeyford's book about her daughter Karen Keating's death from breast cancer (I used to watch her on the TV as a child in Northern Ireland) and it enraged me so utterly that I felt physically sick. I threw it down in an airport and went off to scream.

There is so much more rage that I still harbour that I could vent here, but I should stop.

To cap it off - here are some absurd and revolting statistics:

Ovarian cancer is the 5th leading cause of death in women!!!

OvCa is the 8th leading cancer-related cause of death;

One in every 72 women will develop OvCa!

One in EVERY 95 women IN THE GENERAL POPULATION will die of OvCa (this is not women who have been diagnosed, but all women!)

5 yrs from diagnosis ONLY 46% of women with OvCa are still alive.

ONLY 19% of ALL OvCa is diagnosed at a stage with life-expectancy past 5 yrs (where the cancer is localised; before it has spread). To put this in context - if the OvCa were diagnosed at this early stage, the survival rate past 5 yrs improves to a whopping 93%!!! Compared to 46%!!!

75% of ALL OvCa that is diagnosed is metastatic, has spread through the body and is at an advanced/agressive stage already.

The 5-yr survival rate for women with OvCa has ONLY increased by 8% since 1975 (to put that in perspective, breast cancer's survival rate has improved by 13%)

Ovarian cancer trends in incidence and mortality has decreased only a pathetic amount each year in the past decade - LESS THAN 1%, although the actual numbers of sufferers increased by 3,000 women. (The breast cancer mortality rate has decreases at a rate of 2.2% every year. Cervical cancer mortality rates continue to decrease at a rate of 3.4% per year!)

OvCa mortality and incidence numbers have remained unchanged in the USA since 1999. That to me is shocking...

Latest research suggests, tragically, that all of us who have been diagnosed with OvCa at some point in our lives have a 70 - 90% chance of it recurring.

My cancer was Stage IV - women with Stage IV OvCa have a measly 5 - 10% chance of remaining in remission.

Stage III OvCa carries a 70 - 80% recurrence risk - were the cancer to be caught at Stage I (ha!), we would have a fantastic, tiny 10% risk or it recurring.

Awful stats, aren't they? Sorry to be morbid, I get so angry at this.

Sadly,
Erin

By Cheryl4Teal
Posted October 6, 2009 at 1:42 pm
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Pam I had no idea a survivor posted those ribbons. It does make it seem so much more meaningful to me and all of us. We do need to shout it out snd be heard.

By Cheryl4Teal
Posted October 6, 2009 at 1:45 pm
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Erin I do feel all your pain and feel for you, I feel the same way, im hurt and outraged myself, hopefully people will see how deadly ovarian cancer is.

By verlinda
Posted October 6, 2009 at 3:28 pm
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Let's face it, ladies. All the men out there who consider themselves to be "players" have "Breasts-good, ovaries, bad-lead to babies," engrained in their psyches. That kind of twisted thinking would lead them to think losing your ovaries would be a good thing!

Seriously, there's much more of an emotional side for most men with breasts than with ovaries. I wouldn't have any problems with all the pink if they would include a few statistics about teal along with it. Think what an attractive combo that ribbon would be! The main positive I can come up with is the trickle-down effect that some of the breast cancer chemos coincidentally worked on ovca.

I've decided to keep a roster of websites I frequent which I believe would be open to info on ovarian cancer. I'm going to wait until November, then write them, thank them as a person with a BRCA1 mutation for their support, then ask for their support as an ovca survivor who lost a sister to this disease to show teal in September. I think I'll go with a "Tell it with teal," statement. If we can get permission for them to link to the ovarian cancer symptom diary that would be wonderful!

By tg4love
Posted October 6, 2009 at 5:55 pm
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I'm with you about being angry with all the pink stuff. I saw my team, the worse in the league right now, Titans, wearing pink too. I was so glad they lost because of the pink. But, I had something else happen to me the other day that made me cry. I went into an O'Charleys' rest. for lunch after I had a CT Scan. There was this older lady who was behind me that the hostess took before me, by the way, and when the hostess came back to take me to a table, she said in a low voice, "she had a stroke". I couldn't see any signs of it, just that she was about 80. So, I said, "well, I have cancer." I'm standing there with my head scarf on and pale color, I mean you could tell I am sick. The hostess throw up her hand in the air and said, "oh, your curable!!!" I was so shocked I walked to my table and couldn't speak. I'm curable? I finally found my voice and said,"just to let you know, I'm NOT curable, I have OVC." Oh she said, "I'll pray for you!"

I have been going through chemo now for 30 months, lost my hair 5 times and have had 9 different chemicals in my body. And am still getting chemo. I feel bad for that 80 yr old lady that got taken to her table before me, but she simply dismissed me as not dealing with anything. I cried and couldn't eat my food, and as I was leaving, the hostess started to pat my back and kept saying "I'll pray for you", yea, right? She doesn't even know my name, such empty words.

Back to the pink thing, I also find woman are real proud to say they have "breast cancer", even when it's not the bad kind. You know the ones with a so small lump they have to hunt for it on the CT Scan? They are the ones I have an issue with. My mother died from breast cancer, a sister-in-law had the bad kind too. But, give us other cancers a break. We need research too, and my cancer is rare, nobody is going to research mine. So, the bottom line is, pink stinks. Now is the time to help other cancer patients a little hope for cure too. I'm off my soap box.

By Cheryl4Teal
Posted October 6, 2009 at 6:30 pm
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tg4love, im sorry for that bad experience you had there. I feel it was in my opinion cruel. I too often go out to eat and see that same thing. It bugs me sure it does. I got to walk away and pretend it doesent.
Those were empty words to you. Know this though Ill pray for you and not make it empty. Were in this all kinda together. My thoughts to you.

By SueNC
Posted October 6, 2009 at 9:05 pm
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I agree. I have a family member in the event planning/promotion business and she said "I hate to sound mean but companies want the publicity and want to be associated with the "in" thing. We all know what the biggest "in" thing is don't we.\
I applaud companies that break out of the mold to truly make a difference despite the lack of increased sales revenue.

By Jen457
Posted October 7, 2009 at 12:23 pm
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I am a bc survivor and am also "pinked" out. The word on the bc support groups to "think before you pink." Ask how much goes to research before you purchase anything. BC maybe "In" now but I remember walking in those early races where there was only about 500 people who were mostly family and friends of survivors and you were lucky to get water and fruit after the race. I had bc before it was "Cool." I believe that is where OC is. I am greatful for the awareness brought by any cancer and the dollars it brings in. I am hopeful that some of these dollars will find an answer for all of us. I don't expect anyone to fund bc research on this board but what needs to be acknowledged is they may find the answer for bc and all cancers. In this tight economy, any dollar that goes toward cancer research is the best dollar that I ever saw.

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