Breast cancer survivors for Planned Parenthood

Last year in January while I was recovering from a lumpectomy and waiting to start radiation (because early detection saves lives and contributes to better outcomes), a group of friends wanted to make a donation in honor of a young friend (32 at the time) who had just lost both breasts to cancer (she has the BRCA gene). We got the comfort food and flowers to her, but wanted to really do our homework on which organization to donate to in her honor.

Several of us checked Charity Navigator and Charity Watch (Guide Star is also good) to learn what percentage of funds are used for admin costs, research, providing screenings and other preventive care, and education (we agreed on the National Breast Cancer Foundation).

At the same time, Steven Colbert gave a Tip of the Hat to Susan G. Komen and their use of at least $1M of donor dollars a year to sue mom and pop groups working to support cancer research and cancer patients. That’s a lot of money spent to essentially bully small efforts to help sick people be healthy.

Fast forward almost 13 months later, and Komen has caved to pressure from anti-choice advocates and Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida. Yesterday the GOP primary candidates were competing with coverage of Komen’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood.

Komen’s funding has been used to provide breast exams to women who rely on Planned Parenthood for healthcare services. These women are often poor, underinsured or uninsured, and do not have access to a family doctor or gynecologist for regular care.

Now Komen, an organization established to honor a breast cancer victim, has said it won’t help fund preventive care services like breast exams (and cervical cancer screenings, which is one of the most difficult cancers to identify because the cancer is usually advanced before the patient suspects a problem).

There is no evidence that Planned Parenthood misappropriated the funds for abortion or other services.  What is known is that Komen Vice-President Karen Handel, who served as the Secretary of State for Georgia before resigning to launch a failed bid for the GOP nomination for governor here, campaigned long and hard against state funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings which went to Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately what she couldn’t accomplish in Georgia she has now managed on a national level.

And, because it bears repeating by women who grew up while the battle was waged for safe and legal access to abortions, or came to adulthood not long after the dust began to settle, the issue isn’t whether abortion is good, moral, a form of birth control, etc. Really desperate women who want to end a pregnancy will find a way to do that regardless of whether it is safe or legal. We endanger lives without access to safe and legal abortion.

This defunding is a result of politics driven by such socially, politically, and religiously conservative officials that they will strip away access to preventive health care for poor women. If the lost funds aren’t made up to Planned Parenthood, how many women will not find the cancer soon enough? How many young children will suffer, and perhaps be left without a mother who makes pancakes from scratch on Sunday morning before going to church?

I donated to Planned Parenthood last night. I am remiss in not giving them even a small donation in the past.

Later today I am stuffing all my Komen Race for the Cure t-shirts and the return address labels they have sent me into an envelope and sending them back to:

Nancy Brinker
CEO, Susan G. Komen
5005 LBJ Freeeway
Suite 250
Dallas, TX 75244

I support access to preventive health care and good health information for all Americans. Especially for the mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, aunts, and godmothers, now more than ever.

Lost time, found time

The Friday Photo

A weekly photo inspired by spontaneity, art, and community.

When I was a stay at home mom years ago I sewed a lot

I made play clothes and a few "nice" dresses for my daughters

When we finished restoring our simple farmhouse

I worked on curtains, chair cushions, quilted duvets, and dust ruffles

I stopped sewing when I began working outside the house

I didn't really miss it much

No time between work, dance classes and homework,
 groceries, and laundry

Last year in March, on a warm early spring day

on what should have been the last few days of 
radiation treatment for breast cancer

the computer on the equipment crashed

It was the worst day of having cancer 

Sunburned from radiation, 
 too exhausted to even think 
of anything that would have given me respite

I decided to start sewing again

This weekend I will try something new 
using cast off and thrift store sweaters

I have learned how to felt them

 cashmere, wool, angora

cabled, patterned, plain     

I hope by Sunday night to have a new scarf

and make others with scavenged finds

I sobbed outside the waiting room while my car was serviced that day

but I finally realized

that I will never have the time back

so now I want to use it well

and not just pass through so much of it  

Why isn't the Department of Public Health speaking up for us?

As has been evidenced this year, citizens can't count on the state's Environmental Protection Division to lead in protecting our natural resources or health from pollution. In the past few days our state Attorney General has filed two briefs opposing rules which will significantly reduce toxins in the air we breath and the water we count on for so many things.

So, I wonder, why isn't the Department of Public Health (DPH) speaking out in favor of tighter pollution regulations and oversight? The DPH web site says,"DPH is the lead department entrusted by the people of the state of Georgia with the ultimate responsibility for the health of the communities and the entire population."

Even their own data reflect high rates of birth defects (mercury is a neurotoxin), cancer, heart and lung disease, and stroke, all of which can result from exposure to dirty air. Can they not figure out that coal plants are pumping TONS of hazardous pollutants into the air each year? Have they not noticed because the policy makers are in Atlanta at 2 Peachtree Street? They don't see the coal stacks from their back yard or wipe coal ash dust from their front porch rocking chairs each day.

Is there ANY state agency in Georgia that is really invested in protecting our health, our air, and our water, from the pollution and health effects that have been documented for decades?      

Just wondering.

The Sandwich Generation Speaks Up

I am beginning to know first hand what the sandwich generation is all about. I am the second of four generations in my family, and my husband is the same in his. We are both dealing with aging parents, keeping the house and yard in almost respectable order, and doing the things we want to do (exercise, garden, cook, read, blog). Next week I have appointments with three doctors who have been involved in treating my cancer since the middle of December.

It could be worse; we don't worry where our next meal will come from, if the car will get us to work, or whether we can see a doctor. We have friends and siblings we can call in the middle of the night (and who will call us if we are needed).

Can I imagine how awful it would be without those things? I can try, but I don't think I can fully understand it. Knowing it first hand is scary.

With that thought, I am doing my part and telling the folks who represent me (I use that term loosely as I don't like the way they vote on most issues) to say that cutting Social Security, Veteran's benefits, along with Medicare and Medicaid aren't just decisions about money. Those are decisions about the very real issues of quality of life. I'm willing to spend a little more on taxes to make sure the senior citizens in my neighborhood don't worry about cutting pills in half, or that kids with asthma have an inhaler when they need it.

And if I can do it on my middle class income that isn't getting any bigger while costs go up, then it seems like the jumbo corporations making millions in profits could come off a little of their cash to help our too.

We have hard decisions to make in our country. We need to remember that we aren't just talking about thousands of people. We are talking about the guy whose cute kids, wearing pretty worn out clothes, beamed as they cleaned the windshield while he put gas in the tank at $3.60+ a gallon.

I'm doing my part. Are you?

My battle with cancer put me in the local paper

I had every intention of using this blog when the year began but instead focused on my work as the Executive Director of FACE and my own health. Fortunately the radiation treatments are over and the fatigue is subsiding, so life is returning to whatever resembles normal for me.

This year is off to a bang.

I started the New Year with an incision healing under my left arm and another on my left breast after a lumpectomy. Attorneys representing the grassroots organization I now work for had told us to be prepared to spend all year in court with appeals. I wasn't dreading the new year, but I was afraid there wasn't a lot of fun stuff to look forward to doing.

Yesterday the leader of Cobb EMC, Dwight Brown, got himself served with 31 counts of racketeering, theft, and making false statements (lying). We had waited almost two years after his home and office were searched to see if anything would come out of it. Three other Cobb EMC board member homes were also searched in the spring of 2009, and the Cobb D.A. has said more indictments may be issued.

Guess who signed some of the legal documents for the power plant application? Since Plant Washington and Power4Georgians was unveiled almost three years, the pieces haven't quite fit together. I think a court trial might put the puzzle together for us and those who planned and participated in this scheme.

I end the week knowing that the three years of my life that I have invested in learning more about Plant Washington, educating the public about it, and finding partners across the state and country to support our work, have been well worth it.

Today those partners not only celebrated this huge win for us in our fight, but they cheered when I told them my path report came back with clear lymph nodes and margins.

I still have a lot of work to do this year. Last month I told my county commissioners the longest fight in our country against a proposed coal plant is happening in Early County, GA. I learn from those people every day. They have been in it for 10 years and have no intention of stopping now. I have three years behind me on Plant Washington.With some luck, hard work, and preventive healthcare, I have far more than seven good years in me.