You might think it's really hard to cycle over 500 miles from New York City to Niagara Falls, but it's actually not.
Really hard is finding out that you or someone you care about has cancer. Really hard is making decisions about treatment. Really hard is dealing with the side effects of chemo, radiation, infusions, and surgery. Really hard is seeing the physical and emotional toll cancer takes on both the patient and their loved ones. Impossibly hard is saying good-bye to someone taken too soon by cancer.
But through all that pain hope can be found. Hope comes from revolutionary new treatments that improve quality of life and outcomes for cancer patients. Hope comes from medications that maybe can even prevent or cure cancer. But those kinds of revolutions can only happen through high-level research, and that research is in constant need of funding.
My Personal Blog
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On the importance of research
A couple of weeks ago, I published the most personal blog entry I've ever written in either of my ESR fundraising bids. I thank everyone who reached out to me with words of support or who shared their own personal story.
While what our family experienced over that year was gut-wrenching, it ended up being manageable, thanks to my wife's screening mammogram showing her cancer at stage 2, and with good prospects for treatment. While things could have been worse, had she not gone as the world was shutting down, they could have been less bad had she not cancelled her previous scan for a work trip, and then delayed rescheduling. Those 8 months may have been the difference between just having radiation, vs. chemo and radiation. Those 8 months may have meant a lumpectomy instead of mastectomy. Those 8 months may have meant stage 1 instead of 2. There's no way to know, of course, but 8 months of delay is 8 months of tumor growth.
The moral of the story is, don't delay getting your routine screening. There are so many treatable and early detectable cancers. People put screening off because it's inconvenient, it's uncomfortable, sometimes it's embarrassing, and it's scary. Don't accept "I'd rather not know" from anyone, including yourselves. Stay aware of the changing guidelines for age and go as soon as you're supposed to. And most importantly, if you have a family history of some conditions, push your doctor to have you screened early. Got a mole that looks funny? Get it checked out. Not pooping right? Get it checked out. Breathing feels weird? Get it checked out. New guidelines for screening come out and you suddenly find yourself in the age group? Get checked out.
The Empire State Ride is all about funding research. We can all get behind that, so while we're at it, let's participate in some research ourselves, whenever possible. A few years back I signed up for a nationwide, decade-long study that's attempting to get a million participants to study long-term outcomes on health caused by disparities in access. As part of this study, participants give a blood sample. Over time, information becomes available based on genetic profiling. At first, it's pretty innocuous stuff, ranging from how likely you are to taste cilantro as soapy to the probable consistency of your earwax (yes, that turns out to be genetic). Later, it looks at your genome to tell you about your genetic/geographic origins. Again, no surprises for me. Most recently, information about genetic mutations that could cause health concerns were made available. Having found out about an important genetic marker, I'm now making sure to be monitored more closely for certain conditions, based on elevated risk factors. I only found this out because I opted to be informed. I had to option of saying "I don't want to know", but what good would that do me? I'd rather be inconvenienced by the extra screening than regret that I didn't do something as early as I could have. I want as much quality time as I can get.
So, say yes to research and no to ignorance.
And go get checked out.
This blog post is dedicated to Elizabeth Zumchak, who stayed on top of getting checked out. She went through a lot last year, but she has come out on the other side, stronger than ever. I look forward to seeing her and her husband, my childhood buddy Steve, when I ride into Utica on Day 4 of ESR.
- Peace
by Harry Marenstein on Sun, Mar 31, 2024 @ 6:56 PM
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