[eavesdropper]

[quote=svelte] I suspect the public at large thinks lung cancer is often caused by actions of the person, but the public doesn’t think the same thing about breast cancer.

I say this because lung cancer is actually more common than breast cancer, yet breast cancer gets all the attention via walkathons, pink ribbons, etc.

My wife worries much more about breast cancer than lung cancer, but I attribute that to her being a 38DD.[/quote]

Very astute observation, svelte. Thanks largely to highly successful public service advertising, lung cancer has become synonymous with smoking. Not only are the commercials omnipresent, but the content of many have had a shock effect on viewers. And the fact is that the epidemiological evidence is overwhelming in the indictment of smoking as a causal agent in most lung cancer cases. Unfortunately, it’s human nature for people to have less sympathy for those who they believe to be culpable in causing their own illnesses.

As for breast cancer, if there was as strong a link for some causal agent with breast ca as there is for smoking and lung cancer, you’d better believe it’d be all over the media. But the fact is there is none. Certain things have shown up in epi studies, but not in the right numbers to implicate them. Because there isn’t anything to “blame”, breast cancer advertising takes a different tack and goes for the sympathy vote. It gets people to bug their friends and mothers and sisters to get mammograms, and it also gets them to contribute.

In reality, the numbers of breast cancer cases is virtually equal to those of lung cancer (about 200K per year). However, the lung ca mortality rate is much higher. The reasons for this are complex; lung cancer is an entirely different disease on a molecular level from cancer of the breast. But would it improve if there were tons of walkathons, colored ribbons, etc.? Who knows? But there’s no question that many of the funds being raised for breast cancer are diverted to lobbying efforts, and far more taxpayer money is being spent on breast ca research than on other cancers and public health risks.

A lot of the “pinkwash” started with the Komen Foundation. At the time of it’s inception, there was almost no publicity about the disease, and relatively few research dollars were dedicated to it. Komen changed all that, and demonstrated real brilliance in their early marketing. The timing was also right, as the women of baby boomer generation were reaching an age when breast cancer was a concern, first for their mothers and later for themselves. Several copycat groups sprang up: some were wonderful, others not so much. Recently, Komen has been criticized on their use of funds and also on their seemingly indiscriminate agreements with marketing partners.

Unfortunately, other cancers and diseases, for whatever reason, didn’t get the message, and sat by idly while Komen achieved unparalleled success in fundraising. Some of them have picked up on it in the past 5 or 6 years, but I think that the public may have reached the point where they have “ribbon fatigue”.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=svelte] I suspect the public at large thinks lung cancer is often caused by actions of the person, but the public doesn’t think the same thing about breast cancer.

I say this because lung cancer is actually more common than breast cancer, yet breast cancer gets all the attention via walkathons, pink ribbons, etc.

My wife worries much more about breast cancer than lung cancer, but I attribute that to her being a 38DD.[/quote]

Very astute observation, svelte. Thanks largely to highly successful public service advertising, lung cancer has become synonymous with smoking. Not only are the commercials omnipresent, but the content of many have had a shock effect on viewers. And the fact is that the epidemiological evidence is overwhelming in the indictment of smoking as a causal agent in most lung cancer cases. Unfortunately, it’s human nature for people to have less sympathy for those who they believe to be culpable in causing their own illnesses.

As for breast cancer, if there was as strong a link for some causal agent with breast ca as there is for smoking and lung cancer, you’d better believe it’d be all over the media. But the fact is there is none. Certain things have shown up in epi studies, but not in the right numbers to implicate them. Because there isn’t anything to “blame”, breast cancer advertising takes a different tack and goes for the sympathy vote. It gets people to bug their friends and mothers and sisters to get mammograms, and it also gets them to contribute.

In reality, the numbers of breast cancer cases is virtually equal to those of lung cancer (about 200K per year). However, the lung ca mortality rate is much higher. The reasons for this are complex; lung cancer is an entirely different disease on a molecular level from cancer of the breast. But would it improve if there were tons of walkathons, colored ribbons, etc.? Who knows? But there’s no question that many of the funds being raised for breast cancer are diverted to lobbying efforts, and far more taxpayer money is being spent on breast ca research than on other cancers and public health risks.

A lot of the “pinkwash” started with the Komen Foundation. At the time of it’s inception, there was almost no publicity about the disease, and relatively few research dollars were dedicated to it. Komen changed all that, and demonstrated real brilliance in their early marketing. The timing was also right, as the women of baby boomer generation were reaching an age when breast cancer was a concern, first for their mothers and later for themselves. Several copycat groups sprang up: some were wonderful, others not so much. Recently, Komen has been criticized on their use of funds and also on their seemingly indiscriminate agreements with marketing partners.

Unfortunately, other cancers and diseases, for whatever reason, didn’t get the message, and sat by idly while Komen achieved unparalleled success in fundraising. Some of them have picked up on it in the past 5 or 6 years, but I think that the public may have reached the point where they have “ribbon fatigue”.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=bearishgurl]….eavesdropper, do you know you can get 3M scrubbers to stick on long poles to scrub/strip floors while standing up? They’re at Home Depot. That’s what I use :=)[/quote]

I’ll go you one better, BG. My husband does it. And I don’t even have to stick him on a pole. (Unless he asks. Nicely.)

I just let the floors go for a while until he can’t stand it anymore, and then he does it. I have to admit that this works only because I am soooo busy these days. Otherwise, I could never wait that long for clean floors. But I’m too busy to do much cleaning, too insensate to notice the deleterious effects of this, and too damn tired to give a rat’s ass.

It’s been curiously liberating.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=bearishgurl]….eavesdropper, do you know you can get 3M scrubbers to stick on long poles to scrub/strip floors while standing up? They’re at Home Depot. That’s what I use :=)[/quote]

I’ll go you one better, BG. My husband does it. And I don’t even have to stick him on a pole. (Unless he asks. Nicely.)

I just let the floors go for a while until he can’t stand it anymore, and then he does it. I have to admit that this works only because I am soooo busy these days. Otherwise, I could never wait that long for clean floors. But I’m too busy to do much cleaning, too insensate to notice the deleterious effects of this, and too damn tired to give a rat’s ass.

It’s been curiously liberating.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=bearishgurl]….eavesdropper, do you know you can get 3M scrubbers to stick on long poles to scrub/strip floors while standing up? They’re at Home Depot. That’s what I use :=)[/quote]

I’ll go you one better, BG. My husband does it. And I don’t even have to stick him on a pole. (Unless he asks. Nicely.)

I just let the floors go for a while until he can’t stand it anymore, and then he does it. I have to admit that this works only because I am soooo busy these days. Otherwise, I could never wait that long for clean floors. But I’m too busy to do much cleaning, too insensate to notice the deleterious effects of this, and too damn tired to give a rat’s ass.

It’s been curiously liberating.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=bearishgurl]….eavesdropper, do you know you can get 3M scrubbers to stick on long poles to scrub/strip floors while standing up? They’re at Home Depot. That’s what I use :=)[/quote]

I’ll go you one better, BG. My husband does it. And I don’t even have to stick him on a pole. (Unless he asks. Nicely.)

I just let the floors go for a while until he can’t stand it anymore, and then he does it. I have to admit that this works only because I am soooo busy these days. Otherwise, I could never wait that long for clean floors. But I’m too busy to do much cleaning, too insensate to notice the deleterious effects of this, and too damn tired to give a rat’s ass.

It’s been curiously liberating.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=bearishgurl]….eavesdropper, do you know you can get 3M scrubbers to stick on long poles to scrub/strip floors while standing up? They’re at Home Depot. That’s what I use :=)[/quote]

I’ll go you one better, BG. My husband does it. And I don’t even have to stick him on a pole. (Unless he asks. Nicely.)

I just let the floors go for a while until he can’t stand it anymore, and then he does it. I have to admit that this works only because I am soooo busy these days. Otherwise, I could never wait that long for clean floors. But I’m too busy to do much cleaning, too insensate to notice the deleterious effects of this, and too damn tired to give a rat’s ass.

It’s been curiously liberating.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=sdrealtor]I have got to be the luckiest bastard in the world. At 47 I can still hold onto my claim of being bulletproof. The MRI showed lots of inflamation but no tears anywhere. Based upon my life’s history of physical activity both my primary and the radiologist were shocked how good everything looked. After all I’ve put these knees through that is no small miracle.

Dr said take it easy for 3 wks but Mt Baldy just got 4 ft of snow and hell I’m still bulletproof.

I do think my running days are probably over though. Better ways to exercise than that.

Thanks everyone for the input. See you on the slopes:)[/quote]

Congrats, sdr. Very happy to hear that you received good news. However, be careful not to equate “dodging a bullet” with “bulletproof”. I’d give yourself a minimum of two weeks after date of injury, resting the limb, elevating it when it swells, and taking anti-imflammatory meds at regular intervals round the clock.

Re: skiing: keep in mind that a high percentage of meniscal tears come from torsion movements of the knee joint. I’m not recommending that you give up skiing; participating in a sport on a smooth surface such as snow is much better on your knees than playing soccer or touch football. But knee joint integrity is essential for safe skiing, and as long as you have significant swelling, your knee is highly susceptible to risk of injury.

You sound like someone to whom regular physical activity is essential, and who is trying to keep his body in as good operating condition as possible despite the changes of middle age. So give yourself a break, and an extra week for this to heal. From a medical standpoint, inflammation is the body’s way of protecting the injured area from additional injury: the swelling and pain are a physiologic message that you should give it a rest.

And keep in mind that you have reached the age where you are going to hear your contemporaries complaining more and more about increasingly severe injuries. Things just start to wear down, and aren’t as taut, strong, or flexible as they were a few years back. Not only do injuries occur with greater frequency in your 40s and 50s, but it also takes much longer to recover from them. Most meniscal tears aren’t that big of a deal, but as you get older, torsion injuries often include collateral damage to the complex structure of ligaments in the knee. Trust me: that happens to you, you are going to be hating life.

If you really love running, I don’t know that I’d give it up completely. It does cause a tremendous amount of impact on joints in your lower extremities, pelvis, and spine, but you can cut down on that somewhat by changes in shoes and in running surfaces. But bicycling and swimming are preferable at this point in your life. And skiing.

Have a blast!

[eavesdropper]

[quote=sdrealtor]I have got to be the luckiest bastard in the world. At 47 I can still hold onto my claim of being bulletproof. The MRI showed lots of inflamation but no tears anywhere. Based upon my life’s history of physical activity both my primary and the radiologist were shocked how good everything looked. After all I’ve put these knees through that is no small miracle.

Dr said take it easy for 3 wks but Mt Baldy just got 4 ft of snow and hell I’m still bulletproof.

I do think my running days are probably over though. Better ways to exercise than that.

Thanks everyone for the input. See you on the slopes:)[/quote]

Congrats, sdr. Very happy to hear that you received good news. However, be careful not to equate “dodging a bullet” with “bulletproof”. I’d give yourself a minimum of two weeks after date of injury, resting the limb, elevating it when it swells, and taking anti-imflammatory meds at regular intervals round the clock.

Re: skiing: keep in mind that a high percentage of meniscal tears come from torsion movements of the knee joint. I’m not recommending that you give up skiing; participating in a sport on a smooth surface such as snow is much better on your knees than playing soccer or touch football. But knee joint integrity is essential for safe skiing, and as long as you have significant swelling, your knee is highly susceptible to risk of injury.

You sound like someone to whom regular physical activity is essential, and who is trying to keep his body in as good operating condition as possible despite the changes of middle age. So give yourself a break, and an extra week for this to heal. From a medical standpoint, inflammation is the body’s way of protecting the injured area from additional injury: the swelling and pain are a physiologic message that you should give it a rest.

And keep in mind that you have reached the age where you are going to hear your contemporaries complaining more and more about increasingly severe injuries. Things just start to wear down, and aren’t as taut, strong, or flexible as they were a few years back. Not only do injuries occur with greater frequency in your 40s and 50s, but it also takes much longer to recover from them. Most meniscal tears aren’t that big of a deal, but as you get older, torsion injuries often include collateral damage to the complex structure of ligaments in the knee. Trust me: that happens to you, you are going to be hating life.

If you really love running, I don’t know that I’d give it up completely. It does cause a tremendous amount of impact on joints in your lower extremities, pelvis, and spine, but you can cut down on that somewhat by changes in shoes and in running surfaces. But bicycling and swimming are preferable at this point in your life. And skiing.

Have a blast!

[eavesdropper]

[quote=sdrealtor]I have got to be the luckiest bastard in the world. At 47 I can still hold onto my claim of being bulletproof. The MRI showed lots of inflamation but no tears anywhere. Based upon my life’s history of physical activity both my primary and the radiologist were shocked how good everything looked. After all I’ve put these knees through that is no small miracle.

Dr said take it easy for 3 wks but Mt Baldy just got 4 ft of snow and hell I’m still bulletproof.

I do think my running days are probably over though. Better ways to exercise than that.

Thanks everyone for the input. See you on the slopes:)[/quote]

Congrats, sdr. Very happy to hear that you received good news. However, be careful not to equate “dodging a bullet” with “bulletproof”. I’d give yourself a minimum of two weeks after date of injury, resting the limb, elevating it when it swells, and taking anti-imflammatory meds at regular intervals round the clock.

Re: skiing: keep in mind that a high percentage of meniscal tears come from torsion movements of the knee joint. I’m not recommending that you give up skiing; participating in a sport on a smooth surface such as snow is much better on your knees than playing soccer or touch football. But knee joint integrity is essential for safe skiing, and as long as you have significant swelling, your knee is highly susceptible to risk of injury.

You sound like someone to whom regular physical activity is essential, and who is trying to keep his body in as good operating condition as possible despite the changes of middle age. So give yourself a break, and an extra week for this to heal. From a medical standpoint, inflammation is the body’s way of protecting the injured area from additional injury: the swelling and pain are a physiologic message that you should give it a rest.

And keep in mind that you have reached the age where you are going to hear your contemporaries complaining more and more about increasingly severe injuries. Things just start to wear down, and aren’t as taut, strong, or flexible as they were a few years back. Not only do injuries occur with greater frequency in your 40s and 50s, but it also takes much longer to recover from them. Most meniscal tears aren’t that big of a deal, but as you get older, torsion injuries often include collateral damage to the complex structure of ligaments in the knee. Trust me: that happens to you, you are going to be hating life.

If you really love running, I don’t know that I’d give it up completely. It does cause a tremendous amount of impact on joints in your lower extremities, pelvis, and spine, but you can cut down on that somewhat by changes in shoes and in running surfaces. But bicycling and swimming are preferable at this point in your life. And skiing.

Have a blast!

[eavesdropper]

[quote=sdrealtor]I have got to be the luckiest bastard in the world. At 47 I can still hold onto my claim of being bulletproof. The MRI showed lots of inflamation but no tears anywhere. Based upon my life’s history of physical activity both my primary and the radiologist were shocked how good everything looked. After all I’ve put these knees through that is no small miracle.

Dr said take it easy for 3 wks but Mt Baldy just got 4 ft of snow and hell I’m still bulletproof.

I do think my running days are probably over though. Better ways to exercise than that.

Thanks everyone for the input. See you on the slopes:)[/quote]

Congrats, sdr. Very happy to hear that you received good news. However, be careful not to equate “dodging a bullet” with “bulletproof”. I’d give yourself a minimum of two weeks after date of injury, resting the limb, elevating it when it swells, and taking anti-imflammatory meds at regular intervals round the clock.

Re: skiing: keep in mind that a high percentage of meniscal tears come from torsion movements of the knee joint. I’m not recommending that you give up skiing; participating in a sport on a smooth surface such as snow is much better on your knees than playing soccer or touch football. But knee joint integrity is essential for safe skiing, and as long as you have significant swelling, your knee is highly susceptible to risk of injury.

You sound like someone to whom regular physical activity is essential, and who is trying to keep his body in as good operating condition as possible despite the changes of middle age. So give yourself a break, and an extra week for this to heal. From a medical standpoint, inflammation is the body’s way of protecting the injured area from additional injury: the swelling and pain are a physiologic message that you should give it a rest.

And keep in mind that you have reached the age where you are going to hear your contemporaries complaining more and more about increasingly severe injuries. Things just start to wear down, and aren’t as taut, strong, or flexible as they were a few years back. Not only do injuries occur with greater frequency in your 40s and 50s, but it also takes much longer to recover from them. Most meniscal tears aren’t that big of a deal, but as you get older, torsion injuries often include collateral damage to the complex structure of ligaments in the knee. Trust me: that happens to you, you are going to be hating life.

If you really love running, I don’t know that I’d give it up completely. It does cause a tremendous amount of impact on joints in your lower extremities, pelvis, and spine, but you can cut down on that somewhat by changes in shoes and in running surfaces. But bicycling and swimming are preferable at this point in your life. And skiing.

Have a blast!

[eavesdropper]

[quote=sdrealtor]I have got to be the luckiest bastard in the world. At 47 I can still hold onto my claim of being bulletproof. The MRI showed lots of inflamation but no tears anywhere. Based upon my life’s history of physical activity both my primary and the radiologist were shocked how good everything looked. After all I’ve put these knees through that is no small miracle.

Dr said take it easy for 3 wks but Mt Baldy just got 4 ft of snow and hell I’m still bulletproof.

I do think my running days are probably over though. Better ways to exercise than that.

Thanks everyone for the input. See you on the slopes:)[/quote]

Congrats, sdr. Very happy to hear that you received good news. However, be careful not to equate “dodging a bullet” with “bulletproof”. I’d give yourself a minimum of two weeks after date of injury, resting the limb, elevating it when it swells, and taking anti-imflammatory meds at regular intervals round the clock.

Re: skiing: keep in mind that a high percentage of meniscal tears come from torsion movements of the knee joint. I’m not recommending that you give up skiing; participating in a sport on a smooth surface such as snow is much better on your knees than playing soccer or touch football. But knee joint integrity is essential for safe skiing, and as long as you have significant swelling, your knee is highly susceptible to risk of injury.

You sound like someone to whom regular physical activity is essential, and who is trying to keep his body in as good operating condition as possible despite the changes of middle age. So give yourself a break, and an extra week for this to heal. From a medical standpoint, inflammation is the body’s way of protecting the injured area from additional injury: the swelling and pain are a physiologic message that you should give it a rest.

And keep in mind that you have reached the age where you are going to hear your contemporaries complaining more and more about increasingly severe injuries. Things just start to wear down, and aren’t as taut, strong, or flexible as they were a few years back. Not only do injuries occur with greater frequency in your 40s and 50s, but it also takes much longer to recover from them. Most meniscal tears aren’t that big of a deal, but as you get older, torsion injuries often include collateral damage to the complex structure of ligaments in the knee. Trust me: that happens to you, you are going to be hating life.

If you really love running, I don’t know that I’d give it up completely. It does cause a tremendous amount of impact on joints in your lower extremities, pelvis, and spine, but you can cut down on that somewhat by changes in shoes and in running surfaces. But bicycling and swimming are preferable at this point in your life. And skiing.

Have a blast!

[eavesdropper]

[quote=Rustico] I almost started a thread on the topic of moving the child up, so this thread is interesting to me.[/quote]

Rustico, what’s this “almost” stuff? Go ahead and start one. I, too, think it’s a discussion-worthy topic, and almost sure to generate some intriguing discourse within the Piggs feedlot.

Go for it!!

[eavesdropper]

[quote=Rustico] I almost started a thread on the topic of moving the child up, so this thread is interesting to me.[/quote]

Rustico, what’s this “almost” stuff? Go ahead and start one. I, too, think it’s a discussion-worthy topic, and almost sure to generate some intriguing discourse within the Piggs feedlot.

Go for it!!

[eavesdropper]

[quote=Rustico] I almost started a thread on the topic of moving the child up, so this thread is interesting to me.[/quote]

Rustico, what’s this “almost” stuff? Go ahead and start one. I, too, think it’s a discussion-worthy topic, and almost sure to generate some intriguing discourse within the Piggs feedlot.

Go for it!!

[Author]

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