Thanks to all the blamers who have reminded me of what I can do with my next gift cards and who have given me an idea of where I can send some cash locally to be put immediately into the hands of women who need it.

With your inspiration and my google-fu, I discovered that our local Minnesota organization Open Arms, originally established to deliver free meals to people with HIV/Aids, is now delivering meals to women with breast cancer and their families, with special attention to their particular nutritional needs and the effects of therapy on nausea. They prepared and delivered free of charge, with no waiting list. I’ll be sending them some money today.

Pink Ribbons, Inc., indeed http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Ribbons-Inc-Politics-Philanthropy/dp/0816648999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208364689&sr=1-1

I have only skimmed through this book but it is critical of corporate breast cancer philanthropy and fundraising.

Best of luck with your scans, Twisty.

Barring that, I hope you have absolutely fantastic meals afterwards.

I don’t know where to even begin about the anger I feel, and have felt throughout her last 14 months of life…at the Pink Lunacy, amongst many other things (not least of which is the state of medical care, which can only be described as “drive-by” at best). I could go on and on about how UNPINK breast cancer is…believe me, I could give gruesome details on just how UNPINK breast cancer is…but then I’d merely be preaching to the choir. I’ll just say this: If breast cancer is so PINK, why do I suffer from PTSD symptoms when I allow myself to think about the last few weeks of my friend’s life?

If we’re “racing to the cure” so quickly, why is no real money going towards quite obvious areas of inquiry (environmental factors). It doesn’t take a PhD (although I am one) to figure that there may be a link to the environment. In any other area of study, folks would be pissing on themselves to conduct such research, because it would likely yield “significant” results (something docs were trained to crave more than food, breath, interesting “cases,” or even a $5K shopping spree at a Consumer Enclosure…er, I mean a mall).

Why don’t we give serious backing to such research? Well, if the studies were conducted (or, rather, if real money went to funding such research), I’m afraid we’d find out the truth: that we’ve shit in our own nest to such an extent that certain areas of our country are unfit to live in (unless you like cancer). The “administration” would then have only 2 choices: Finally begin to address the issue (obviously no “administration” in our country has ever seriously wanted to do this) or simply ignore it. Ignoring such possible research results would only piss people off (especially those with breast cancer). So, nothing is done. But, to keep the “girls” *happy* and brainwashed, this whole pink arse-nol is perpetuated.

The masses really are brainwashed via the media by the PINKNESS of it all. I found this out up-close-and-personal late last year when I posted a sign in the waiting room of my private practice. I posted a sign stating that, in honor of my friend with breast cancer, I was donating a certain percentage of my income to my friend’s charity of choice. Many of my patients exhibited interest in this sign; nearly all of them were surprised to find out that women “still” died of breast cancer…and even more, that a “significant” percentage of women “still” died of breast cancer. I certainly don’t mean to make fun of my patients (as they could have just as easily ignored my little sign), but many of them seemed to believe that there was a direct inverse correlation between the number of pink gewgaws our culture produces and the incidence of breast cancer.

A well-meaning person gave me one of those rhinestoned ribbon pins about a week after my friend died. Having become an expert at keeping my true feelings hidden (I’m female, after all!), I *graciously* accepted it. Later that day I took the pin and myself on a long ride to a scenic place far outside the city where I live…one of the last places, in fact, that I was able to take my friend before she was completely incapacitated. I flung that pin as far as I could into the river, the polluted river, and screamed like a banshee my big Fuck-Yous to a culture that propagates PINK breast cancer, amongst so many other things anti women. I believe my friend would have chuckled at my antics, and this made me smile because along with her chuckling was her understanding of what forces me to be a feminist.

Thanks for allowing me my birthday vent and thanks for providing the only sane recourse from the PINK besides Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Cancerland.”

I sympathize. I’ve been excepionally lucky in the medical caregivers I’ve encountered and I’m sorry you weren’t.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24036106/

Of course, a woman with anal cancer is not real likely to engage in anal intercourse so she probably wouldn’t be considered sexy anymore anyway.