The 10-year-old girl, who has cystic fibrosis, received a lung transplant at Philadelphia's Children's Hospital on June 12 after her family won a lengthy battle for her to get on the adult Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network's list. Her transplant was already controversial, raising ethical issues about who gets priority on organ donation lists, when the news of her family's legal victory broke last month. But late last week, her story took yet another turn when her mother revealed the girl's health had begun to "spiral out of control" after the surgery – and a few days later, she underwent a second lung transplant from a new adult donor. Her chest had to be kept open to alleviate pressure on the organs. "Under a bandage, you can see her heart beating, her lungs rising," her mother said. The girl is reportedly able to take a few breaths on her own now, but she is scheduled for another operation Tuesday to rectify an outstanding complication from the prior surgery.

Continue Reading...

As the Economist first reported over the weekend, greeting card behemoth Hallmark is preparing to roll out some bold new messages in 2014 – including cards that take on tough topics like terminal illness. "Our paths came together in this life," reads one. "You're in some of the best memories I have and you always will be."

Continue Reading...

“How long have you been a nurse?” Jim’s wife, Debby, asks from the other side of the hospital bed.

I’m tempted to answer, “First day on the job!” Her face is soft and flushed from her fear of having to learn to suction her husband’s airway. She’s up next. She buries her hands in the pockets of her cardigan as if she could make them disappear. I’ll save that joke for another day.

I tell the truth. “Just over a year.”

Continue Reading...

"This report shows that the HPV vaccine works well, and the report should be a wake-up call to our nation to protect the next generation by increasing HPV vaccination rates," Frieden said in a statement on Wednesday.

Rates of infection dropped 56 percent among girls ages 14 to 19, a response rate that exceeded researcher's expectations given relatively low inoculation rates in the United States.

That may be because the vaccine benefits people who haven't been vaccinated, as Reuters notes:

[Lead researcher Lauri] Markowitz said the higher than expected response rate could be the result of so-called "herd immunity," in which the vaccine is also reducing infections among those who are not vaccinated. Or it could mean that the vaccine was working even among women who had not received the full three doses, which included about 49 percent of women in the study.

Continue Reading...

As it turns out, experiencing immense tragedy and coming out the other side can teach you a few things, as Notaro told xoJane in an interview on Monday.

On living in the moment

And as far as in the moment, it is so challenging, no matter where you are, before or after something so drastic. But what I’ve talked about a lot with people through this is how repeatedly in such a small period of time I had to surrender -- and it just kind of applies across the board, having to surrender to what is happening.

You can’t help but go into some degree of denial, or tell yourself a story to get yourself through. But from losing my mother to cancer, to any sort of thing that was going on, it's about being in that moment and trying to realize what is happening, what is really happening.

Continue Reading...

Also solved: the economy. No one has to worry about making a living in the Culture. If one wanted, like Banks, to spend one’s time producing (at a prodigious rate) science fiction romps (as Iain M. Banks) and straight-ahead non-sf novels (as Iain Banks), one could do so as long as one wished, without ever having to worry about whether there was a market for them.

Continue Reading...

The memo, via the Huffington Post:

The Department of Health and Human Services assessed whether the law allows discretion to administer the sequestration reductions in a manner that is different from the across the board approach that has been used to implement it.

We do not believe that we have the authority under the Budget Control Act of 2011 to exempt Medicare payment for Part B drugs. Exemptions from the sequestration are specified in 2 U.S.C. sections 905(g) and (h) and 906(d)(7), which do not encompass payment for Medicare Part B drugs. The Office of Management and Budget memorandums M-13-03 and M-13-06 referenced in your letter pertain to any flexibility regarding the agency's budgetary resources for internal operations such as the hiring of new employees. This is separate from the agency's administration of Medicare payments, which are subject to the sequestration reductions, as noted above.

Continue Reading...

Seated side-by-side at a long witness table, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the head of each branch of the military testified on what is widely viewed as an epidemic of sexual assault plaguing the services.

Outraged by recent high-profile cases and overwhelming statistics, lawmakers have moved aggressively on legislation to address the scourge of sexual assault. They summoned the military brass to answer their questions at a jam-packed hearing.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the problem of sexual assault "is of such a scope and magnitude that it has become a stain on our military."

Congress has acted in prior years to ensure the aggressive investigation and prosecution of sexual assaults, Levin said, but more needs to be done. The committee is considering seven bills to deal with sexual assault.

Continue Reading...

Douglas' rep, Allen Burry, attempted to clarify the comment, telling the AP on Monday afternoon that "In a discussion with the newspaper, they talked about the causes of oral cancer, one of which was oral sex, which is noted and has been known for a while now."

Continue Reading...

"Stage 4 cancer and a shit-pot of chemo and radiation," he admitted, "that's a rough ride. That can really take it out of you. Plus, the amount of chemo I was getting, it zaps all the good stuff too. It made me very weak."

But when writer Xan Brooks asked the actor, who in 1992 did a stint in rehab for drug and alcohol dependence, if he felt his hard living had contributed to his cancer, Douglas demurred. "No," he said. "No. Because, without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus], which actually comes about from cunnilingus."

Continue Reading...

But when a family wore attire expressing that sentiment in Pennsylvania's King of Prussia Mall recently, they found that they were treated like the offensive ones. They were, in fact, kicked right out.

On May 14, sisters Makia Underwood, Zakia Clark and Tasha Clark lost their 51-year-old mother to breast cancer after a nine-year ordeal of surgery and rediagnoses and treatment. On Sunday, the family went to the mall to choose a dress for Zakia's daughter to wear to her grandmother's funeral. For this occasion, however, Zakia and Tasha chose to sport hats that read "FU*K CANCER" – the C replaced with a pink breast cancer ribbon.

The message isn't even a fully spelled-out obscenity. But it was enough for a white male security guard to approach the African-American women and order them to "Take your hats off" or leave. But Zakia refused, telling him, "I'm not leaving. I spend money here and I'm not going to leave."

Continue Reading...

After a four-year battle, my mother succumbed to cancer when I was 16 years old; she was 49. I was on my own and immediately assumed the role of an adult. No siblings, no father, and relatives that have probably all drank themselves to death by now. Suffice it to say that losing both my mother and grandmother to a lengthy and horrible disease affected how I perceive my life and the world around me. For instance, I decided to never have children since I couldn’t be sure whether or not I would pass this disease on to my own child. Secondly, we were poor, and my mother’s death plunged me into a peripheral existence -- always one step away from poverty. Thankfully, I am now an expert at negotiating a downwardly mobile lifestyle.

Continue Reading...

My patient number is how I'm identified in the immunotherapy clinical trial I've been in since the fall of 2011. It protects my privacy as my doctors and researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering assess my results. And those results have been, in the words of American Society of Clinical Oncology president Dr. Sandra Swain, "very exciting." "Truly remarkable," even. Results with far-reaching implications not just for countless melanoma patients just like me, but, soon, for patients with a variety of other forms of cancer. It's a whole new era of treatment.

This is something I've known about – and lived firsthand -- for a while. But the first abstract from the report my doctor, Jedd Wolchok, will be presenting at the ASCO annual meeting starting May 31 was released Wednesday – and even in a cancer news week dominated by Angelina Jolie and prophylactic mastectomies, the findings still managed to make waves.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

I faced a similar anxiety: My mother died of breast cancer at 45; my grandmother was diagnosed at 48 and survived. Like Jolie, after I had a child, I became increasingly anxious about my own risk. There was no genetic testing 20 years ago, so I consulted a variety of doctors, including a genetic counselor. I was told I had an elevated risk of breast cancer, though it couldn’t be quantified (Jolie’s doctors estimated hers was 87 percent). At least one doctor recommended a double mastectomy. Another cautioned against it, noting that it can’t eliminate all risk of breast cancer (Jolie’s is now estimated at 5 percent). He railed at surgeons describing the breasts of women like me as “ticking time bombs” and advising unnecessary prophylactic mastectomies.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

The tactic, aimed at teens, wouldn't prohibit the use of tanning devices, but would require them to carry a warning of "the consequences" aimed at users under 18. The American Academy of Dermatology says there is a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma for "those who have been exposed to ultraviolet radiation from indoor tanning, and the risk increases with each use." Brace yourselves now for the inevitable backlash from the tanning industry, which has already been none too pleased with the push for stricter regulation in several states.

Continue Reading...

My 15-year-old niece lost her boyfriend a few months ago to cancer. While she's doing pretty well, she feels very lonely. She has friends and a lot of hobbies and activities. I was wondering if you know of a good site for teens that would help her through this difficult time. I'm also in the process of trying to find a therapist for her because I feel a few visits would be a help.

Caring Aunt

Dear Caring Aunt,

Thank you for your letter. Though your niece has friends, she feels lonely. She may not know how to communicate with them about what she is feeling. She may feel they don't understand what she is going through. To some extent, "lonely" may be a catchall word for her, indicating sadness, lack of energy, consciousness of loss, anger, etc. At 15, one's emotional vocabulary is limited. At the same time, she is of course lonely.

She is lonely. She had someone she was with a lot. She had enough human contact. Her boyfriend gave her that.  Now he's gone, so of course she feels lonely.

As you probably know, she will have to live with this loss for a while. It will take time for this loss to take its place in her world.

Continue Reading...

But people with metastatic cancer don't follow the tidy, cheerful narrative. They don't necessarily fit the inspirational survivor mold. And so they're ignored.

In the middle of her righteous New York Times Magazine story on breast cancer this past weekend, writer Peggy Orenstein dropped the bombshell statistic that "only an estimated 0.5 percent of all National Cancer Institute grants since 1972 focus on metastasis." As University of Kansas Cancer Center chairman Danny Welch explained to her, "A lot of people are under the notion that metastatic work is a waste of time." Orenstein went on to reveal that last year, for the first time in its history, the Komen Foundation featured a woman with Stage 4 cancer in its ads. And the author herself described meeting a different woman with metastatic breast cancer by admitting, "It isn't easy to face someone with metastatic disease," calling the woman's condition her own "worst fear."

Continue Reading...

Yesterday the New York Times featured an article in its Sunday magazine about breast cancer awareness initiatives, and what the real effects these initiatives have had on the lives of women. It’s on the longer side, but one that’s framed around the personal narrative of the author – a breast cancer survivor herself – and well worth a read:

Continue Reading...