Archive for People, Families and Grieving
Lincoln’s Prostate
Posted by: | CommentsIs there a chance that we could induct the Great One — Abraham Lincoln himself — into the “Brotherhood of the Beast”, posthumously?
I guess it’s obvious that I have been trying to come up with something original to write about for Presidents Day. But I found it pretty darn hard to answer my own question, considering that nothing has ever been written about Lincoln’s prostate, if a Google search is any indication. Actually, the whole idea of Lincoln even having a prostate sounds funny to me. It’s like dear husband said a few years ago, “Didn’t PC start showing up like in the last 20 years or so? Never heard of it before.”
Some historians speculate that President Lincoln did indeed have an undiagnosed illness toward the end of his life that was sapping his overall health. One theory is that it was cancer.
Can we make a case that it might have been prostate cancer? I almost don’t know where to begin to speculate. So let’s start with Lincoln’s diet. The president was known to eat lots of fruits and nuts. Nuts, especially walnuts, are supposed to be protective against PC. But then, Mr. Lincoln, being a man of his time, also drank lots of milk, and some people think too much calcium is a risk factor.
Pres. Lincoln was a teetotaller, and you would think abstention would have had an overall protective effect on his health, cancer included. But no, just the other day I read that (moderate) alcohol consumption was shown not to be associated with an increased risk of PC. But you can also make the case that the lack of alcohol in Mr. Lincoln’s diet (especially red wine) deprived him of reservatrol, a neutriprotectant that is associated with lots of goodies, including a reduced incidence of prostate cancer.
Then there are the apostles of Vitamin D (self included), whose credo is that high levels of it in the bloodstream protect against prostate cancer. Ideally that would involve a man working in the open air where he could get lots of sunlight. You have to be outdoors to split rails (and Kentucky’s pretty sunny), so I would give the former president a check for that. Also, Lincoln spent many hours on the road as a country lawyer exposed to the elements, including sunlight. But what about Lincoln as president? Mrs. Lincoln complained that her husband had no time to “take the fresh air”, and so she arranged for the two of them to go on a daily carriage ride. (Whatever Mrs. Lincoln said, Mr. Lincoln did.) The question is, I suppose, did they get out of the carriage or just look out the window?
Then there’s the touchy subject of sex, and the even touchier subject of masturbation. Onea school of thought says that a high frequency of ejaculation by a man in his 20′s (and 30′s) might prevent prostate cancer later in life. On the other hand, there are those that say celibacy is superior. I am not going to speculate about the president’s sex life, except to say that he was married in his early 30′s. Lincoln did have some tempestuous relationships with lady friends before that, but I doubt those turned physical.
I would say the strongest nugget in the “Lincoln Might Have Had Prostate Cancer” stew is President Lincoln’s extraordinary height. At 6’4”, Lincoln stood eight inches taller than the average man of his time. And researchers recently found a connection between height and prostate cancer. Only a few months ago, the British tabloids were blaring:
“Tall Men At Increased Risk Of Prostate Cancer Development And Progression.”
According to ScienceDaily.com (Sep. 3, 2008), researchers who reviewed 58 studies and conducted their own found that “a man’s height is a modest marker for risk of prostate cancer development, but is more strongly linked to progression of the cancer”.
Given President Lincoln’s significant altitude, we’d have to estimate his overall height-based vulnerability at around 40%.
Of course, all this is nonsense. The only thing we know for sure that correlates with prostate cancer is testosterone, and we’re not even sure how that works. President Lincoln’s height is of no importance to us today. But fortunately — his stature is.
“I Know I’m Dying, Children, But I Ain’t Dead Yet…”
Posted by: | CommentsI want to give a shout-out to a remarkable blog I came across while reading about the Blagojevich scandals in the Chicago Sun Times a few weeks ago. It is called:
“ Conquering cancer and heart failure…with Jesus, doctors and common sense”
http://blogs.suntimes.com/banks/2009/02/i_know_im_dying_children_but_i.html.
This blog is written by a man named Lacy Banks, 65, who has been a columnist and sports writer for the Sun Times for 36 years. He was their first African-American reporter. Banks has also been a Baptist preacher since he was 10 years old and served in Vietnam for three years as a naval officer. It’s definitely worth reading Rev. Banks’ bio in its entirety.
This past March, Rev. Banks went to the doctor and was simultaneously diagnosed with congestive heart failure, prostate cancer and brain cancer. He needed a heart transplant, but because of his other illnesses, that was ruled out. Fortunately, the brain tumor is benign. Rev. Banks received brachytherapy (seed implants) for the PC, and fortunately, his PSA is down and holding steady.
Rev. Banks’ blog is the first I’ve seen that speaks earnestly of dying. It is thoughtful, beautifully written and covers a lot of territory. There are a lot of scriptures and hymns, but you don’t have to be religious to enjoy reading it.
Rev. Banks is fighting for his life, and so it would be really nice if you could say a prayer for him or stop by his blog and leave a nice comment.
Here are some excerpts from Rev. Banks’ most recent post (Feb. 8). He emphasizes the importance of work in his life — and death.
“I am exercising regularly and I am pacing myself in my return to work as a Sun-Times reporter and I thank God that I have an understanding and kind boss in sports editor Stu Courtney and an outstanding employer in the Sun-Times. It has put me on the honor system and is allowing me to do the work that I feel I am capable of doing. The paper is not trying to play God or doctor. And I am not trying to play martyr or hero.
“I will share this painful memory with you, however. Three years ago, a superior of mine, perhaps in a fit of anger, told me I should retire because he felt I had slowed down physically and he knew I had undergone a triple-bypass in 2001 and still had a weak heart. ”Why don’t you retire and enjoy life?’, ‘ he said. ‘You ought to be able to do so.’
“Obviously, he knew nothing about my financial obligations, my need for the best health insurance and medical care available and what I could financially afford to do.
”When other people dare to speculate and count your money, they always end up with a whole lot more than you KNOW YOU HAVE.
“Those words hurt me more than anything I had ever heard in my 36 years of working for the paper. It is true that I am no longer young. At 65, I am the oldest writer in the Sun-Times sports department and also the second longest in tenure. But I am still healthy enough to do my job. I’ve never had a heart attack. Dick Cheney has had several, as well as bypass surgery, and he was the vice president of the United States for eight years!
“Millions of Americans with congestive heart failure still work and live productive and enjoyable lives. Yes, I’m 65 years old and now officially drawing social security and I’m proud of my age. I thank God that I have lived this long.
“But even before I had a talk with the Lord and my lawyers, I knew that as long as I was healthy enough to work and, even more important, was doing my job properly, I could achieve something no black writer has yet achieved at this paper: and that is a normal retirement, not a forced one.”
The Blessing of the Beast
Posted by: | CommentsWild horses couldn’t drag me away from this blog. Or so I thought. I was right — mostly. I haven’t written in almost a month, but I have remained very much a part of Prostate Cancer World. I check my PC news pipeline every day and look in on the online PC communities. And of course, I read tons of related e-mails. Even send a response now and then.
What has been keeping me busy in recent weeks is my home, actually a two-bedroom cooperative apartment here in NYC. For years, we enjoyed watching our “piggy bank” grow fatter and fatter, seemingly oblivious to falling home prices all over the country. But then came the Economic Collapse and a sour taste of reality.
Dear husband and I panicked. We could deal with the hemmorhaging in our 401(k) accounts, but what scared us was the thought of home prices plummeting. So we thought maybe it’s time to break open the piggy bank – before things get worse. New Yorkers delight in predictions of gloom, especially realtors. The truth is that we had casually thought of selling our place anyway in the next few years, so we decided to make it showcase-ready just in case.
DH, God bless him, is half serious about moving, but I confess that for me this is just an excuse to redecorate. What woman does not love feathering the nest? So I have been talking to painters and floor refinishers and scouting for furniture bargains on Craigslist (lots of garage sales in the Financial District). Even consulted with a contractor about possibly redoing the kitchen and bath. We definitely have not kept up with the Joneses — there’s no stainless steel, granite or marble anywhere. Believe it or not, our home has the original fittings it came with — pre-WW II. (I kind of like antiques — that’s why I love my husband 
)
Well, when I throw myself into something, I do it single-mindedly. Too bad I can’t look at swatches and blog at the same time.
The other thing I have been doing with a passion is de-cluttering. You can’t afford to live in an apartment and be a hoarder. The good part of this is that I have been going through my papers and rereading some of the correspondence I’ve had with people I met through the blog. I admit my heart skipped a beat every time I came across a letter from my late friend Hughie. Dear sweet Hughie, the Scotsman with the silver tongue. And so many others who became good friends.
I admit that this has been the blessing of the Beast — it has enlarged and enriched my world in ways I never dreamed of.
Leah
The Power of Realistic Thinking
Posted by: | Comments“Positive thinking is endemic to American culture — from weight loss programs to cancer support groups — and in the last two decades it has put down deep roots in the corporate world as well. Everyone knows that you won’t get a job paying more than $15 an hour unless you’re a ‘positive person, and no one becomes a chief executive by issuing warnings of possible disaster.”
This is from a thoughtful op-ed piece by the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, titled “The Power of Negative Thinking”, which appeared in the New York Times yesterday. It is worth reading in its entirety.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/opinion
Ehrenreich argues that the financial mess we’re in was brought about in part by our unique brand of all-American optimism, which sometimes borders on delusion. As a result:
“No one was psychologically prepared for hard times when they hit, because, according to the tenets of positive thinking, even to think of trouble is to bring it on.”
My focus is not the Dow Jones, but how our cultural attitudes affect people with cancer. We are taught, for example, that with the right “attitude” we can surmount any obstacle, even a life-threatening illness. And that going to support groups will prolong our life.
Unfortunately, neither is true, although being in good spirits and socializing can certainly make your life better.
What about dying? It’s the most un-American thing you can do. You might as well be Benedict Arnold. Dying is a negative thing, and we are a positive people.
I got this impression from a broadcast I saw on TV a few weeks ago called, “Stand Up to Cancer”. This was a highly publicized fundraising event which featured a host of celebrities. (There was even the first-ever live DRE performed on TV!)
First there was some small talk, and then came the testimonials from cancer survivors. All were positive. And it seemed as if an inordinate number had beaten the odds — outlived their projected survival times, sometimes by decades. One woman said she should have been dead 16 years ago, but thanks to progress in cancer research she’s alive and kicking. Another lady who was in a wheelchair and seemed in very bad shape, vowed that she was never going to die, in spite of a poor prognosis.
Patrick Swayze spoke about his belief that a cure will be found for his pancreatic cancer before it has a chance to kill him.
What was conspicuously absent in this telecast was any mention of the “D-word”.
I wonder if it would be a better thing to acknowledge that some people with cancer will die from the disease sooner or later, and that one of our goals should be not only to cure people, but to make their last journey as pleasant as possible. We can follow the example of other countries, such as Britain, who give a lot of attention to end-of-life care.
What I am not arguing is that people should be sourpusses. Because there is an alternative. As Ehrenreich concludes:
“When it comes to how we think, ‘negative’ is not the only alternative to ‘positive. As the case histories of depressives show, consistent pessimism can be just as baseless and deluded as its opposite. The alternative to both is realism — seeing the risks, having the courage to bear bad news and being prepared for famine as well as plenty. We ought to give it a try.”