“New Report Shows Brain Cancer is Deadliest Childhood Cancer”

I found this headline and the latest brain tumor news upsetting, horrifying and painful: "Brain Cancer Now Leading Childhood Cancer Killer” - http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/09/16/health/ap-us-med-childhood-cancer.html?_r=1

I keep bumping into folks who have recently received bad brain tumor news. Sometimes they find me and sometimes I reach out to them.

Usually they just want to tell their story – their symptoms, diagnosis, etc. – to somebody who has an idea of what they are going through. It isn’t fun or easy or rewarding, its hard and depressing. But I feel like I need to give them a venue/listening ear/opportunity to talk to somebody who isn’t part of their family and friends network.

And then I read this: “Brain Cancer is the Deadliest Childhood Cancer.” That means some poor kid who hasn’t ever had a chance to have an adult life is going to have the opportunity of a lifetime, literally, snatched away from them. Thinking about it just makes me want to curl up into a little ball, roll into a corner and cry.

Alternately, I want to wail at the sky about the unfairness of it all. I imagine young parents being whacked upside the head with the worst news imaginable. If I were them, the pain would be unimaginable, unmanageable and unbearable; especially given the fact that they’ll have to “be strong” for their child and deny their own pain.

As the NY Times article points out, while that are more incidents of leukemia, brain cancer accounts for more deaths because we (that’s all of us including you and me) can’t figure out how to adequately fight this relentless nemesis.

If it sounds like I’m venting, I am. A close friend of ours is dying from GBM. All the usual inadequate treatments have failed to help this courageous, wonderful woman who grasped every joy out of life that she could.  

I want to close by saying that I believe that brain cancer has an insidious aspect to it that other cancers do not. Brain cancer destroys a fundamental element of who a person is. As brain function disintegrates, the person we knew and loved transmogrifies into a ghost of the person we once knew.

I hate it.

Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_nuiiko'>nuiiko / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

I love infographics. I tend to think visually and infographics help me see interactions and interrelationships that I just don’t grasp when reading.

There is a great interactive infographic on the “Side Effects of Chemotherapy on the Body” posted at http://www.healthline.com/health/cancer/effects-on-body And while I post information about the terrors of brain tumors, I find that I’m not very good at reporting on the side effects of chemo treatments, which are horrible, horrifying and debilitating. 

The good folks at www.healthline.com have boiled down this information into bite-sized pieces that victims, caregivers, friends and families can more easily digest and understand.  The graphic above isn’t interactive or as informative. So whack this URL - http://www.healthline.com/health/cancer/effects-on-body - into your browser and get great information that us non-medical professionals can understand.

If you are a reader, I’ve always thought that the chemo section of the book “Life, on the Line” by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas, does a great job of explaining the pain and suffering of trying to survive chemo as well as anything I’ve read. http://www.amazon.com/Life-Line-Chasing-Greatness-Redefining/dp/1592406971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446480547&sr=8-1&keywords=life+on+the+line+achatz

 

If you’re a millennial, and like a story to go with your pictures, I recommend “Terminally Illin’ – ‘Chaos in Humanhattan’”.  Here’s a link to my blog post on that wonderful manga-like story: http://johnstumor.blogspot.com/2015/03/terminally-illin-chaos-in-humanhattan.html

John

PS – I didn’t find this infographic by myself. Ms. Nicole Lascurain of healthline.com sent it to me. And while I don’t believe she’s part of some nefarious plot, the website does have advertising. So please be sure to read with care.

Terminally Illin’ – “Chaos in Humanhattan”

Today I got a real treat, my own personal copy of Chaos in Humanhattan - the scary, cynical, irreverent, twenty-something, mash-up of a memoir, a ”chemo-induced ‘Alice in Wonderland’ story and a “campy ‘Hollywood’ action adventure” graphic novel that focuses on the Kaylin Andres and her Ewing Sarcoma cancer battles. http://www.cancercomicbook.com/

While the story is fantastical, so is the fact that Kaylin is still alive. I believe she’s still living because she found humor – black humor, gallows humor, sardonic humor – an vehicle for empowering her fight with a dark, hideously unrelenting cancer that whacked her at twenty-three and kept trying to drag her into the grave.

“Chaos in Humanhattan” is written and drawn for millennials. If you aren’t a millennial in your age or in your soul, you might find it flippant or upsetting. To my way of thinking, Kaylin addressed that when she wrote her book and blog’s subtitle – “Cancer is not Funny … Cancer is Hilarious.”  If that line doesn’t resonate with you, don’t read this book.

But it you are a millennial, in age or attitude, you should read this book. The story, by Kalin and Jon Solo, is in turns bleak, poignant, darkly comedic and upsetting – like many cancer survivor stories. 

The graphics by Jon Solo and Jade Takushi are terrific - powerful, complex, and vivid. They are just as good as any Manga I’ve ever read.

What I really like about Chaos in Humanhattan is that Kalin and Jon capture all the horrible emotions that cancer victims go through, from “Why me?” to “Oh no!” to “I’m done” to “Now, I’m really pissed” and everything in between.

Here’s a link to their Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terminally-Illin-The-Comic-Book/178624932149196

“TERMINALLY ILLIN' BOOK 1: CHAOS IN HUMANHATTAN!” – Read it now!

Kalin Andres is one of my favorite “Badass Brain Tumor Bloggers” and she, and her collaborators, have just released “TERMINALLY ILLIN' BOOK 1: CHAOS IN HUMANHATTAN!” the comic book.

If you don’t know about Kalin or her partners, I’m sure you’re thinking something like, “Ok, that sounds weird, what’s that about and why am I writing about it.

To answer the first part, this is how it’s described on their indiegogo.com website: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terminally-illin-cancer-comic-book--2

“Kaylin was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer at age 23. Her life was immediately put on hold and a new journey began. Throughout all the pain and uncertainty, she discovered within herself a powerful coping mechanism in the form of humor and imagination. This comic book is the result.

Slightly cynical, slightly irreverent, and REALLY hilarious, "Terminally Illin" is a candid look into the life of a young adult battling cancer, but with a psychedelic, sci-fi twist! It’s more than a comic book: It’s provocative, educational, entertaining, and totally original.  Think of "Terminally Illin" as a chemo-induced "Alice in Wonderland' meets campy 'Hollywood' action-adventure.

In our story, our hero goes in for her first day of chemo, but ends up getting lost in a fantasy world within her own microscopic body - on a quest to meet her disease face-to-face and kick its butt!!

She's joined by her pet kitty, Iceman, as they set out to destroy Cancer City, the invading cancer cell army, and their leader - the little dictator that's bent on world domination. We hope you follow along and maybe even learn something.”

I love the book and want to argue with this description. I think it’s wonderfully cynical, absolutely irreverent and, yes I agree, really hilarious.

Now listen closely, here’s the part I love, “If we can raise one half of the print fees, the publisher will give us half of the print run. We'll have an extra 500+ books to give away free to cancer centers, hospitals, and patients. There are 72,000+ young adults diagnosed with cancer each year, and we'd like to help ease their experience by sharing Kaylin's experience, outlook, and humor.”

If you know of a young 20-something whacked by cancer, buy this book. If you care about young, talented 20-year-olds having their dreams yanked out from underneath them, buy this book. If you want see how a 20-something not only fights a vicious disease with humor and dignity and sense of giving back to the cancer community, buy and read this book.

Here’s a link to the Terminally Illin’” Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terminally-Illin-The-Comic-Book/178624932149196?ref=br_tf

“A good night’s sleep may be key in fighting cancer.”

The headline in the online edition is less sensational, “New research suggests poor-quality sleep directly affects cancer in mice.”http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-0312-sleep-cancer-20140312,0,1047371.story

 

What’s more important is that the article, written by Judy Peres, states that “Two 2012 studies found that people who suffer from sleep apnea are more likely to be diagnosed with any type of cancer and more likely to die of the disease, than people with undisturbed sleep.”

She goes on to note that “More recent studies have found that men who sleep too little or too much are more likely to develop prostate cancer, and breast cancer patients who don't get enough sleep have a higher risk of relapse.”

More importantly, “Now, researchers think they understand better how poor-quality sleep directly affects cancer. Their findings, if corroborated, could lead to the development of new cancer-fighting drugs.”

What researchers? According to Peres, “A team from the University of Chicago and the University of Louisville reported in January in the journal Cancer Research that interrupted sleep can speed cancer growth, increase tumor aggressiveness and dampen the immune system's ability to control early cancers.”

If this kind of article makes you hopeful or yearning to learn more, here’s the link (again): http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-0312-sleep-cancer-20140312,0,1047371.story

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_13482104_sleep-computer-key-shows-insomnia-or-sleeping-disorders-online.html'>stuartphoto / 123RF Stock Photo</a>