Susiej

From my Newspaper Column for the SNP

She has removed the password from his Caring Bridge site, because she wants to spread the word. Seth needs prayers. The next 24 hours are critical. Feb 5, 2010 was supposed to be a day of celebration. The date would have marked the end of Seth’s 6-year battle with leukemia. Instead, Seth received more chemotherapy for the illness that was supposed to leave the 13-year-old alone by now. They also received the devastating news that not one of his 3 sisters is a bone marrow donor match.

Yesterday, a throbbing headache led Seth back to the hospital, where they learned he is now septic. He has no white cells to fight the infection. You can read the details and updates here.

All I can think about is the day, 9 years ago, when Seth was dressed like Robin Hood, running around the tree house in our backyard. Wendi, loving mom, made the costume. She made all of Seth’s costumes — including the Obi-Wan Kenobi , Buzz Lightyear, and Jedi Knight costumes. We were always impressed by her talent. The sun lit up Seth’s golden hair, and his blue eyes twinkled at me as he gripped his light saber, wondering if I was going to take away the light sabers because they were all hitting too hard. Our boys were so young and small then; we could pick them up with one arm, and hold them tight. All day long, I’ve been stuck on that day, trying to will it back. I just want to help my friend.

But we are not there. We are here. His parents want to help spread the word about bone marrow donations. I will do my part. Wendi says, “It’s one of the few organs you can donate without being dead to do it.”

Each year, we donate our blood to stock the blood banks, and this is as routine as filling up the car with gas. But how many of us have ever considered donating our bone marrow?

For some, fear is the reason we’ve never considered this gift. Fear can always be traced to unknowns. Here is what is known: No pieces of your bone are taken. Seventy five percent never need surgery; in most cases you’ll only need to give peripheral blood stem cells, which is similar to donating plasma. A bone marrow donation is a surgical procedure, done under anesthesia. Yet, both are treated as outpatient, and you go home the same day. Some donors are sore afterwards; some are not. In 2-7 days, most donors are back to normal. Most donors say they would do it again to save a life.

Thanks to advances in medicine, many of us will be hearing more about transplants; they’re increasingly becoming a path to save lives. Sometimes, it’s the only hope people have. Just like Seth, over 70 percent are unable to find a donor match within their family. Yet, even with a registry of millions, many patients still cannot find a match.

You can visit www.BeTheMatch.org to join the Be The Match Registry online. They’ll mail you a kit so that you can simply swab your cheeks at home and mail it back. Or, you can register in person February 20 at Premier Women’s Health, (614-459-1000 Ext 2007), from 8 a.m.– 1 p.m.

Since he won’t be getting a bone marrow transplant from one of his sisters, Seth hopes to get his marrow from “someone famous…. that would be cool.” Wendi wrote on Seth’s Caring Bridge web page, “In my eyes, the person who shares this gift of life with my son may not be famous, but will be truly heaven sent. An angel. A lifesaver. What more could you ever hope to be in this world?”

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Life, Science, column, news by SusieJ - 4 Comments →

Is having more time to look at the stars. I know Winter Solstice is bringing us longer days… but it’s still pretty dark around here. Here’s an article from my newspaper column.

I saw no stars on that cloudy night at the Perkins Observatory. Instead of stardust, the astronomers there sprinkled my mind, and the minds of the first- and second-graders there, with wonder.

They reminded me that when we look up, we see the past; the light is already billions of years old. They reminded us that our vast galaxy is just beginning its life. Our 4.5 billion-year-old sun is still less than halfway through its life. The future lying ahead is more prolonged than the past we’ve seen.

These concepts are staggering to comprehend, but the gem here comes from remembering what my seventh-grade history teacher used to repeat: “You can’t understand the future until you understand the past.” Four hundred years ago, Galileo turned his telescope away from the sea and began to look at the heavens, and thus 2009 is our International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

Galileo’s shift of his telescope changed the world not simply because he looked, but because he observed the sky night after night while meticulously filling in the details in his observing log. He saw that the stars do shift positions, and when one star vanished, he discovered not a star, but a moon hiding behind Jupiter.

Because our word shares the same sky, astronomy is a great unifier, and may even hold our potential for world peace. Satellite pictures of our earth show us the geographic boundaries of our continents, while the political boundaries vanish.

This revelation led astronomers in Iran to create StarPeace, a project of IYA to hold joint public star parties near the borderlines of two neighboring countries. On Dec. 4, people from Indonesia and the Philippines came together to make a peace bridge on South China Sea, with teachers and astronomers offering free public viewings of the stars through high-powered telescopes.

The amateur astronomer George Eric Deacon Alcock discovered five comets on his own through meticulous viewings and recordings in his observing log. Backyard astronomers, like you, can use their eyes, telescopes and binoculars to create their own observing logs. Binoculars provide a wider field of view than telescopes.

In the winter, no other constellation is more distinct or bright as Orion, the Mighty Hunter. This month, if the sky is clear — a minor  miracle — look for three bright stars that form Orion’s Belt. One of the brightest stars in the night sky, Rigel, represents Orion’s foot. His two shoulders are made of the stars Bellatrix and Betelgeuse.

Orion will wait for you; he will remain recognizable in the night sky for the next 1 to 2 million years, making it one of the longest observable constellations.

As we stand solidly on earth looking up, we can barely fathom our place in a galaxy that is showing us our billion-year-old past. But imagine, for a moment, looking at earth from space, where there is no solid footing. An astronaut once revealed to me the universal secret astronauts hold: They are homesick. Not for earth, but for space.

He described the familiar heavy pull of gravity as the carrier sped back toward earth, and he instantly felt a longing for the lightness he knew in space. With tears in his eyes, he also added, “The earth looks beautiful from space. The earth glows, and it pulsates with energy.”

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Science, column, news by SusieJ - 1 Comment →

UPDATE:  Nate has received an abundance of cards, and he is overwhelmed with gratitude. You have helped him reach his dream. He is now very weak, and volunteers and family are opening the cards and reading them to him. If you would like to make a donation earmarked for hospice in Nate Elfrink’s name, you can do so at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation. You can mail donations to the foundation at 700 Children’s Dr., Columbus, OH 43205.  You can read an update in the Columbus Dispatch here:

Nate Elfrink is 7 years old. This will be his last Christmas. Since he was 20 months old, he has battled a brain tumor, which led him through three surgeries, and many rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. The tumor fights hard; it keeps coming back with a vengeance.

Because his tumor is so close to his brain stem, a fourth surgery is not possible. His doctors at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, have found a new chemotherapy treatment that will shrink Nate’s tumor. But not fast enough.

Nate is the kind of little boy with a big heart, who manages to leave a mark on your own heart. An article in the Columbus Messenger says, “Nate has never complained about treatments or doctor’s appointments, she said. He has always just asked what was on the schedule and how soon he’d be able to play. In fact, when Nate and Tod (his Dad) got off the plane from their last visit to St. Jude, Nate wanted to go straight to Wal-Mart to get ingredients for cookies he is making to personally deliver to teachers, friends and family.

“We will not pursue any further treatment. He has been through enough,” Dode Elfrink, Nate’s mother, wrote in an update to friends and family on Dec. 4. “We plan on having the merriest Christmas ever and cherishing each and every day that we have our wonderful, brave, handsome son.”

As you wipe away the tears to see your computer screen, Nate wants you to know that you can help make one of Nate’s last wishes come true. All he wants is to receive one million Christmas cards this year.

I know I have readers in Australia, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, India and Hawaii — so get your stamps and mails those cards. Get the kids to get out their colored pencils, the glitter, the construction paper and send Nate a personal message.

On December 11, at 6 p.m., hold a light in your heart for Nate and his family. Nate will help Santa flip the switch to turn on light display at Garrette Park, in his hometown of West Jefferson, Ohio. On Dec. 12 at 5:30 p.m. Nate will ride with Santa on a float in the West Jefferson Christmas in the lighted parade. May Nate’s spirit light your heart this year.

You can grab this badge by going into your blog’s html editor and copying and pasting this code:

<a href=”http://www.susiej.com/index.php/nates-last-christmas-wish/”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2506/4175011731_801a5f8ec0_o.jpg” width=”150″ height=”150″ alt=”nate” /></a>

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Life, Tears, holidays, news by SusieJ - 9 Comments →

I ran across the photo in Vanity Fair, and like all Norman Rockwell art, I find myself staring at the ephemeral “time has just stopped” freeze-frame that each one of his images produces.

The image, Closing a Summer Cottage, is a 1957 Norman Rockwell art-directed Colorama by Ralph Amdursky and Charles Baker. © 2009 Kodak, courtesy of George Eastman House. This photograph is a Kodak Colorama that was exhibited, with others, at New York’s Grand Central Terminal from 1950 to 1990.

In this photo, the man on the roof is doing a fairly common practice for vacationers in the 1950s — he’s taking down the antennae, as it was customary for families to bring along those bulky console TV sets along to their vacation houses.  (And we go to such great lengths to block the Wii.) Who knew that what was on TV back then was so great that it could “not be missed?”

I also love the boy and girl saying goodbye, over in the left hand side… so many things here that capture the imagination.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: memories, news, the lake house by SusieJ - No Comments →

As parents, we have done a respectable job of teaching our four boys that smoking is a dirty, smelly, dangerous habit that is highly addictive and one that could ruin their lives. I think our plan has worked; our kids are repulsed by the smell of smoke — not just the smell, but the very idea of breathing harmful chemicals sends them reeling in disbelief. “Why would anyone ever do that?”

My sons have visited the hospital room of a dying relative, a life-long smoker, who had his voice box removed because of cancer. The facts from this post were referenced from my 7th grade son’s persuasive essay homework assignment.

I don’t think we have been too harsh in our portrayal of creating smoking as the evil killer that it is. While smoking directly kills, the Centers of Disease Control say that each year 65,000 people die from secondhand smoke in the United States alone. In just 20 minutes, secondhand smoke can do great damage to person’s health. Secondhand smoke is unfiltered, making it more harmful than inhaling a cigarette. That filter, that protects the smoker, blocks some of the 4,000 chemicals (250 are toxic) that are released when the cigarette is burning. The result is cancer, respiratory illnesses and heart attacks.

Because they have faster breathing rates, children inhale greater amounts of smoke than adults and inhale more chemicals. “A child who spends just one hour in a very smoky room is inhaling as many dangerous chemicals as smoking 10 or more cigarettes.”

I have no problem with the smoking ban in public places.

The ramifications to recent smoking bans have, presumably, wrecked havoc on tobacco companies. Understandably, they are fighting back with a vengeance. “You don’t like smoke? Fine. We’ll take the smoke out of the cigarette.”

The R.J. Reynolds Company has responded with new smokeless tobacco products. Camel Orbs are similar to breath mints. The same breath mints my kids like. Camel Sticks are like toothpicks, and Camel Strips are similar to mouthwash strips. The packaging looks similar to gum and candy packs. It’s handy, small, and appealing to small hands.

These new dissolvable tobacco products leave no smell behind — cleaner than cigarettes or chewing tobacco. There is no hacking cough, and no odor. They are specifically designed to dissolve quickly in the mouth and disappear entirely. These products do not carry the health ramifications associated with second-hand smoke, because there is no smoke.

The Camel Orbs, Camel Sticks and the Camel Strips deliver up to three times the nicotine dosage of a single cigarette. Nicotine is found naturally in tobacco. It has no odor and no color. It is, however, both physically and psychologically addictive and makes you its slave.

Despite its ability to appear as almost invisible, nicotine carries grave health consequences, more so without the smoke. Smokeless tobacco provides a more efficient means of delivering carcinogens into the body through the bloodstream. In the August issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center report that users of smokeless tobacco are exposed to higher amounts of tobacco-specific nitrosamines — molecules that are known to be carcinogenic — than smokers. In a study comparing 182 oral snuff users with 420 cigarette smokers, the Minnesota researchers found that snuff users were exposed to higher levels of NNK, a carcinogen known to produce cancer.

So, while I may have done a great job of teaching my children the dangers of smoking, I have failed to pound home the dangers of toothpicks, mints and breath strips. The tobacco companies are poised and ready to create a whole new generation of addictive customers: our children.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Life, health, news, parenting by SusieJ - 1 Comment →

Today was the big race; the pink wigs, the survivor signs, and the “in memory of” signs. The Race for the Cure that started more than 20 years ago, with a promise between two sisters; and yet there is still no cure is in sight. Breast cancer continues to take our sisters, our friends, our daughters and our mothers. But for one day, this race symbolizes the survivor spirit that glows behind every woman.

This post is adapted from my newspaper column.

Cancer is that dark subject we try to avoid, especially when it comes to our own health. We’ve been know to delay scheduling that screening appointment because we’re just too busy. We believe that what we don’t know about can’t hurt us, so we stall, despite the public service announcements that clearly state, early detection saves lives.

On one day this month, our perspective will change. May 16th is the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure. This event give us a forum to honor and celebrate lives, and release our hope for someday finding a cure. The motivation we’ll need to give our time, buy the raffle tickets, run the race and give our dollars will come from within our hearts.When we reflect on the tragic ways cancer has touched our own lives, we can’t help but privately promise ourselves to eat better, find more time to exercise, and schedule those screening tests, whether they’re for skin, colon, or breast cancer. Knowledge truly is our power.

Ten years ago, I walked the race pushing a stroller with a friend. “I don’t need a mammogram,” she said. “My aunt died of breast cancer, and it skips a generation.”

No, it doesn’t, my friend. “When I call you Monday at lunchtime, give me the date and time of your first mammogram.” The conversation may not have happened, and the appointment may not have been made, if not for the time we shared at the race that day.

Out of all the uncertainties and unknowns that come with a cancer diagnosis, one thing is clear: treatment will be expensive. Global sales of cancer drugs will reach $80 billion by 2012, according to Norwalk, Conn.-based consultant IMS Health Inc. A 2006 survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, 33 percent of cancer patients have trouble paying medical bills and 43 percent report skipping treatments or not filling prescriptions because of the cost.

Statistics like these prompted Stefanie and Chris Spielman to create the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Patient Assistance, which allows families to buy groceries, nutritional supplements, Wendy’s gift cards, wigs and transportation to appointments.

On a global level, the cost of finding a cure for cancer is staggering. The reality that we still don’t understand what causes breast cancer led Dr. Susan Love to create www.armyofwomen.org. Her goal is to eradicate breast cancer by linking patients with research scientists and clinical trials. They’ve already created a low-cost band-aid-like test strip that indicates cancer risk.

The Spielmans hoped to raise $250,000 for breast cancer research, but have instead raised over $5 million — so far. The dollars allowed the creation of the Spielman Breast Cancer Tissue Archive Services and the Spielman Breast Cancer Tumor Bank that allow scientist to test discoveries on human breast cancers.

Cancer is a frightening disease that comes with little answers. Hope, sometimes, is all we have. Whether the medicine does its job or not, cancer always gives us the opportunity to show our love.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Filed under: Tears, column, news by SusieJ - 1 Comment →