Tricks and Treats

Happy Halloween everybody!

Full disclosure: Cute ballerinas, Buzz Lightyears, princesses, pint-sized SWAT officers (true story!) and ghouls aside - Halloween is not quite one of my favorite holidays. BUT, there are certain aspects of this day that I can definitely get behind… like delectable treats, and the creativity of costumes that make even the most jaded of New Yorkers do a double take.

Which reminds me, I’ve got tickets to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight. It was a last minute invitation, but having never seen the cult favorite in its entirety, I’m “shiver[ing] with antici…pation.” I’ll even go as far as bringing one of the many props to be hurled at the movie screen… note to self, buy roll of (recycled) toilette paper...

Now, back to the matter at hand, what would Halloween be without a Trick or a Treat?

I came across a site that has plenty of both. GreenHalloween.org, encourages visitors to “think outside the candy-box” and provides families with tips for affordable ways to turn traditionally un-eco-friendly holidays into greener, healthier celebrations. The site is a trove of ideas from candy alternatives, to a National Costume Swap Day, to a thorough planning guide for a Green Halloween Party!

That’s it for now… off to see about a tissue roll…

A happy (Evil laugh, eerie music, gooseflesh… etc. etc. etc) safe, and Green Halloween to all!

Fitness Schedules Benefit Cancer Survivors

Cancer survivors are not at the end of their battle once they go into remission. Treatment for cancer patients often leaves the person feeling depleted, drained, and at an absolute loss as what to do next. Lack of motivation is extremely common in all types of cancer patients and survivors.

Experts have discovered and claimed that creating a regular exercise and fitness schedule each week can help cancer survivors to regain their lives and to feel in control again. Energy levels are boosted and feelings of self-confidence are redeveloped and established once again with the implementation of a consistent fitness routine.

The National Cancer Institute writes about how exercise that is consistent in routine can help to greatly improve the quality of life for cancer patients. Whether a person has had mesothelioma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, or any other common form of cancer, exercise can help to reverse the effects that treatment has had on the patient.

Cancer treatment often leaves a person feeling unable to perform typical daily chores. Although it may seem difficult at first to find the motivation to begin an exercise regimen, once a person gets started with one, the positive results are seen almost immediately. Endorphins are released in the blood stream and these create higher energy levels in the person. Muscles are built back up after long periods of not being used very much. Mental and physical stimulation begins to occur within a cancer survivor when he or she begins to embrace a fitness schedule on a regular basis.

Long-term, healthy benefits result from incorporating exercise into almost anyone’s normal weekly schedule. Cancer patients and survivors can receive even greater benefits as exercise provides a healthy outlet to reduce the anxiety and stress that has accumulated from dealing with the various aspects of having cancer. Social activity, combined with exercise, can increase a positive outlook and help a person to return more quickly to his or her old and familiar lifestyle with a new outlook on life.


This post was contributed by David Haas. For more information please visit

http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/

Thank you David!

What You Can You Celebrates a Breast Cancer Survivor (pt. 3)

Hey everyone! October is coming to a close. We have been so honored and inspired by all of the support and outreach we have received in honor of our Breast Cancer Awareness month. A huge thank you to everyone who sent in names for our Breast Cancer Event (set to go next week!), and a special thank you to Katie Parker, a 37 year old, one year breast cancer survivor/ speaker /writer and a 2011 Pink Together Ambassador who has shared her remarkable journey with us over the month of October. Please read on for Katie’s last blog. We hope it inspires you as much as it inspires us.


I've told you about my breast cancer diagnosis, surgery and treatment. Now, I'll tell you what happened after I finished treatment and how I'm doing now.

One week to the day after I finished treatment, I was terminated from my job.

Although I was given a specific reason, I don't think that it was a coincidence. Yes, I did speak to an attorney. This attorney agreed to represent me and told me that in the area where I reside, it's not uncommon for those who work in the medical community to be let go from their jobs after they finish treatment for cancer.

I also learned that having cancer puts you in a protected status with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This means that there are certain steps an employer would need to follow in order to terminate you if you are protected under that status. My former employer did not follow those rules. Unfortunately, this attorney discovered that she could not represent me due to a conflict of interest. I was provided the names of other attorneys that could potentially help me and I called a few, but they were not interested in my case.

For those of you that have ever been unemployed, you know how time consuming a job search is. The first attorney I met with told me that my best option would be to file a discrimination suit with the EEOC. Apparently, it's a long drawn out process that takes about six months. Who wants to do that while searching for a job/starting a new one? Let alone trying not to disclose that information to a prospective employer. Nor is it a good idea to disclose a cancer status to future employers.

Long and heart wrenching story later, I chose to put my efforts into finding work, instead of suing my former employer, as I deemed a steady income more important. More than a year later, I am still searching for full time work. With benefits. Yep, I should have pursued the EEOC suit, but I didn't so I must move on. Currently, I work several part time jobs that don't quite add up to 40 hours a week. It's a scramble to pay my bills every month. I no longer have health insurance and the state I live in does not provide any assistance to single individuals. My oncologist has encouraged me to still get my follow up exams; however, it ends up being more bills that I cannot pay. Needless to say, the loss of my job financially devastated me and I have no idea how I'll ever catch up. I get depressed about it sometimes, but always remain hopeful that things will get better.

With the bad, I've had a lot of good. My breast cancer diagnosis was not devastating for me. It gave me a greater purpose and I knew that the second I was diagnosed. I've been able to speak at several events and spread the word about early detection. I've written for The Pink Lotus Breast Center's Breast Cancer 101 blog and am a breast cancer writer for www.thefightlikeagirlclub.com. I was selected to be a 2011 Pink Together Ambassador. As a Pink Together Ambassador, my picture, along with the four other women chosen appears on the back of select boxes of Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Total cereals. My individual picture appears on the back of select packages of Chex Snack Mix (Sweet and Salty and Turtle Mix) and Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix. Pink Together also invited me to ride on the Pink Together Express powered by Amtrak for Martina McBride’s “Eleven across America” tour.

So, what does the future hold? I don't know, but at least I'll always be hopeful for what's to come.

Clearly, if you find yourself in a situation similar to mine, you'll need more than 60 seconds, but while you should not have to be secretive about a cancer status at work, it may be best to inform only those who need to know. Also, be familiar with the laws regarding cancer and employment in your state.

Of course, if you only have 60 seconds, what can you do to give yourself the best chance to survive breast cancer? Call your doctor's office or local imaging center to get scheduled for a mammogram!


Katie Parker is a 37 year-old, one-year breast cancer survivor/speaker/ writer and is a 2011 Pink Together Ambassador.

Tricks and Treats

Halloween is almost here! Hope everyone has their costumes ready!

While I do love the candy that comes with the holiday, Halloween has plenty more treats to offer. I found this awesome recipe on www.Care2.com for a pumpkin face mask that will make you look and feel fabulous, especially when you take off all that scary Halloween make-up!

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/pumpkin-face-mask-vitamin-rich.html

One of my absolute favorite treats in the fall is pumpkin pie! I could probably eat it every day of the year, but it’s much more special if I hold out for Halloween/Thanksgiving. I love to make them, but I have yet to try baking an organic pumpkin pie. I found this mouth-watering recipe, which I’m going to try out, and figured I’d share it with you. If you have any good recipes, or baking tips, please feel free to share. I know my way around the kitchen but I can still use any help I can get ☺

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/organic-pumpkin-pie-recipe.html

Also, I don’t know about you guys, but it’s starting to feel very chilly in my apartment. Almost time for the heat to come back on. While my West Coast blood has thickened a little, I’m still a complete wimp in the winter and I love making my apartment warm and toasty. As I learned last year, which was my first ever East Coast winter ever, and not an easy one at that, is that the warmer your apartment the higher your bills are. To avoid astronomical bills this season, here are a few energy efficient tricks for heating your home from www.energysavers.gov. I will definitely be using some of these tips this fall/winter!

Heating and Cooling Tips
• Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.
• Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.
• Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they're not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
• Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season; if in doubt about how to perform this task, call a professional.
• Place heat-resistant radiator reflectors between exterior walls and the radiators.
• Turn off kitchen, bath, and other exhaust fans within 20 minutes after you are done cooking or bathing; when replacing exhaust fans, consider installing high-efficiency, low-noise models.
• During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day to allow the sunlight to enter your home and closed at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.
During the cooling season, keep the window coverings closed during the day to prevent solar gain.

Hope everyone has a very safe, warm, scary, and happy Halloweeeen!

Go Green For Halloween!!!
Halloween has always been my second favorite holiday, right behind the 4th of July. This could be due in large part to my sweet tooth that just never seems to go away, but I also love the costumes! On what other day is it acceptable for you to live out your secret fantasy to be a pirate, or vampire? I also love horror movies, so the whole season is right up my alley! While I love a good scare on the screen, one of the scariest parts of Halloween has to be the costumes that are sold. Expensive, poorly made, and campy, oh my! Let’s be honest, for the price tag you’d think some of the women’s costumes could cover a wee bit more skin.
Since working for OTL, mind wheels have been turning about how all of us, including myself can make positive life changes, especially those that are beneficial to the environment. I then thought maybe I can apply my newly revived earth conscious thinking to one of my favorite days…and I’m challenging you to do the same! This year, I am planning on making the majority of my costume out of recycled materials. Not only is this going to be way more fun than going to the store, I’ll be saving a ton of money and helping our planet. This could also be a great activity to plan with your friends or kids, and help spread the word that recycling can be more than just separating your bottles, cans and other recyclables from the rest of your garbage. It’s amazing what you can do with different materials when you get creative.
Won’t you join me this Halloween, and see what we can do when we put our thinking caps on and go green! If you feel like sharing, as I will do, send us a pic of your magnificently beautiful, terrifying, disgusting, or fantastical creation.

What You Can You Celebrates a Breast Cancer Survivor (pt. 2)

Katie Parker, a 37 year old, one year breast cancer survivor/ speaker /writer and 2011 Pink Together Ambassador offered to share her remarkable journey with us. Over the month of October we will be sharing with you Katie’s story in her own words. We hope it inspires you as much as it inspires us.


Although I was told that my breast cancer was treatable, I didn't know exactly what that meant.

Treatable can mean a lot of different things. For six months? A year? Forever? Fortunately, my question was somewhat answered when I met with the doctor who would be performing the surgery to remove the cancer. I was told that since the size of the mass in my breast was 6 mm (approximately the size of a man's wedding band), and that I would have 3 surgery options to choose from-partial mastectomy, full mastectomy or bilateral (both breasts) mastectomy.

This meeting with the surgeon was truly a crash course in breast cancer 101. Terms and phrases I've never heard in my life or expected to know. My dad came with me to this appointment, to take in all of the information as well in case I forgot something. Bless his heart. I'm sure it was hard for him to listen to all of this stuff. Instead of just telling the surgeon to simply do what she thought was best, I decided to take the information she gave me and do my own research. Of course, I wanted to do the least invasive thing that would provide the biggest impact. This is why I chose to have a partial mastectomy-my first real surgery ever.

My partial mastectomy was done as a same day surgery, and I spent about 2 hours in surgery and several more in recovery as I felt really nauseated from the anesthesia. In my specific case, my treatment wasn't decided until after my surgery was completed, so I had no idea or expectations of what was to come. It was possible that I could wake up to the news that I would need several months of chemo followed by radiation. Luckily, my surgery was successful and the cancer was contained to the mass only. I did have 3 lymph nodes removed as the surgeon thought they felt swollen. In fact, I tolerated the surgery so well, I was able to go for a short walk with my mom that same night.

Since no other cancer was found, and testing of the mass found that it was estrogen/progesterone positive and HER2 negative, it was determined that the only treatment I would need would be radiation, which I started 6 weeks after surgery, so that my body could heal. Being ER/PR positive and HER2 negative is considered to be the "good kind" of breast cancer. While I met with an oncologist prior to surgery, he didn't really know what to tell me since my treatment wasn't decided until surgery. He gave me a general explanation of chemo and radiation treatments, but held off on going into much detail until we knew what was needed. Since my mass was so small, I did inquire about partial breast radiation, as opposed to whole breast radiation. I was informed that having partial breast radiation for my particular case would be extremely experimental. The oncologist offered to make some phone calls to check to see if this would be the best option, but I was having thoughts of the cancer returning with the partial breast radiation, so I decided to go ahead and have full breast radiation.

While I have no regrets, I do wish that I had explored the partial breast radiation more. I had little problems after surgery and no real pain, just extreme soreness. When I was finally able to start radiation, I found that to be easy as well. The appointments last about 15 minutes and you lay on a table while the machine does all the work. You can't move even once during the radiation treatment, as everything has to be lined up specifically and accurately in order to radiate the correct area. All of this is measured out prior to the actual treatments starting. I tolerated the radiation well, although it was not made clear to me that I should have been using a deodorant without aluminum in it, as aluminum causes a bad reaction with the radiation. My skin had a pretty serious skin reaction to this, so it took me a little longer to heal. Even though my surgery and treatment was relatively easy, I was surprised at how long it took me to heal. Even now, over a year later, the surgery site is still sore. I guess it would be, although it gets better every week.

If you only have 60 seconds, what can you do to give yourself the best chance to survive breast cancer? Call your doctor's office or local imaging center to get scheduled for a mammogram!

Rosie the Ribonner

Think there's nothing you can do to help fight Breast Cancer in one minute? Join The Pink Ribbon Army today - http://apps.facebook.com/pinkribbonarmy

Starring: The What You Can Do Ensemble
Written by: Jessica Arinella & Cassandra Lizaire
Shot by: Alicia Arinella, Amanda Blohm, Cassandra Lizaire, and Brittney Phelan
Edited & Directed by: Alicia Arinella
Graphics Designed by: Amanda Blohm
Produced by: On the Leesh Productions
Music by: Dave Pell
What You Can Do Logo Created by: SCG Siddharth Creative Group

Additional Footage Provided by: Shutterstock, Inc.  Used by Permission

Special Thanks: Rian Cool, Rosemary Jones and everyone at The GreaterGood Network and Dennis Arinella

Help fight Breast Cancer by clicking today at www.TheBreastCancerSite.com and help fund mammograms for  Women in Need.

Join the Pink Ribbon Army

Think there's nothing you can do to help fight Breast Cancer in one minute?  Lend your name to The Pink Ribbon Army today - http://apps.facebook.com/pinkribbonarmy

Starring: Alicia Arinella
Written by: Jessica Arinella & Cassandra Lizaire
Shot by: Amanda Blohm & Cassandra Lizaire
Edited & Directed by: Alicia Arinella
Produced by: On the Leesh Productions
Animation by: Ace & Son Moving Picture Company
Music by: Shohan Cagle
What You CAn Do Logo Created by: SCG Siddharth Creative Group

Additional Footage Provided by: Shutterstock, Inc.  Used by Permission

Special Thanks: Rian Cool, Rosemary Jones and everyone at The GreaterGood Network and Dennis Arinella
This video was a collaboration between What You Can Do, TheBreastCancerSite.com, and Ace & Son Moving Pictures Company. Thanks to everyone!


Help fight Breast Cancer by clicking today at www.TheBreastCancerSite.com and help fund mammograms for  Women in Need.

What You Can You Celebrates a Breast Cancer Survivor

Hey everyone! Jessica here, the creator of What You Can Do. One of the things that I have loved most about working on this project is the collaboration that ensues with our talented community. When we were thinking about what we could do to honor those affected by breast cancer this month, we asked for someone to share their story with us. We were so honored when Katie Parker, a 37 year old, one year breast cancer survivor/ speaker /writer and 2011 Pink Together Ambassador offered to share her remarkable journey with us. Over the month of October we will be sharing with you Katie’s story in her own words. We hope it inspires you as much as it inspires us.




I'm Katie. A 37 year old breast cancer survivor. I will be writing a series of blogs detailing my experience with breast cancer. This first blog is about how I learned I had breast cancer.

The last thing I ever expected to hear from a doctor was "You have breast cancer." Breast cancer does not run in my family, there was nothing in my general health history to indicate that this diagnosis would be a possibility, nor had I ever had any pain or problems in my breast area. However, on May 23, 2010, at age 36, I was being told over the phone by a radiologist that breast cancer was now my reality.

Without family history, pain or problems or specific health concern, you may be wondering why I decided to have a mammogram. At the time, I was working in a radiology clinic and noticed that several women my age were calling in to schedule what's called a baseline mammogram. Since the clinic I was working in offered free digital mammograms to eligible employees, I figured that I would get one. After all, it was free and I like free things. At a regular check up with my primary care doctor, I informed her of my decision to get a mammogram. She advised me to wait a year. As crazy as it seems, this was not bad advice. Remember, there's no family history or a specific health reason why I should have one. Thinking about it for a month, I decided to have one anyway. The mammogram took about ten minutes and I expected to move on with my life and resume regular screenings at age 40.

A few days later, I was notified that there was an area of concern found and needed to have more images taken. This is what's called additional views or add views. This did not alarm me, and I expected this due to density in my breasts. During my add views, I was told that an ultrasound was needed. When that was completed, I was informed that a biopsy was needed and was being done right then and there. As I was being prepped for the biopsy, the radiologist gently informed me that the results would most likely be breast cancer. Even if it wasn't cancer, the mass would still need to be removed. Since it wasn't quite 8:00 a.m., it was a lot to take in. Plus, I just had this done because it was free! I was thinking that I was getting a little more than I bargained for. Once the biopsy was completed, I was given specific instruction to keep the biopsy area as cold as possible to prevent pain. I was provided with ice packs to keep and use for the remainder of the day.

Once everything was done, I simply returned to work. Since all of this was done by the company I worked for, I just had to drive to the building I worked at and start my work day. No big whoop. It was a Friday and I had lots to do during the upcoming weekend. Even though I was told that cancer would be the likely outcome, I was still shocked by the diagnosis when I received the call at home two days later (a Sunday evening). It was during that call that I knew I had received the freebie of all freebies. The cancer was caught early. Very early. Good news! The cancer type was invasive ductile cancer, the most common type of breast cancer. The second bit of good news was that it was treatable. The radiologist told me that I would look back on this later in life and see this all as a big inconvenience. Next steps were to notify friends/families/boss and to wait until the next day to meet with the surgeon and determine what the next steps would be.

NEXT BLOG: I'll tell you about my meetings with the surgeon, oncologist and let you how my surgery went!

So, if you only have 60 seconds, what can you do to give yourself the best chance to survive breast cancer? Call your doctor's office or local imaging center to get scheduled for a mammogram!