February is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and the 24th will see Teal Ribbons on sale.  Please support the cause if you can.

A report in Heart & Soul Herald Sun dated 21 February, there was a very good article written by Lollie Barr.

1500 women a year are diagnosed in Australia, of which 850 women will die. That’s one woman every 11 hours.

As statistics have told us before, sadly 75 per cent of women are diagnosed in the advanced stages and will not live beyond five years. It means that women do not live long enough to campaign for better public awareness of the disease – something breast cancer survivors have been remarkable good at. Pink clothes, pink bags, pink food labels, pink balloons, pink fun runs, pink, pink, pink!!

I think I quite shocked Cr Esakoff on seeing her pink ribbon displayed promoting an awareness of breast cancer, by describing it as ‘the yuppie cancer’. I had to explain that silver was the ribbon of choice to promote ovarian cancer awareness and the National Bank were a major sponsor. I’ve actually walked up to a young man in the street and thanked him for his silver ribbon awareness effort.

While the pain and suffering experienced with breast or any other cancer, can never be diminished I would just like more publicity (or at least equal) advertisements, promotions, and Government awareness heightened for cancers like bowel, testicular, ovarian,

Ir’s cruel to think that a child as young as seven, could develop ovarian cancer. Both women’s stories provided in the article were ‘young’, a 46 from Melbourne and a 26 yo from NSW. I was 57 at the time of diagnosis. The younger the women under 60 diagnosed the best chance of a successful cure IF it is caught early enough.

Tests include the CA125 blood test and a trans vaginal ultrasound, but these tests cannot be used to screen for or diagnose ovarian cancer. Diagnosis can only be confirmed following surgery.

Early diagnosis is the critical issue, as is the first stage of the disease, the cancer is contained inside one or both ovaries.

By stage two – it has spread into the fallopian tubes or other pelvic tissues, such as the bladder or the rectum.(that was me) When the cancer has spread outside the pelvic area into the abdominal cavity, then it has reached stage three

The fourth and final stage is reached when the cancer has spread into other organs, such as the liver or lungs.

Interestingly, the article tells readers that taking birth control pills decrease the risk of developing ovarian cancer by up to 50 per cent, especially among women who use them for several years.

The “Risk Factors” are mostly women over 45, never taking a contraceptive pill, few or no pregnancies, high fat diet, overweight and smoking, and a history of cancer in the family, including ovarian, breast and some bowel cancers…. An inherent gene fault accounts for about 10% and occur in one in 500 people in Australia.

Professor Quinn is reported as saying “If a celebrity had the disease (ovarian cancer) then we’d be further ahead in the funding for research at state and federal government level.

February is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, so have a conversation with your girlfriends, wives, mothers, sisters and daughters…..Buy a teal ribbon on Wednesday 24th February.

Possible symptoms can include:

back pain
vaginal bleeding
abdominal bloating (major symptom for me)
persistent stomach or pelvic pain
change in bowel habits
weight loss or weight gain (weight loss! assumed balanced diet was working well)
excessive fatigue
needing to rush to the toilet to urinate often and urgently!! (major symptom for me) (hence my nagging for more appropriate toilet facilities within the City of Glen Eira)

My optometrist remarked six months prior, that I had lost significant weight (3 cn) in the face when he checked me for glasses frames, but I still thought it formed part of my busy working life.

I had rheumatoid arthritis (very badly over a three months period) as a nineteen year old, but remained in remission thereafter a year in recovery. At 56 I woke up one morning and both hands were locked up. I thought I would never write another word!!….two diagnosis later by two specialists couldn’t explain the flare up, which normally wouldn’t have occurred once I’d reached 50 year of age…..I believe now it was a warning sign that my blood manufacture was out of whack because of the cancer, which was actually present in my body two years before discovery.

Just to make life interesting, I had two cancers diagnosed at the one time, and my abdomen was described to me as resembling a washing machine full of froth and bubble….Bowels lifted out and the machine was washed out of the cancers along with the bits and pieces…. I’ve been a very very lucky woman!

What lead me to an untimely month’s day in Cabrini was a burst cyst on my ovary which at the times was excruciating painful for a solid couple of hours (Sunday) until it settled to tolerable by the next afternoon (Monday) when I could get a 5 pm appointment. I had only turned to flush the toilet when it burst, but it probably saved my life.

One last symptom I had personally – was an obsessive need to bathe. I would be up at 3, 4 or 5 am in the morning running a bath before work. I would look at my swollen abdomen and think it was ‘getting potty’ in that area – I was so aware of it – and yet never really ‘worried about it!”….Once I was diagnosed, operated on and recovered, I never felt obsessive about the need for a bath. I enjoy the odd bath now, but don’t ‘feel the need’! I genuinely believe it was my sub conscious telling me that I had something bad in my body that needed ‘washing away’…A couple of doctors I tried explaining this phenomenon to, looked at me as it I was stark raving mad!….

The bottom line ladies is that you should always listen to your body – if you don’t think it feels right – get a second or even a third opinion! I had been to a specialist Gynecologist (practicing within Glen Eira) only two months before for a HRT abdominal implant, but unfortunately he failed his duty of care by forgetting to do an internal examination prior to the replacement being inserted!!! Needless to say, he ignored my letter of revelation when I eventually made it home….so ladies, you need to look and be aware of your own body’s messages! Don’t rely on doctors, even “specialists!”……

A study by the University of California showed that four out of 10 women actually spoke to their doctor about their symptoms between four months and a year prior to diagnosis.

Given the odds i can expect to develop cancer elsewhere in my body, and it is anticipated most likely in my bowel, breast or lungs….A year or so ago, I had a Melanoma removed from my back. I am one of those individuals who don’t believe you ’survive’ cancer, it merely goes on the back burner, turned down low….waiting! By the way! I’ve never smoked cigarettes either!

What we do with a time while we’re ‘waiting’ is the important thing about living your life!

Eleven years on, I am living proof that statistics can bypass you and the Russian roulette of life is nothing you can ultimately have any control over.

This sharing of personal information is my contribution to the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Campaign.

In the Age Letters to the Editor, 16th February, 2010.

Right to dignity lost due to the heartless

Lindsay writes:

I am sitting in my sister’s home at a small table in the family room.  It’s uncomfortable, but it gives me a view of my mother’s wasted body lying in the bed.   I can hear her laboured breathing as her organs start to shut down.

Every time there is a pause in her breathing, or a rattling cough, my heart skips.

I struggle to go into the bedroom.  I know I will break down when I see those sunken eyes that have become opaque and unseeing, and the body protrusion mapping a face that was full of life and love a few months ago.   And when I feel the parchment like skin that had previously been soft and so comforting for a son to touch.

My mother was a loving and caring woman, full of integrity.  But thanks to heartless laws and lawmakers, she lost something everyone should have a right to; her dignity.

It happened about two weeks ago, when the cancer finally took hold.  She became bed ridden and unable to tend to herself.   When she asked for help, we’d tell her “We won’t let you suffer”,  My mother wanted to die before she struggled through this disgusting suffering death.

But in Australia, she has no rights.   Someone has made this decision for her, condemning her to a suffering end.

Think upon this, you opinionated people, think of someone you love lying dying with a nappy around them.  Imagine their false teeth slipping from their wasted gums and their lips collapsing.  Picture their face like a living death mask.

Every day you see the person as a living corpse, injected full of morphine to ease the pain, Maxolon to stop the nausea;   Serenase to reduce the anxiety….and all this to foster a ‘comfortable death’.  Well there is no comfort, no dignity and no compassion in this death.

I promised my mother I would not let her suffer but I failed her.  I am a coward and will never be able to forgive myself.  I knew how to do it but could not bring myself to do so.

We urgently need to change the law and legalise euthanasia.

My mother died at 5.07 pm on Thursday.

Lindsay McDougall, Brighton

Footnote:   What a terribly moving letter I found this to be.   If only the Physician Assisted Dying Bill had been referred on the Law Reform, people such as Lindsay and myself would have  hope that genuine compassion for the dying is translated into legislation.

Mary writes:

“So, Nembutal can be misused (the Age 15/2/10) The solution is to change legislation to allow end of life choices and physician assisted dying.   Simple.

Mary Bryan, East Hawthorn

Well, I’ve certainly slowed down this past year with endeavouring to promote choice and dignity in dying.  I am feeling an old lady these days, with arthritis slowing me down physically.   More importantly I suppose is the loss of hope about change occurring in my lifetime.

Whether religious beliefs rears its ugly head and seeks to impose its sanctimonious clap trap on the rest of us, or whether I am plain tired, I don’t know what the future holds in providing choice for the individual.

Repeatedly the neighsayers tell us that introducing legislation that would enable euthanasia to become a legalised relief for chronic and terminal illness is just too fraught with ‘dangers’…..So rather than sit down and work through the issues one by one, the law makers shake their heads and look for easier pools in which to puddle!.

In an Age article Monday, February 15, headed Euthanasia Drug Snares younger Australian…. the author, Julia Medew acknowledges that investigations showed that 11 of 38 cases closed by coroners, the deceased had suffered significant physical illness, deteriorating health or chronic pain prior to death.

The Victorian Institude of Forensic Medicine has found that 51 people across Australia have died from an overdose of Nembutal in the past 10 years!

It’s hardly setting the world on fire at that rate! and yet for importing it to help a loved one die (including yourself) it gets you 25 years jail or a $550,000 fine!

A person doesn’t get jail for committing two or three murders, getting knowingly behind a wheel of a car while intoxicated, and wiping out pedestrians and other drivers and their passengers!!! and yet a woman suffering with breast cannot take the simple step of providing a peaceful death for herself without being treated as a common drug smuggler who kills hundreds with their heroin and crack!!!  Or even an adult child who kills his parents for their assets! Or a son who kills both his parents and sister because he couldn’t use the family car!

Eight deaths showed that Nembutal was imported from overseas, but for 28 no source was established.

Fifteen deaths, the person involved worked for a veterinary clinic so it was assumed the drug came from there.

Some figures provided were six in their 20’s, eight in their 30’s, five 40’s, 14 50’s, 3 60’s, 10 in their 70’s, 3 80’s, and two in their 90’s.     AND SO WHAT!   Good luck to their successful journey to relieve their suffering permanently.  I don’t promote suicide, but I certainly understand its a good method of controlling one’s final barrier to excessive pain and suffering.

There is $110,000 fine for downloading Phillip Nitschke’s “Peaceful Pill Handbook” which basically needs a science degree to be useful, or at the best, a kindly doctor!  Both of which are in short supply on the ground! Fortunately no one has been charged with such an horrendous precursor to seeking tools for a peaceful death.

Most of people who Customs ‘catch’ are only bringing in their own supply.  People who invariably are suffering with cancers of which one in three of us will endure.  Watching the TV shows Customs, many people are caught bringing in kilos of death inducing drugs to MAKE MONEY and PROFIT.  Wereas mostly the frail elderly want a single dose for a single opportunity to end the suffering.

Last week we watched a TV program about four dying people in a Palliative Care Catholic Hospice.  Did anyone else watching the show hear the nurse say, we couldn’t give any more pain killers so it got to a level where the pain had to be tolerated!!!!   Why?  Why can’t people have the dignity to ask for as much pain killer as it takes to eliminate the pain!….

When a person is dying, death is inevitable!  Why prolong the suffering, both for the patient and thier friends and relatives looking on…..

The doctors and nurses talk about ‘compassion’ but limit the evidence of it, to the extent that their patients remain writhing in pain, or unconscious altogether….

It’s a crazy world out there!

Apparently 27 took Nembutal who were simply wanting to end their lives, but I agree with Phillip Nitschke, that while that was unfortunate, the access to correct information was outweighed by the need to care for the vast majority of seriously ill people.   The seriously ill have every bit as much right to expect their needs to be met as the young folk who would commit suicide by any means available to them regardless.

Nembutal surely beats ‘hanging’ oneself in the garage for mum to come home and find, with tongue lolling, face puce and eyes bulging… I know of one case where it took the mother a whole year of her life to recover such a horror!!    .How many kids fail to tie the rope properly and die a lingering death because of that??

I suppose by now organisations such as Lifeline and Beyond Blue have realised that society requires more than just another lot of telephone numbers to ring, when people ring talking of depression.  Practical steps need practical help – perhaps a real person, rather than a voice on the other end of the phone, which really doesn’t give a damn about your needs as a person!

Ah yes!  Nembutal isn’t all bad!