AWARENESS WITHOUT ACTION IS USELESS

The other day, I got an email from my mom.  One of her neighbors forwarded it to her, she forwarded it to me.  The young woman who initiated the email is a Stage IV breast cancer patient.  She has been on Doxil and she needs properly timed, appropriately dosed continuation of the medication, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION.

I will let Tiff speak for herself.  If I was pissed off yesterday about the presumption we are in control of whether or not we develop breast cancer, I can tell you I am positively IRATE about THIS.

When I began to blog, I stumbled over some information regarding the drug shortages and it was the topic of my blog on August 19.  Three months later, the shortages were front and center again and up went another blog on November 16.  I guess this is the running theme.  It reaches a bit of a fever pitch every three months?

Last week, I was preoccupied but I do recall seeing an impending gloom and doom headline about methotrexate.  I went back to those prior blogs posts to refresh my memory.  In this case, it didn't need refreshing.  It was as I remembered. Methotrexate and Fluorouracil.  Two of the three chemotherapy agents used in my CMF cocktail were on the shortage list six months ago and that is where they remain today.  Each of those drugs is used to treat several types of cancer.

Didn't I read that an executive order was signed with regard to this mess?  THAT question did require a google detour. While I was aware the order was signed, I was not aware of its contents.  You can read it for yourself, I'm just going to do that which I detest.  I'm pulling a soundbite.

"Public officials praised the White House for raising public awareness about the problem."

The executive order was signed on October 31.  There was a crisis of sufficient measure to trigger the issuance of this order.  I do not know what can or should be done to fix this problem.  I'm not looking for political commentary.

I see an ongoing theme.  Raising awareness without the immediate commencement of an actual PLAN to do something seems to render the awareness raising useless.  In some cases, I suppose an argument could be made that the awareness actually HURTS the situation.  When I hear something beginning to sound like a broken record, my brain shuts off and my ears no longer hear words.  Instead, I hear WAH WAH WAH.

Awareness didn't seem to do anything to avert this drug crisis and the onslaught of awareness most certainly has not brought us any closer to determining the cause of breast cancer.  I don't really know what the hell has been going on since we began raising awareness but ACTION is the answer.  Doing the RIGHT research is the answer.

I am sure many cancer patients who are presently in active treatment (and their loved ones) are terrified the medication they need may not be available in the necessary timeframe.  Had we taken ACTION to find the cause, never mind.... I know your eyes are doing the equivalent of WAH WAH WAH.  You already know my gig.

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