
As their conversation roamed through how to shop for a
wig and how much they cost and, more importantly who was the best wigmaker in
this area of wealth and opulence, I found myself remembering my niece who was
diagnosed with recurrent breast cancer some ten years ago. At the time she was young, late thirties,
drop-dead gorgeous, and contending with, not only her cancer, but a husband who
seemingly had enough of her cancer foolishness.
On the heels of that memory, I was reminded of a
presentation by Eva Grayzel at an
AADA Leadership Conference I attended with Mary. Eva was a Broadway talent in the true Chorus Line model, who probably would
have been lost in the Ensemble credits had she not contracted Oral Cancer, one
of 6,000 who die each year of 40,000 diagnosed in the United States.
Ms. Grayzel gave a very inspirational and informative
presentation that included how her case management was delayed and her case
misdiagnosed. She was asked to present
at an annual conference for the ADA but was quietly moved to the background
because the ADA was involved with a newly launched diagnostic tool and was more
interested in a campaign to promote it than in linking oral cancer incidence to
something that might have a preventive component, namely a vaccine.
I asked her why the numbers of oral cancer patients
per 1,000 population in the U.S. had not changed since Mary’s grandmother was
diagnosed in the 1950s and she said we are not very good at recognizing
affected people early. We also are
seeing a new cause; unprotected oral sex with multiple partners with resultant
infection by Human Papilloma Virus. This
has now become a cause celebre for me.
She also said that her daughter, a tweener at the time
as I remember it, blamed her (Eva) for at least three years for “Catching
cancer”. It turns out that this is not
an uncommon response of children, who believe the world centers them for each
event. And the patient is partly to blame for the weakness that causes the
cancer and the changes that may occur.

My sister-in-law graciously donated a book to my chemo
bay and I saw to it that both the women mentioned above read it. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that it
has become extremely popular, on display with the magazine and a quick read,
since it is essentially all pictures.
Thank you, CeCe. I’m sure Julia
is very pleased.
In my next post I will share with you the surprise
Mary and I had at our grandson’s twelfth birthday. I hope to see you there.