avocado8
women's health archives (summaries | full text)

I just wanted to say a few words about the health plan I used to have at Adobe, and you can take those words for what they're worth. I'm saying my piece here because I never hear anyone talk about this sort of thing, and I think it's relevant to the debate....

My annual rant against breast cancer in general and the pinking of the disease more particularly is over at Pink For October this year. I wasn't going to bother, since blogging is obviously low on my priority list right now, but when Matthew Oliphant posted this photo in his Flickr stream, I couldn't resist....

Ugh, it's that time of year again: The time when every building and fountain in Philadephia is lit up with pink. Stores sell bears in pink t-shirts (with a whole $4.50 from your purchase going toward breast cancer charities!) and tea with pink ribbons on the cannister and pink-enameled kitchen appliances. We're urged to buy! buy! buy! in the name of breast cancer....

Interesting article in today's NYTimes: On the Job, Nursing Mothers Find a 2-Class System. Something I'd never thought about, either while I was nursing or after. My current company has lactation rooms—I used one to nurse the Beaner in when I was visiting in March 2005—and since I worked from home part-time while I was nursing, I could nurse him with one hand while typing with the other. Luckily, I never had to pump on a daily basis....

And by that I mean not only that it's about time the FDA approved Plan B, but also that the reason making Plan B available over the counter is so important is that it must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. (See What Happens When There Is No Plan B?.) It's about damn time....

The bill for Austen's delivery and the subsequent 4-day hospital stay arrived yesterday. Together with the bill for the anesthesia, which arrived in December (I'm pretty sure they charged me for both the spinal and the epidural, even though I correctly predicted that a spinal wouldn't work), and the bill for the amniocentesis we got last summer, the total cost of bringing Austen into this world was roughly $20,000. The amount we were actually responsible for paying? $555.45. This...

I saw this interesting item on Suburban Guerrilla about the difference in the British and American responses to the Chiron debacle, but I wasn't sure how reliable the source was (especially given the dodgy editing, the lack of attribution, and the numerous server errors I got on my first visit to the site). It seems the story's accurate, if the Washington Post is to be believed. What's interesting to me is that this could be yet another example of...

Yep, it's that time of year again: October, otherwise known as "Breast Cancer Awareness Month." By all means, be aware. Know that breast cancer still kills millions. That mammograms are great for detecting breast cancer, but they don't prevent it. That racing for the cure will make you feel great and will give you a chance to get informed, but it won't get much money into research for an actual cure. By all means, get educated. And please, be...

Breast Cancer Action sent me this article, Welcome to Cancerland (also available as a PDF), a while back... possibly years back. I found it in a box of Truckee stuff, recognized Barbara Ehrenreich's name, and sat down to read it. Much of what I read I already knew, but Barbara really puts it together. I found her insights about the infantilization of breast cancer and the positive-only focus on survivorhood particularly interesting, and although I knew that chemotherapy extends...

A few weeks ago, when I was walking down JFK Blvd. toward Love Plaza, I noticed that the water in the fountain there was pink. I chalked it up to a bizarre prank. Then, a few nights later, Al and I noticed as we drove south on Broad Street toward City Hall that a few of the downtown buildings were lit with pink spotlights. "What's with the pink?" Al asked. I shrugged, and mentioned the fountain. The following week...