This made me angry... Am I over-reacting?

Anne - I saw the same thing posted on my page, and I gotta tell you, it pissed me off too! I didn't know what to say to it, except that I also thought F**CK YOU! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was a condescending AND minimized the BC awareness. Now just thinking about it, I'm ticked all over again - they could have made thier point without making it sound like we have it easy because pink is everywhere and everyone loves boobs -so we don't have it that bad!

BITE ME B*TCH, I'd rather check my insulin that check my tumor markers, but I'd rather check my tumor markers than have my leg amputated from the effects of diabetes - so neither of these disease are anything to make light of! My uncle also died of complications from diabetes, so I know it's not glamerous or easy -but I would never minimize his struggle to try and promote awareness for mine. I thought that post was completely wrong, insensitive, and a pathetic way to draw attention to your cause!!!

In fact, I think I'll respond with just that later tonight when I log on

As someone who got a diabetes diagnosis in the pre-op area on the way to my mastectomy, I feel qualified to respond.

While the facebook post was written by someone who still thinks that BC is all pink and fuzzy, F**K YOU is not an appropriate response.  A little education might be.  You might remind your "friend" that while the awareness campaign may be all pink and fun, the disease is anything but.  It is about losing your sense of self.  It is about questioning whether every cough or twinge is the beginning of metastatic disease.  It is about having to deal with that awareness campaign every year for the rest of your life when you are already painfully aware of just how much breast cancer devastates your life.

My mother died of cardiac complications from diabetes a couple of years after an amputation.  Two and a half years later, I still haven't told my father about that diagnosis because it would worry him far more than the cancer.

Hmmmm ....

As one who spends October avoiding pink *anything* (from ribbons and walks to yeast with a pink stripe on the pkg) my response would be: Be careful what you wish for! This awareness bit is not what it looks like from the outside. It doesn't do much for most of the people with the disease - and reminds exactly those who need it least. Etc. Everyone here can fill in the details....

I agree with PatMom -- education is needed. About bc, and about marketing campaigns.

I'm all for bashing the pink parade. The pink machine takes all kinds of marketing dollars and does nothing for us.

But, I'm for bashing the diabetes parade too.  I don't like cause marketing at all.   It leads to corruption and false emotion.

Someone once told me....

OOOH Dont worry its nothing everybody is getting it now. 

LMBO @ Seyla...now I feel better

Don't think your overreacting at all - I understand the breast cancer gets more attention than other diseases, but it surely isn't all about boobs and football players.  I saw this same post from a "friend" of mine and my blood instantly started boiling. I guess I should be happy to have such a "glamorous" disease.

Anne, I felt the same way you did when I read what your friend had posted on her FB page: "[Diabetes] isn't pink or sexy, it doesn't involve boobs, football players or cute t-shirts."

But, then I backed down a bit... because those of us who've had breast cancer know it isn't pink or sexy, and it doesn't really involve football players or cute t-shirts.  Boobs do participate, of course, in an involuntary but obligatory way (noting that we all could name other boobs who aren't of the anatomical variety).

I think what your friend is railing against isn't breast cancer itself; and I really don't think the intent of her statement was to minimize what we've gone through.  What she's objecting to, IMHO, is all the publicity breast cancer gets.  Prominent buildings are illuminated with pink light; fountains are dyed pink; all sorts of products carry pink-for-BC ribbons; BC "survivors" are urged to "dress in pink, of course!" for events at which whole communities "Walk for a Cure"; and, yes, football players wear pink shoes, pink gloves, pink socks, etc.  Despite the innuendo behind all this hoopla, or perhaps as a result of it, everyone is very aware of breast cancer.

What I've noticed in my reading about the subject is a growing backlash against cause-based marketing that involves breast cancer.  Most of us have heard the term "pink-washing"; and many of us are just plain tired of our illness and our lives being exploited for commecial (or even philanthropic) gain.

Well, we're not the only ones who are growing tired of the aggressive publicity surrounding breast cancer.  People with other serious illnesses, and the organizations that represent them, have begun to push back.  I think in some respects they might be jealous of all the attention breast cancer gets.  I doubt many of them would choose to trade places with us, but I'll bet they wouldn't mind a bit more public acknowledgment of the difficulties they face.... if not also a bit more money to support research and education.

Komen alone is a huge marketing operation that dominates the field of breast cancer-related fundraising.  Then there's the dedication of an entire month of the calendar year to "breast cancer awareness."  Sure, other illness and social conditions have their months, too; but there is nothing to compare to the attention breast cancer gets during its month in the limelight.

"(National) Breast Cancer Awareness Month" is not just a page on the calendar -- it's an organization that held its first promotional event 25 years ago.  The founding members of the organization's Board of Sponsors were the American Academy of Family Physicians, AstraZeneca Healthcare Foundation and CancerCare, Inc.  The current Board of Sponsors is a who's who of cancer-related healthcare and fundraising:  physicians' professional organizations (ASCO, AAFP, ACOG, ACR), philanthropic agencies (including Komen), American Cancer Society, CDC, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Cancer Institute, and many others, including of course Astra-Zeneca Healthcare Foundation (http://www.nbcam.org/about_board_of_sponsors.cfm).

I haven't seen any reliable numbers lately that compare the dollars raised on behalf of breast cancer "awareness" and those raised by other campaigns on behalf of their illnesses; but I'll bet there's no comparison.  And, to all those other people with equally deadly or disabling illnesses, that has to be frustrating.

It's sad that their expression of frustration sounds like it's an attack against us, when what they really resent is the success of "our" marketing campaign.  Only we aren't the ones doing the marketing -- we're just the poster children.

otter

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{{{{{Anne068}}}}}

I am a 10 year diabetic who was diagnosed with breast cancer this summer.  I can attest to the fact that neither is fun.  I understand that those of us with breast cancer can get sick of Pink October. And I suspect that some with diabetes feel that not enough media/marketing attention is paid to that disease by comparison. 

Even though there is a diabetic "explosion" with estimates that by the year 2050 one third of all people will have type 2 diabetes, there is not at the moment a single research effort I could find that is addressing the effects of chemotherapy on diabetics under the age of 65.  Not one.  I asked the Komen Foundation. 

Even though my BC is "almost" triple negative (ER is 8%, PR is 3%) and my oncotype score was 50, I passed on chemo because I feared the neuropathy and the effects of steroids on my diabetes from a long term perspective more than I feared the possibility of a recurrence.  I could find no study that reassured me that I wouldn't end up with permanent side effects from chemo with no proof that I either had a rogue cancer cell that got past the sentinel nodes or that chemo would eliminate the chance of recurrence.  And three oncologists could offer nothing because there's no research underway.  The only clinical studies were done on information from the Medicare database so all the information was for women 65 and over, and the data analyzed by MD Anderson demonstrated that diabetics do not tolerate chemo well, end up with more severe side effects that require hospitalization, and are more likely to suffer long-term neuropathy.   I am 60 so I had to pay attention to that information as it was the best available data.

 I suspect the comment is nothing more than a plea for attention to another killer disease and whoever wrote the original comments was envious of the attention being given to breast cancer. 

 The ADA needs to hire the Komen marketeers!

Michelle

   

I don't think the pink campaigns are aimed at BC patients... they are more aimed at the non-breast cancer people.  To make them aware and to raise money for research.  The money made from pink everything, goes to cancer research ( less of course the admin. fees )

My grandson was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when he was 9, he has an insulin pump and everyday I think about him and wonder if he is ok.  The diseases are important to the diseased, the healthy ones need to be made aware, so they can help.  Education and research are the targets.