Tag: cancer

I never liked cancer. I like it even less now.

In my work as a hospice chaplain and grief counselor, I interact with cancer in some way almost every day. Perhaps I'm a bit jaded. All my cases are terminal. Sooner or later, cancer is a killer.

Married people with cancer have better survival odds than their single peers—and not for money reasons, a U.S. study suggests.

Unmarried men were 27 percent more likely to die of their tumors, and single women were 19 percent more likely, the study found.

Married people generally had better health insurance and lived in better neighborhoods, but single patients still fared worse even after accounting for these financial reasons for the marriage advantage.

"It seems that the major contributing factor is greater social support, and less social isolation, among married patients," said study leader Scarlett Lin Gomez of the University of California, San Diego.

He couldn’t put it off any longer. With shaking hands, Luke sat on the edge of his bed, his back to the mirror, and unfolded the spiral notebook paper. At the top, written in what was undoubtedly Natalie’s handwriting, it said: "The day I’m buried."

Underneath was a block of writing, the looping letters so familiar it was like she was whispering in his ear as he read.

Dear Luke,

Many patients with advanced cancer may still want to work, but symptoms from their disease or related treatment prevent them from doing so, a U.S. study suggests.

The study focused on almost 700 adults aged 65 and under with metastatic cancer, meaning tumors had already spread to other parts of the body, and found that more than one-third of them continued to work after their diagnosis.

The following is a news item selected by the Hitched editors during the week of September 25, 2014.

Are Home-Cooked Family Meals Still Possible?
Three sociologists, Sarah Bowen, Sinikka Elliott, Joslyn Brenton and their research team spent more than a year and a half conducting in-depth interviews with 150 black, white, and Latina mothers from all socioeconomic classes. They also spent over 250 hours observing 12 working-class and poor families. What they found is that sitting down for a regular, healthy family meal is really difficult—and perhaps unrealistic.