Tidbits in Here Be Dust

I volunteered at two events on Oct. 10. “We Can” Weekend, a cancer education fair, was sponsored by my radiation center with major support from my cancer center. The event occurred in the morning and included several presentations. My radiation oncologist emceed and also gave one of the talks.

I staffed the support group table. The vision boards come from the “Creativity Heals” group I facilitate. Above them stands the board for the breast cancer group I attend. Literature was available from other groups as well.

A few hours after “We Can” Weekend ended I was off to Diva Night. There, I staffed the table for the Citrus Aid Cancer Foundation, which helps local cancer patients and families.

My decorated bra on behalf of Citrus Aid (bra title: “Time to Help”) went on display.

Citrus Aid benefited from funds raised at both events.

The following week I attended a Q&A session on women’s health, sponsored by my hospital. My surgeon was one of the panelists.

A couple of weeks ago, I chanced to step outside around 5 a.m. and caught this:

This is a 4-second exposure at f/2.8 (my camera’s limit on exposure and aperture). Except for rotation, this is unprocessed. The framing is my best guess because my viewfinder was completely black.

A bathroom break gave me a chance to capture this faux starscape:

Sunlight streams through a frosted glass window covered in an old Mylar space blanket.

Signal boosts:

1. How do you prefer to receive test results? Includes link to a survey that will close on October 23. From the survey page: “Our goal is to determine how patients prefer to receive cancer-related results. We are not able to trace responses to an individual account, so survey participation is anonymous. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. This survey is open to anyone who has been or is being treated for cancer of any type.”

2. After meeting with Congressional staffers on Capitol Hill, Beth Caldwell has issued this action alert. The alert is in conjunction with this week’s activities of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is drafting legislation on cancer research.

3. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is doing a research study to look at different ways of graphing information about cancer patients’ symptoms and quality-of-life. They are looking for participants: “If you have ever had cancer, are a cancer clinician, or conduct PRO [patient-reported outcomes] research (cancer or otherwise)....At the end, you can enter for a chance at a $100 Amazon gift card.” More info here.