2 simple request of members of the board (non-behavior related)

bastomatic wrote: Also I'm biased, but I'd like to encourage everyone who has a diagnosis of Cancer to talk to their oncologist about a clinical trial for treatment. Some of our best options aren't yet FDA approved, and by participating, you're doing a huge service to those who are diagnosed in the future.

As a scientist who plays with pre-human-trials drug candidates, I second this. Current drugs which kill cancer kill all rapidly dividing cells. That's your immune system, your hair, your skin, and your blood. Some of the newer compounds are getting better at hitting just misregulated cells that transcribe genes like crazy (read: cancer cells and not necessarily your other stuff).

No chemotherapy will ever be perfect, but drugs in clinical trials are strongly thought to be better than current treatments. Even if you're given the "control" treatment instead of the "experimental" drug, you just saved a boatload of cash for the existing best therapy.

NGTD wrote: - Make sure your family is aware of your desire to donate your organs. Lots of people that have signed donor cards don't have their organs used because the grieving family refuses.

My family is fine with it. When I had my appendix out my parents tried to sell my kidneys since the doc was in already in there.

Thanks to all you guys that donate blood. It literally saved my life in 1997, I got 9 units of that stuff in a pretty short period of time. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

bastomatic wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Can a,Type I diabetic be an organ doner? Serious question.

Short answer - yes you can. Honestly we call Gift of Life for ALL deaths in hospital, and they determine if the deceased is suitable for donation, then speak with the family.

In a past life I was an organ donation coordinator for several years; I've been out for awhile, but a few comments:

Due to need, donors are evaluated on a case by case basis, so there are very, very few hard and fast 'not suitable' donors. As of right now, there are 122488 people on waiting lists. When I started as a coordinator in 1999, the waiting list was around 70k.

Regarding the driver's license - it depends on the state. In Ohio for the past ten years or so, the organ donor indication on your license is legally binding first person consent. Prior to that, we used it as an indicator of the person's wishes.

Honestly, I discussed donation options with hundreds of families, and I can remember ONE that didn't support their loved ones' wish to be a donor. Others didn't agree with that choice, or the idea of donation, but supported what their loved one wanted regardless of their own opinion.

wbjones wrote: they won't "throw" anything away until it can't be used … i.e. ages out …or refrigeration goes out … that sort of thing

Here in Northern California, they charge a significant fee for a directed donation, $500 when I asked about it a few years ago. They said it was cheaper in Sacramento than San Francisco, so people would drive to Sacramento to "get a better deal" They also said if a directed donation was not used for the intended person, they discarded it and it was not used. When I said I wanted to speak to their medical director, they gave me the name of the former medical director who happened to have been dead a while at the time I asked, so they were more than somewhat full of crap. First time I went back to Texas after moving here, I went and donated blood. They wanted to know where I had been. I told them what they had told me about directed donations in California and they said that was the craziest thing they had ever heard.

In California, you can identify yourself as a donor when you renew your driver's license. It is not binding, and if the family of the deceased raises any fuss, they are not going to harvest the organs. As I said before, you need to let your family know about your intentions about it.

I am a bit OCD skin cancers, have diagnosed a few. When we were about a two months away from getting married, I told my wife she needed to get a mole taken off her leg. She told me her dermatologist said it was nothing worry about. To me, it looked like the picture you see in the Derm Textbook under malignant melanoma. Too big, asymmetrical, funky colors, scary looking. Told her I would not marry her until she got it excised. Off to the plastic surgeon, who thought the dermatologist was getting picky. She said it was her fiancee's idea. Turns out, Clark's Grade 1, and all the sudden I am smart, not paranoid, does she have any other moles that have me worried, yeah, the one on her shoulder, also melanoma it turns out.

Wear sunscreen y'all, and even more importantly, put it on your kids.

kylini wrote:

bastomatic wrote: Also I'm biased, but I'd like to encourage everyone who has a diagnosis of Cancer to talk to their oncologist about a clinical trial for treatment. Some of our best options aren't yet FDA approved, and by participating, you're doing a huge service to those who are diagnosed in the future.

As a scientist who plays with pre-human-trials drug candidates, I second this. Current drugs which kill cancer kill all rapidly dividing cells. That's your immune system, your hair, your skin, and your blood. Some of the newer compounds are getting better at hitting just misregulated cells that transcribe genes like crazy (read: cancer cells and not necessarily your other stuff). No chemotherapy will ever be perfect, but drugs in clinical trials are strongly thought to be *better* than current treatments. Even if you're given the "control" treatment instead of the "experimental" drug, you just saved a boatload of cash for the existing best therapy.

prior to what's happening to me now, I would read (skim sorta) the medical advances in various magazines … I thought that I'd read (YEARS AGO) that certain lasers had been developed that would zero in on certain things (tumors) and leave the "good" stuff alone … I thought that sounded really neat …

and then I thought that I had read about gene splicing with bacteria that cause it to zero in on certain tumors, consume them and then die and get flushed out of the body …

were these just Buck Rogers sciFi stuff ? or did it just not work out (yet)

Toebra wrote:

wbjones wrote: they won't "throw" anything away until it can't be used … i.e. ages out …or refrigeration goes out … that sort of thing

Here in Northern California, they charge a significant fee for a directed donation, $500 when I asked about it a few years ago. They said it was cheaper in Sacramento than San Francisco, so people would drive to Sacramento to "get a better deal" They also said if a directed donation was not used for the intended person, they discarded it and it was not used. When I said I wanted to speak to their medical director, they gave me the name of the former medical director who happened to have been dead a while at the time I asked, so they were more than somewhat full of crap. First time I went back to Texas after moving here, I went and donated blood. They wanted to know where I had been. I told them what they had told me about directed donations in California and they said that was the craziest thing they had ever heard. In California, you can identify yourself as a donor when you renew your driver's license. It is not binding, and if the family of the deceased raises any fuss, they are not going to harvest the organs. As I said before, you need to let your family know about your intentions about it. I am a bit OCD skin cancers, have diagnosed a few. When we were about a two months away from getting married, I told my wife she needed to get a mole taken off her leg. She told me her dermatologist said it was nothing worry about. To me, it looked like the picture you see in the Derm Textbook under malignant melanoma. Too big, asymmetrical, funky colors, scary looking. Told her I would not marry her until she got it excised. Off to the plastic surgeon, who thought the dermatologist was getting picky. She said it was her fiancee's idea. Turns out, Clark's Grade 1, and all the sudden I am smart, not paranoid, does she have any other moles that have me worried, yeah, the one on her shoulder, also melanoma it turns out. Wear sunscreen y'all, and even more importantly, put it on your kids.

like I said on a previous page …

as though I needed any more reasons to stay out of the state … are they so flush with donated blood that they can be that cavalier about unused directed donations ?

I could sorta understand it they hadn't "preserved" it (chilled/frozen) whatever … but if stored correctly … someone is bound to have needed it ...

In reply to wbjones:

i guess since they can't extract drinking water from it...

The assumed demographic of this forum, and of GRM readers, is one of the least likely groups to see a physician (or RN) for a standard routine checkup. Heck the only times I did was for track and sports related physicals, and beyond blood pressure they didn't really check much. I had seen orthopedic surgeons more frequently for pre-ops and surgery then an internist (in spite of having battled AML twice, dumb dumb dumb on my part). Now I literally have a dozen plus doctors, if I have 2 days in a row without an appointment (not treatment but an actual appointment of some sort) it seems like something is wrong and most days I have multiple appointments. You never want to make up lost time in a doctor's office in this manner. It's terrifying to know that there's a weekly round-table meeting of the minds mulling over prognosis to determine whether treatment or pain management is the best course of action.

The truth is that none of us know how much time we have left, to paraphrase Fightclub, on a long enough timeline all of our survival rate is 0%, some of us are just fortunate enough to have it highlighted in front of us to attempt to enjoy and make the most of our time. That being said, the time to work to ensure that you have the most amount of time to spend and enjoy with your friends, family, love ones, Amys and other hobbies; is when you're feeling fine and there's nothing wrong.

Excellent point. People take better care of their dogs or their cars than they do themselves.

I ran into a patient at the store that had missed a recent appointment. Chatted with him a bit, and he does an excellent job describing the symptoms of a stroke. Told his wife to take him to the ER right now-ish, they hit him with TPA and he did okay. I could not even guess how many times I have caught stuff that was either totally unrelated to the reason for that day's visit, or regarding a family member who was not even a patient. Caught a lung cancer on a preop chest x ray one time. Zero symptoms, delays his surgery and saves his life.

People seem to have this idea that if they don't go to the doctor or the hospital, they won't get any bad news. Bad news still happens, it just is a big problem, rather than a small one when you find out about it.

WRT the discarding unused directed donations in California, that had to have been a money thing somehow. Been too long since I donated blood, I need to go to Reno or something.