Since he won’t tell you …
… I will.
Jim’s second poetry book, “Antidotes & Home Remedies,” is a finalist for a 2009 Oklahoma Book Award. The book, published last year, includes 60 poems, some of which were excerpted Sunday in “Life is real” Chapter Two.
Jim faces stiff competition in the poetry category. Two of the finalists are his close friends, Nathan Brown and Dorothy Alexander. Nathan, who performs with Jim at poetry readings, is a finalist for his book, “Two Tables Over.” Dorothy, who runs Village Books Press in Cheyenne, published their books, along with her own. She is a finalist for “Lessons from an Oklahoma Girlhood.”
You can read stories that Nathan and Dorothy told about Jim in Chapter Two.
Congratulations to all of the poetry finalists, including Carol Hamilton (”Shots On”) and Linda Hogan (”Round the Human Corners”). A full list of Oklahoma Book Award finalists is available at www.odl.state.ok.us/ocb/09final.htm. All five books are available at Full Circle Bookstore at 50 Penn Place in Oklahoma City.
Heartbreaking story out of China
Saw this on CNN International today. Wow. Just … wow.
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BEIJING, China (CNN) – A 13-year-old Chinese girl tried to commit suicide because she wanted her family to donate her liver to her cancer-stricken father, state media reported Thursday.
The girl, Chen Jin, swallowed more than 200 sleeping pills after she discovered a medical note in her mother’s purse that said her father was dying of liver cancer and had three months left to live, the news agency Xinhua said.
Jin’s mother returned home after visiting her husband in the hospital to find the front door locked. The mother climbed in through a back window and found two empty bottles of sleeping pills.
“Mom, I’m sorry I couldn’t stay with you any longer,” read a note that the teen had left next to her. “Please give my liver to dad and save him after my death.”
The incident occurred January 24 in Jiangsu province in east China. The teen was taken to the same hospital as her father, where she remains in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness, Xinhua said.
Doctors say that even if she pulls through, she will need surgery for burns she suffered from an electric blanket on her bed when she lost consciousness, the China Daily newspaper said.
According to Chinese media reports, the family — whose monthly income is about 1,000 yuan ($146) — has already spent nearly 100,000 yuan ($14,600) in medical expenses since the father was diagnosed with cancer more than a month ago. The mother, who is also in poor health, retired early more than eight years ago.
The woman told China Daily she is now trying to keep her husband from learning of their daughter’s desperate act of love.
In case you missed it
The Oklahoman ran this Associated Press story on Wednesday:
Experimental cancer treatments get Medicare’s quiet approval
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Medicare has quietly expanded its coverage for cancer drugs to include some treatments that haven’t gotten the Food and Drug Administration’s full seal of approval.
The change took effect in the fall. It means that doctors and patients seeking Medicare reimbursements for certain novel treatments won’t have to negotiate with the billing department for payment. But it’s also certain to increase Medicare spending, since cancer medications often cost thousands of dollars a month.
“In some instances … the medical community may have scientific evidence that supports using a drug to treat a disease even if the drug’s FDA-approved label does not include those clinical conditions,” Medicare explained in a news release describing the policy.
Cancer doctors strongly supported Medicare’s decision.
“Basically, what this means is that there will be faster coverage of evidence-based and appropriate cancer medications for patients,” said Dr. Joseph Bailes, a spokesman for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “It will reduce the hassle factor.”
Cancer to be No. 1 killer
Found this story from Reuters. Scary, scary stuff.
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By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cancer is on pace to supplant heart disease as the No. 1 cause of death worldwide in 2010, with a growing burden in poor countries thanks to more cigarette smoking and other factors, global health experts said on Tuesday.
Globally, an estimated 12.4 million people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer this year and 7.6 million people will die, the U.N. World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said in a report.
“The global cancer burden doubled in the last 30 years of the 20th century, and it is estimated that this will double again between 2000 and 2020 and nearly triple by 2030,” according to the report.
By 2030, 26.4 million people a year may be diagnosed with cancer, with 17 million people dying from it, the report forecast.
In men, lung cancer was the most common form in terms of new cases and deaths, while breast cancer was the most common type among women in new cases and deaths, according to the report. More men than women get cancer and die from it.
“This is going to present amazing problems at every level in every society worldwide,” the IARC’s Peter Boyle said at a news conference.
In the near term, cancer is expected to bypass heart disease as the leading killer globally in 2010, American Cancer Society Chief Executive Officer John Seffrin said. Cancer currently accounts for about one in eight deaths worldwide.
Trends that will contribute to rising cancer cases and deaths include the aging of populations in many countries — cancer is more common in the elderly — and increasing rates of cigarette smoking in poor countries.
Some rich countries have made progress in cutting cigarette smoking, which causes most cases of lung cancer as well as many other illnesses. In the United States, the most recent figures show that for the first time since records have been kept less than 20 percent of adults were smokers in 2007.
However, cigarette companies are finding new customers in developing countries. Seffrin noted that 40 percent of the world’s smokers live in just two nations — China and India.
Decades ago, cancer was considered largely a problem of Westernized, rich, industrialized countries. But much of the global burden now rests in poor and medium-income countries.
Many of these countries have limited health budgets and high rates of communicable diseases, while cancer treatment facilities are out of reach for many people and life-saving treatments are seldom available, Boyle said.
“There are more deaths in the world from cancer than from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined,” Boyle said.
At the same time, progress against cancer has been reported by authorities in such places as the United States and Europe.
For example, health authorities in the United States reported last month that cancer diagnosis rates are now dropping for the first time in both men and women and previous declines in cancer death rates are accelerating.
They attributed the progress to factors such as regular screening for breast and colorectal cancer, declining smoking rates and improved treatments.
Cancer-prevention opportunities exist in countries of any income level, Boyle said, noting that many types of cancer are caused by individual behaviors such as smoking.
Some other “modifiable risk factors” for cancer that Boyle cited included alcohol consumption, too much exposure to sunlight, lack of physical activity and obesity.
