Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Boston is CRAZY

The first time I trekked back and forth to Boston, I had to call Yanellie, a lifelong New Yorker, to holler about Massachusetts drivers.
“These people drive in the breakdown lane LEGALLY! Where am I?” I yelled into the phone, half laughing and half fearing for my life.
Let me translate: I called a New Yorker to complain about Bostonian driving. I called a woman who reverses down one way streets so her car is facing in the appropriate direction when she doesn’t want to circle the block.
There is a reason the term “Mass-hole” exists.
“I’m not driving 150 miles to treatment to get killed in transit.” I told her.
Believe it or not, there is a benefit to all this travel. Studies have correlated travel distance to treatment and positive outcomes in cancer patients.
Sometimes you do have to go the extra mile.
In an article published in Sept. 2003 in Journal of the National Cancer institute it stated, “patients who traveled 15 miles or more for their care had one-third the risk of death than those living closer. Moreover, for every ten miles the patient traveled for care, the risk of death decreased by 3.2%”
DHMC is 32 miles from my home. Dana Farber is about 160 miles.
Ha! I have found a way to kick “the odds” ass.
Boston does have other good qualities. It is started to woo me away from New York.
It took 250 million dollars to rebuild Yankee stadium, and shockingly, some of this came from the taxpayers.
I like the old stadium. It was in great shape. Has anybody every stayed in that area of the Bronx for a couple hours after the game.
Probably not. You run faster than A Rod screaming to your car, taxi, the six, whatever, because that neighborhood is notoriously dangerous.
How many kids do you think stare at that stadium every day, but can’t afford a ticket? That money really could have been used to improve the school system or social services. Fix the damn slums please.
Boston’s sports teams contribute to the hospitals. I love this!
Mass also has this great program called “Network Health.” This is health insurance and care based upon an affordable percentage of the individual’s income.
What a novel idea.
The Ivy League colleges have all ready instituted this method for the cost of tuition so big name, top notch schools are affordable and accessible for everybody who qualifies.
I can go to Dartmouth for $8000 yearly based on my income, and that is before scholarships.
These guidelines have been instituted so nobody goes broke paying for health care or education.
SWEET. I think we should replicate this idea all over the US.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Believe it or not, the neighborhood around Yankee Stadium was much worse in the late seventies and eighties. It is much better and safer now and many of the are deco building are being restored. In a few years, Manhattanites that can't afford the rents will be moving to the area since it is so close to midtown manhattan which is convenient to get to by subway.