This is from the FORCE website (www.facingourrisk.org). If you are a person with a risk of cancer, check out the link below to find out how to be proactive towards your risk.

"The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is a consortium of cancer centers with experts in management of hereditary cancer. Each year, the NCCN updates their risk management guidelines for people with hereditary risk for cancer, based on the latest research.

Current NCCN guidelines (for ovarian cancer), which dictate the standard of care for cancer surveillance in high-risk patients, include:

Concurrent transvaginal ultrasound with color doppler
CA-125
pelvic exam

every 6 months starting at age 30-35 or 5-10 yrs earlier than the earliest age of first diagnosis in the family, and preferably day 1-10 of the menstrual cycle for premenopausal women."

Fantastic Prayers

My dear friend Susan sent me an email from her daily devotional website and it had these fantastic prayers on it. I just had to share them! Abba is another way of saying Papa. Isn't it wonderful to think of God as your Papa when you talk to Him?

(From "The Father's Business" a weekly devotional by Sylvia Gunter)

All of us at some time need to crawl up on Papa's lap. At those times, we understand best what it means to come to Him as little children. Pray this prayer for someone who may be feeling small, unloved, and overwhelmed. If you need it, fill your name in the blank and receive it for yourself.

Pray this way: Abba, let Your precious one ___(name the person)___ know that Your eye is on them today.

Abba's Presence: Go before _______ with Your lovingkindness, grace, and truth, and go behind them with extra portions of Your protection. You hold them securely in Your safe hand. Fill their heart, household, and everything around them with Your mighty presence.

Abba's Promises: May every step they take today be on the solid footing of Your Word and Your promises, which are "Yes" in Christ and "Amen" to the glory of God (2 Cor. 1:20). Generously give _______ wisdom and keen discernment in all their ways today. Give them direction and clarity of thought moment by moment. For every need they have today, You are the I am, more than sufficient in Your eternal supply.

Abba's Defense: For _______, hold up Jesus, the armor of light, especially the mighty shield of faith to strategically intercept every fiery dart of the accuser. Allow none to hit its intended mark, so that all of them fall harmless to the ground. Bear witness to them that they are hidden in Christ in You while they truly seek You with all their heart. Bind the spirits of unbelief and confusion which seek to steal, kill, and destroy their peace. Hide them in Your great peace, mercy, and enabling. Forbid the evil one from carrying out any harassment or schemes against their total victory today. Demolish the strongholds that have come against them. Let them sense that angels are securing the perimeters of Your work in their lives, work, home, and family. Lift and carry away all burdens laid upon them. Give them discernment to know and grace to discharge the intercessory prayer and intercessory living assignments You give them. Let the yoke of Jesus be well-fitting.

Abba's Love: Set _________ as a seal upon Your heart. Reveal to them how much You love them and how committed You are to them. With the balm of Your love, penetrate deep into old wounds, all prior programming, and pockets of resistance, to soften all the places they have walled off in denial, self-protection or unforgiveness. Bind to them all the freedom that is in their inheritance in Christ Jesus. Speak to them with personal words of hope, strength, abiding rest of soul, grace, joy, encouragement, and victory.

Abba's Purposes For The Future: Let _______ know that the best is yet to be. Your mighty work and Your purposes will stand. Let them run today the race appointed for them with joy. Assure them that You are walking with them through all circumstances and tests, things which everybody knows, things that some people know, and things that nobody knows but You. You have a future and a hope for them that You have chosen, a destiny in keeping with Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, and Ephesians 2:10. Be strong in them to speak Your words and do Your works through their life in their very particular place, touching very particularly appointed people. You are weaving all the strands of the tapestry of Your purposes for their life, as You are preparing them for things which we do not know now. Let them stand secure, confident, and strong, for You are upholding their cause.

Blessing: Heavenly Father, give _______ more and more the heart of an intercessor and worshiper to lift up Jesus in every thought and intent of their hearts and every word of their mouths. Thank You for the sweet fragrance of Jesus that they are. Abba, _______ belongs to You, and Your Spirit inhabits them. Increasingly draw _______ into deeper intimacy with You, looking to You alone, letting Your fragrance fill the room wherever they are, a sweet aroma of life to many. In Jesus' mighty name, Amen.

Cleaning for a Reason

What a fantastic idea! Spread the news about this wonderful website. If you know any woman currently undergoing Chemo, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning - 1 time per month for 4 months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service.

http://www.cleaningforareason.org/

Taking your vitamins just got more important

According to the American College of Epidemiology taking vitamin D is helpful in preventing several cancers. See quote below. Thanks Dorene for the info!

http://www.annalsofepidemiology.org/article/S1047-2797(09)00105-7/abstract

"Purpose
Higher serum levels of the main circulating form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), are associated with substantially lower incidence rates of colon, breast, ovarian, renal, pancreatic, aggressive prostate and other cancers.

Methods
Epidemiological findings combined with newly discovered mechanisms suggest a new model of cancer etiology that accounts for these actions of 25(OH)D and calcium. Its seven phases are disjunction, initiation, natural selection, overgrowth, metastasis, involution, and transition (abbreviated DINOMIT). Vitamin D metabolites prevent disjunction of cells and are beneficial in other phases.

Results/Conclusions
It is projected that raising the minimum year-around serum 25(OH)D level to 40 to 60 ng/mL (100–150 nmol/L) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United States and Canada, based on observational studies combined with a randomized trial. Such intakes also are expected to reduce case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer by half. There are no unreasonable risks from intake of 2000 IU per day of vitamin D3, or from a population serum 25(OH)D level of 40 to 60 ng/mL. The time has arrived for nationally coordinated action to substantially increase intake of vitamin D and calcium." (bold and italics mine)

The last day, or is it?

Even though it is the official last day of Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, that doesn't mean that I am going to stop spreading the word. I am challenging you to send the address to this blog to everyone you know, put it on facebook, twitter it, whatever it takes to spread the word. It is so important to know the symptoms, and know the risks. Wear teal anytime to let others know. Be ready for more information about the Sprint for Life run/walk that M.D. Anderson has to raise money for Ovarian Cancer Research in May. I'll be participating! Thanks so much for your help spreading the word!!

Did you know....

Ovarian cancer is a disease in which malignant or cancerous cells are found in the ovary. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women aged 35 - 74. An estimated one woman in 58 will develop ovarian cancer during her lifetime. To me, that means that someone you know will develop this disease. I know you know more than 58 women! Each year approximately 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed, and over 15,000 women die from this disease. When diagnosed and treated early (when the cancer is confined to the ovary), the 5 year survival rate is over 90%. Unfortunately, due to ovarian cancer's non-specific symptoms, only 19% of all cases are found at this early stage. If caught in stage III or higher, survival rate can be as low as 29%.

What does this mean to you? Well, first, you need to know the symptoms and what to ask your doctor for if you are experiencing these symptoms. This information is listed on the right side of this blog. Please take a moment to share this information with every woman you know, and with the men too (they all have mothers that they could share it with!). We know so much about what to look for with breast cancer, and I am making it my goal that women also know what to look for with ovarian cancer! Spread the word!

TEAL TUESDAY!

We wear teal for our Mimi!!

L'Oreal Paris: Color of Hope

Join L'Oreal in supporting Ovarian Cancer Awareness Week (Sept. 14 - 20)by purchasing their Color of Hope products.

http://www.lorealcolorofhope.com/

I know that you can purchase these products at http://www.drugstore.com/, and I am researching where else you might be able to find them. Let me know if you see them when you are out shopping.

Teal Tuesday

National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day is Tuesday, September 15, 2009!

• The third Tuesday of September each year is Teal Tuesday. Help launch a nationwide public awareness campaign and wear teal clothes, tie ribbons in your yard and community, wear pins, put out teal colored balloons, and paint your toe nails teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness.

• Wear teal in honor of the thousands of beautiful women that are battling the disease, wear teal in memory of the precious lives of those who have lost their battle to this disease. Wear Teal to help raise public awareness of the often overlooked and unrecognized signs and symptoms of this disease. Wear Teal because you care about the thousands of Grandmothers, Mothers, Sisters and Daughters that will be diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer this year. Wear teal for the 15,000 women that will die from Ovarian Cancer this year. Wear teal, help save lives.

THINK TEAL, TALK TEAL, WEAR TEAL - SAVE LIVES!

Teal Toes

In honor of Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, I painted my toes teal. It is a great way for me to share information about Ovarian Cancer to all the people who comment on my toes. You can find teal nail polish at any grocery or drug store....I challenge you to paint your toes teal this month!

Find a great website about this at http://www.tealtoes.org/.

When you go to this website, be sure to contact them to have them send you free cards with symptoms and information to hand out to your friends and family.

Ovarian Cancer Symptoms

• Pelvic or abdominal pain or discomfort
  
• Vague but persistent gastrointestinal upsets such as gas, nausea, and indigestion
  
• Frequency and/or urgency in urination in the absence of an infection
  
• Unexplained weight gain or weight loss
  
• Pelvic and/or abdominal swelling, bloating, and/or feeling of fullness
  
• Ongoing unusual fatigue
  
• Unexplained changes in bowel habits
  
  If you have any of these symptoms, and they persist for more than two weeks, consult your physician. Ask your doctor for a combination pelvic/rectal exam, CA-125 blood test, and transvaginal ultrasound.