#academically rigorous institution my ass

[kokyoro]

post ch 71 theory: how i imagine (want) things to happen!

Loid is notified by Sylvia of the bus hijacking and immediately goes into panic, but quickly covers up with his “Twilight” mode, and dashes to the scene as fast as possible.

When he arrives, the police have cornered the hijacked bus (last panel of 71) and they basically are trying to get everyone out out of the bus. The red circus people are out of the bus, pointing guns are the policemen and guarding the bus. Policemen are pointing guns straight back.

Yuri arrives at the scene, and he, along with the rest of the police officers(but mainly Yuri), kick Red circus’s ass. Loid, now disguised as a police officer, also joins in on the ass-kicking. Yuri yells into the bus, telling the kids to get out of there, and that the police have got the bad guys now.

Beanie guy (idk his name but he’s the guy who put the fake bombs on anya and damian) is on the ground, almost accepting defeat, but he suddenly remembers something. He yells, “If anyone steps out of the bus, I’m activating the bombs I attached to two of the kids!”

This is when Yuri and Loid peek through the windows of the bus, seeing Anya and Damian’s necks strapped with a bomb. Now, Loid is much more panicked. His (fake) daughter has a BOMB strapped to her. Better yet, so does Donovan Desmond’s son! Operation Strix is in grave danger.

But a part of his heart, a large one at that, feels nothing but dread for Anya. Suddenly, he remembers the sandbox she created when she visited his “workplace,” and how cluttered it was. He tries to imagine how he would feel as a kid. When he was left to cry stand alone in the middle of a war-struck town, how horrible did he feel? How did Anya feel, being stripped away from families four times? Being immediately kidnapped after he adopted her? Being thrust into an academically rigorous institution at such a young age? Being on a hijacked bus with a bomb strapped to her neck, with the imminent threat of death looming over her head?

As a 6 year old, would he have been able to handle that?

OK THYAS ALL I CAN THJNK OF FOR NOW! i just wanna see some fatherly protection/love from loid. like i LNOW ur healing ur inner child by easing anya. his backstory for real breaks my heart. CANT WAIT FOR CH 72!!

[archaic-stranger]

blasting spooky scary skeletons from my dorm room to counteract the person down the hall playing all i want for christmas

[mysterious-prophetess]

Top Five Academic and Publishing Scandals of the last Decade

So, I’ve seen people do stuff like this, a round up of sorts and the 2010′s were an insane decade to be alive.

So, I thought I’d compile my personal favorite publishing and academic scandals

Note: This will concern only things that were actually published or a scandal to do with Academia. The Rose Christo incident with the infamous fanfic didn’t have the biography make it to print so it’s right here as a Dishonorable Mention. No sources, because this was a home-grown tumblr disaster (much like Dashcon). 

So, 

#5 That Book that Used Scammy Tactics to Become a Best Seller Before Anyone Ever Even Read It.

Remember that time when Handbook for Mortals used shady tactics to make it look like it was selling better in pre-sales than it actually was? I barely remembered it, but then as I was adding in our Dishonorable Mention, I suddenly had the thought of “remember that...” so here it is at #5 since this book was actually published, and it was allegedly terrible. It has 3 stars on Amazon, but with its past, I can’t even trust that.

I didn’t read it. I had, and still have, better things to do than to read subpar fantasy that tried to be the next Hunger Games/Harry Potter/Divergent. 

It turns out, if you have wealthy enough collaborators, or people who know how to game the system by which the NYT Bestsellers’ List operates, you too can buy and cheat your way onto that list with a terribly written book like these guys.

What’s even more ridiculous was there were already talks of a movie version and this unknown writer turned out to be, surprise, an actress too! And guess who’d be playing her own main character in the movie? The author! So, once this was unraveled as being a bulk-book-buying-cheat-tactic-to-get-on-the-NY Times-Bestseller-List, they lost their rank and were completely off the list. The movie is also toast, I think, since it would have come out in 2018. We’re now in 2020.

(x) (xx) (xxx) (xxxx)

#4: That time Bethesda Plagiarized Dungeons and Dragons.

That’s right folks. Bethesda, who cannot catch a break after their hilariously disastrous launch of their ongoing garbage fire, Fallout 76, were in trouble whenever they released a TTRPG module for an Elder Scrolls game that was suspiciously like a previously released Dungeons and Dragons adventure...because it was very much ripped off from the D&D book.  

There were articles highlighting just how they did this and how blatant it was. 

Some articles would do a side-by-side of huge chunks of the text and, yikes, that’s some obvious copy-pasting.

Suffice to say, they yanked this e-book down ASAP. (x) (xx) (xxx) (xxxx)

#3 That Time a Youtuber Turned Professional Games Media Editor Plagiarized for Most of His Career and Only Got Caught After He Plagiarized the Wrong Person on a Very Public Platform

So, yeah. There was a review last year for a game called Dead Cells (published by Motion Twin). On July 24, 2018 a smaller Youtube channel called Boomstick gaming would upload their review to the game. Then August 6th, IGN’s Nintendo editor would post “his” review up and Deadite from Boomstick Gaming, who was actually a fan of IGN, noticed a lot of eerie similarities between the reviews. He did a side-by-side video comparison (here) and it looks like a case of barely even changing the words around after copying someone else’s homework. As an English major, this is a clear-cut case of plagiarism. IGN agreed too, as did most of the internet. This reviewer had fans who still believe in him even after he’s been proven a plagiarist but, no accounting for taste am I right? And this would have been the end of it....had he just accepted his fate and just slunk off into the dark recesses of the internet. 

But, then he had to provoke both Jason Schrier of Kotaku AND the Internet in a now deleted non-apology video to “looking as hard as you’re able, you won’t find anything.”

Yeah. That didn’t end well for him. So, people went digging and found a shitton of evidence he was a serial plagiarist. No shock to me, because plagiarism is never something a plagiarist ever does just “once.” He’d ripped off his fellow IGN reviewers as well as forum posts and articles from other publications. He also plagiarized a resume template. Now, when you use one of those, you’re SUPPOSED to mimic the style, put place your own information, right? Well, he didn’t even do that.

Link to YongYea, a youtuber who covered the topic in depth. He has his videos on the topic in a playlist. (x)

#2 The Professor Who P-Hacked His Results to Pieces

Now if you don’t know or remember who Professor Brian Wansink is, he’s a former faculty member at Cornell who rose to fame with his papers on nutrition and people’s eating habits. I’m still not entirely sure how a guy whose degrees were not in nutrition OR psychology ended up being the face of this field that seemed to have a lot more to do with nutrition and psychology, but here we are. His degrees were, in fact, a B.S. in business administration from Wayne State College, an M.A. in  journalism and mass communication from Drake University, and a PhD in Marketing-Consumer behavior- from Stanford. In a move that one might call pure hubris or just complete and total social ignorance, he made a blog post that started to bring eyes on his work. Thanks to the efforts of other scientists (Like the Skeptical Scientist) and Heathers and Brown as well as the computer programs GRIM and GRIMMER, it was found the man who was cited over 200,000 times was a fraud. As of now 17 papers have been retracted and 15 have been corrected. He is no longer employed at all by Cornell, resigning a disgrace to his field and his former place of work.

The only reason he managed to get so big was he was able to make his so-called science digestible for the masses and able to give his works palatable titles. Ok, I’m done with the food puns. He was a superstar (even worked with the previous first lady on her health initiatives), which is why his fall is also meteoric. This is why you don’t torture your data into false positives, folks. Also, he’d target science journals that weren’t as prestigious and therefore wouldn’t have as rigorous a peer-editing process, allegedly. 

His actions have brought thousands of papers into jeopardy and destabilized his whole entire field because nothing he did was reproducible and that’s already a huge problem in science. 

(x) (xx) (xxx) (xxxx) (X) (XX)

And.... now for the worst Academic Scandal of the 2010′s....

#1 The College Admission’s Scandal

Because despite Wasink’s damage to his field (because now there are literally thousands of papers who cited him in jeopardy), and two separate cases of Plagiarists on this list, I really can’t help but feel this has to be one of the biggest College/Academia scandals of ALL TIME. Sure, it’s old news now but I’m recapping it because that’s what this list is for. So, A bunch of wealthy people who wanted their children to go to prestigious universities wanted a guarantee that just buying a new wing for the library/science buildings/etc wouldn’t get them. You know, the normal way the super rich buy their children’s ways into schools. Instead, they went to this guy Singer whose group masqueraded as a charity (and that’s what got their asses nailed) and facilitated bribery, cheating, and deception. They caught one of these parents who’d gotten their children in with Singer’s plans for a different crime, and he offered to squeal on Singer and his plot for leniency with his other charges.

Singer’s plan usually involved bribing coaches to get these undeserving students recruited for sports teams (and therefore displacing an actual athlete who should have gotten their spot) as well as having people alter SAT scores and other deceptive actions. 

It’s unknown if, at this time, any of these children of the 34 charged parents, actually managed to graduate with degrees from any of these institutions. However, those that had any of these students have to now decide what to do with them since these admissions are now verifiably fraudulent. Some are going to whole-sale kick them out or “cancel their admission” and others aren’t speaking up, and one has already decided the student gets to stay. Because they might not have known what their parents did, and its possible for the ones whose parents DIDN’T have them fake athleticism to not know what their mom and dad did. Hell, even most of the fake athletes might not have known thanks to reports of photo shopping their faces onto uniformed bodies. I do not know if any of these children were in on what their parents did, thought I suspect some might have been, but that’s merely speculation on my part. At the end of the day, it’s up to each affected university to carry out what they wish to do next.

The fact they made donations to a fake charity (and therefore skirted the tax man) are the reason they’re REALLY in deep shit. You don’t deny the IRS its money or the IRS will come for your blood. Just ask the ghost of Al Capone. 

(x) (xx) (xxx)

So those are my top 5 Publishing and Academic Scandals of the past Decade. 

[solunova]

hey uh ib is... como se dice... a Fuck. like as someone who is still trying to recover psychologically after graduating and getting my diploma. like i was Smart Good At School and hung out with Smart Good At School and we were all dying the entire time. you may have some issues but like. shit's fucked man

(Another Anonymous said: Hey don’t stress yourself too much with ib stuff, they suck now and are so freaking stressful but they are definitely steps that will help you down the road (coming from someone who definitely credits all the ia and shit I had to write to helping me rewrite a 10 page college paper 3 days before it’s due and get an a on it) these things have their place in you academic journey (also don’t stress the ioc’s too much you have that knowledge in your brain you can do it!))

i guess before i start: thank you two. person 1 for validation in my pain and 2 for encouragement that ill be okay and that it isnt all for naught. i appreciate both of yall! 

but its my birthday at 1:40 am and im fucking SAD cause im up trying to write my entire bio ia due friday after some Complications came up so this is gonna be a mostly negative retrospective of my last two years and the circumstances that ive lived in due to the ib

i refuse to put this under a cut yall scroll past word walls anyways

so heres my hot and absolutely original take: i recognize that ib is extremely beneficial in certain regards. i know from everyone who took it telling me that its good for college experience and all that kind of stuff, both on a knowledge/content level and on, as person 2 describes, an “i cant get off my ass to write this paper in time” level and being able to compensate for that. i agree with that! I am extremely grateful for an increased class difficulty, especially in the fields where i knew what was happening already and spent classes bored until ib. and like! ib english is the first goddamn time ive EVER talked about the evils of imperialism and colonialism in an academic setting. that shit is vital to our future and yet no normal class talks about it!!! its terrible! and ib history is the first time ive ever enjoyed a history class and gotten even a margin of a good feeling out of it. like there are some really good parts of ib that ive written every damn college entry essay ive gotten on. i Know.

but like okay lets start with the fact that going into this that they (as in all ib teachers) were like “oh itll break you out of procrastination! itll teach you to constantly be studying!!! its what you need for college!!!!!” when it has done all of jack and shit to help us achieve that. its just kind of put us in the lions den and let us scramble at the walls for a foothold to get out or at least survive, maimed and depraved. if it sees us stopping to catch our breath, it shoots at our feet. the ibo extorts our misery to feed their mirth

lets also acknowledge that dumb fucks who take full ib, or even worse, those taking pseudo full ib (ie all classes but no diploma cause their extended essay busted and they gave up ie me) mostly take it due to extreme pressure, be it from their schools, their family, or their own psyche, saying they arent good enough if they dont take the highest offered classes, or even more that if they arent doing well in those classes its a product of their own shortcomings and then spend most of the rest of the time in ib degrading themselves because no matter how much time they put in they cant be the best and all that fun stuff. ib kids are put on a sort of pedestal by the school but then left on their own. 

i, of course, see this as a much greater academic institution integrated mindset that needs to be addressed and challenged, but to force it on kids who have to not only go through with it for the next four years, but also because its targeted at these kids that are higher achieving “gifted and talented” fucking whatever, most likely the rest of their lives?

its straight up psychologically damaging to give such a rigorous course load and no help for the effects and self esteem issues from it, no help for the people who dont know how to give up and instead run themselves in the fucking dirt and strain themselves to the edges of their goddamn sanity, spending what little time is left in their adolescence treating themselves like shit

idealistically, ib is wonderful. i think it carries out some of its best traits (integrating global thinking, allowing a more freeform discussion of many things, etc), but i also recognize how absolutely full of shit it is in many corners (regarding encouraging service, intellectual honesty, whatever else), one, and that a lot of people are just.. not up to the task. they may have the ability intellectually, but not mentally. i firmly believe that anyone can do anything if they set their minds to it but i have become the victim of my own philosophy because that came at the expense of my well-being.

and the fact that when i tried to tell my coordinator this she a) did not let me just NOT do the ee despite how strained i was(which i didnt end up doing, lick my whole dick mrs kurtz) and stole my summer from me because between being depressed as hell at gsp i was a nervous wreck about what they could do to me or how i was going to accomplish anything that i needed to, and that i havent had a proper break from school in three straight years, that im still running on empty essentially and b) that when i told the other ib coordinator, 4 months later, theres not a souls chance in hell that i was gonna fucking do it, that she lectured me and made me cry in class about how “you cant see the forest for the trees” “thisll help you later in life” “youre throwing away jobs” all that fun stuff like

its evil

the lack of care that often goes into it

the extreme magnitude of work that, sure, is feasibly possible for a 16-18 year old to do, but here theyre expected to

the fact that the classes fall in a time where gpa is so absolutely vital to colleges and scholarships (and given that its these ib kids’ personality and intellectual dispositions, even more so - both in esteem and necessity)

the fact that so many of the classes and so much of the coursework is empty, ultimately

its kind of a bad system

not even to MENTION the egotistical complexes, both inwardly as addressed and outwardly as in being the most godawful kind of people that manifests in these people that think theyre gods gift to the world cause they took ib and “if you spend time bitching about ib you deserve to fail because that was time you could have spent working” like you sound like the worst kind of person and i dont fucking care. theres a girl in my classes who is so upset every time someone doesnt listen to her because she thinks everything she has to say is the goddamn gospel and ib really attracts these kinds of people and its the WORST

[glompcat]

not recently, but a while back you said something about going to college when you were 16? i was just wondering how that was possible, like did you skip a lot of grades or something?

Oh no Anon, I came from a public school district that needed people to perform well on standardized tests so no one was ever allowed to advance in grade like that ever. There were all kinds of special classes at my school just for the kids who would have traditionally been bumped up, but couldn’t because they needed our test scores.

Nah, see when I was sixteen, unable to handle the social environment of my school any longer, I decided to drop out of high school and go to an early college.

Specifically I decided to go to a school called Simon’s Rock.

I was both the worst decision I ever made, and the best decision I ever made.

See on one hand I managed to attain both the the higher level of academic vigor I craved, and for the first time in my life I was in an environment where I could have an actual social life. 

Both academically and socially I thrived there.

It was the worst decision ever because it is a tiny ass school of 400 kids ages sixteen to twenty, all of whom think they’re god’s gift to mankind intellectually (and won’t shut up about it), on top of a fucking mountain with almost no adult supervision whatsoever (and back when I was in school there, there was no cell phone service on campus either). It is also one of the most expensive colleges in America, which is really and truly saying something.

When I say I got up to all kinds of stupid ass shit when I was teen, and that I know people who did the most absurd nonsense imaginable… I mean it.

We had basically no adults watching us at all, like ever. We lived in a fucking fish bowl where everyone was in everyone else’s business at all times, and the drug problem on that campus is honestly terrifying to think about now that I’m an adult.

But at that time and in the moment?

 I was having the best time of my life. 

My classes were challenging me in ways I had never been challenged before in my education, my peers were always happy to debate academic topics with me at the drop of a hat, I was the president of the campus anime club and was surrounded by nerds who were into what I was into at all times, and I had the freedom to explore who I was in my teen years in an environment where being queer wasn’t a big deal.

(This is not to say the culture there was ideal. Far from it. I was there between 2005 and 2009 and wow did that place have a lot to learn back then about trans folks. I hope things have changed since then, but who knows. The campus was also dealing with some staggering racism issues. I remember my first year there the Black Student Union had a teach in about White Privilege during lunch one day in the dining hall. People flipped their shit at the next town hall meeting, it got real ugly. The next semester the school mandated one day a semester be devoted to “Diversity Day” workshops. People staged massive protests against them. It was a fucking nightmare).

Anyway that’s the long answer. The short one is that I am not particularly bright, I just found a way to gain admittance to a school where the entire first year class is made up of sixteen year olds.

Or to quote the school’s website and how they describe it:

If you’re on the verge of 11th or 12th grade and certain you don’t want more of the same, Simon’s Rock can show you what education is like when everyone shares your love of learning. We’re the only residential college experience designed for thoughtful, exceptionally motivated students who are ready to start college early.

I won’t lie, it’s a really good school, academically. According to the Princeton Review the classes are far more rigorous than Princeton or Harvard, and I easily believe that. In fact I had friends who transfused to places like Bryn Mawr and Yale and then came back because they felt they weren’t being challenged at those institutions. 

Still, I am not particularly bright, I assure you of that. I’m just someone who found a weird ass school in the middle of nowhere that treats teenagers like adults who can be trusted to have their shit together both personally and academically, and I liked it enough I stayed for all four years and got a BA there.

[daviddshiki]

The Adventures of David Dashiki-Story of an African American Hero---MVP Teachers

DADDY DASHIKI-PROPHET

EVERYONE IS AFRAID of reentering school this year. It seems that COVID 19 has scared the shit out of all citizens. I can recall those days when both parents and students were so intimidated by the teaching staff that they would not even give absence a second thought. First of all, they knew the Mrs.Ball Cruncher would be there. She rarely missed a day...ANNNNDDDDD, she expected her students to be present, rain,  shine, tornado or hurricane. There were days during flu season that the classroom resembled a mash unit. Inhalers, cough drops, the smell of Vicks and the coatings of Vasoline were integrated with tears, coughs, sore throats and moans. Still, we were present. Mrs. Ball Cruncher worked our asses off as if no epidemic existed. In fact, it appeared that the usual sensible pace of instruction was replaced with an accelerated one so that no one would think it was play time or day off because of the horrific impact of the disease on our community and the city. The room was filled with sniffling . Yet, when called upon, students responded without hesitation but excellent elocution. The only break or pause was the usual interruption...LUNCHTIME. In fact, there was an extreme pride in the fact we would survive not the affliction, but, Mrs. Ball Cruncher. This day was not a day of instruction. Rather, it was a competition. The class was united under the mantra...’There would be no colleagues ‘left behind’. One student appointed himself Lieutenant. His task was to motivate the well and assist the ill. Several times during instruction, he would pump his fist at a fellow student. At others , he would point to his wristwatch indicating that the ordeal was almost concluded. This fierce and competitive spirit was instilled by Mrs. Ball Cruncher.

I was there ...I tell you I witnessed it. I dare say that there is one teacher who taught high school Latin who at the mere mention of her name, COVID 19 itself would flee. She pretended she was not witnessing the fire in their eyes and fervor to accomplish the daily instructional chores. Many were dragging, but, no one quit. Well, I will not hold you in suspense any longer. Her name was Sophie Pasternak.

Sophie Pasternak was the world in every aspect of life. She was larger than life.Her passion for Latin permeated the halls of Boys High. She,intentionally created an atmosphere of rigorous academic pursuit and how great men had a foundation in the difficulty of deriving meaning from the obscure. She loved challenging her classes every moment and she delighted in our discovery.. It was as if she was speaking to us sotto voce,, “ Yes it was an enigma, but how scholarly you have become now for you have deciphered the message on your own.Hours were spent each night in Latin translation. Angry we were as we heard the voices and laughter of our friends and classmates engaged in fun after - school activities as we struggled with passages of a mere 50 words that suspended us for hours in nebulous academic gain. It was debilitating and heartbreaking. Yet, the following day Sophie would explain to us the reasons of our uniqueness. “Many flee the hard work. These will we the average of the world. You will understand conversations, writings laws and science that others will never comprehend. You will travel to the places described in the adventurous works you puzzle over each night. You are the true citizens of the world. I am so fortunate to have this opportunity to know you and teach you. You are my joy.”     .

What Sophie did for us was magical. We were merely 13-14 years old when we first encountered her. She was tiny in comparison to many of us. The growing spurts were quite visible. Yet, she had stopped. She taught us of the beauty of language. “There is eloquence in writing and speaking and you must all strive for it.Nouns have declensions and verbs have conjugations. Verbs also possess time, person and number. You can exaggerate what it is you wish to communicate or remain mundane. Governments were instituted among men to establish order. In such an environment, humans prosper. However, governments are made of men,. Thus, there will always be conflict, disagreements, combat.  Many are called to make that Rubicon decision. Do I cross into my homeland or remain in exile? When the die is cast, there is no turning back.”

Sophie was magnificent in explaining the benefits of our nightly grapples with the Latin text.” You are reading in the original some of the most profound AND GORGEOUS literature ever written. Why should it not cause you hours and pain?  We are trying to comprehend the challenges of life....O how wonderful !!! in addition, , there is no secret hidden from you. You all will know the very essence of the life of men who fought to live a life of honor and dignity . These are the things you must emulate. You will never shrink from conversations or discussions of those times for you have learned the energy and purpose of that era in its origin...root words, prefixes, suffixes, phrases, sentences and paragraphs. You are young men of enormous knowledge which you will some day apply in decisions that will enrich your life.  Truly and MVP teacher!!!

[realtalk-princeton]

I’m finding it really hard to have any ‘school spirit’ lately.. from recent posts it seems like our peer institutions (other ivies, stanford, MIT, etc.) have it much better in terms of workload, student life, and/ or post undergrad opportunities. Is there any way to help feel better about being a Princeton student?

Response from Maybach:

It’s easy to think that way when the only school you’ve ever attended is Princeton. It’s also easy to think that way when you focus or have been exposed mainly to little snapshots of life at other schools. Furthermore, even from the contributors who have talked about other schools seeming “better”, it’s still sometimes from social media and friends, which is not fully reliable to encompass the student body as a whole. Also, lots of times, the post has been prompted in a way that makes it focus on positives of other schools.

So let me open up to you some of the realities of other schools that will hopefully make you feel better and understand that a lot of the problems that people have with Princeton don’t vanish at other places.

Example 1 (I’m just listing these randomly and not targeting any institution for any particular reason). People say Yale has a MUCH better workload and student life than Princeton due to the massive grade inflation. That’s just wrong. They have more courses to take than us as an aggregate total. Furthermore, it’s not like you don’t have to put in a lot of effort, they have to take more classes they don’t want to. Lastly, you want to know how mental health is at Yale due to academic stress? It’s just as bad as anywhere else. They don’t publish this, but more than half of Yale kids use the equivalent of CPS and their student and mental health services are strongly criticized as woefully inadequate to handle the influx. Also the tech schools you listed have terrible workloads as well. This guy from my HS went to MIT and was science olympiad and everything only to get his ass handed to him when he had to compete against all the other stand-out students. Example 2 People think Princeton doesn’t offer amazing post-undergraduate opportunities? Ask Nick, our med school numbers are great. Our graduate school application numbers are great. We have the highest 10-year post graduation average salary out of all of the Ivies. We’re only beaten slightly by MIT and Caltech in this regard due to those institutions being tech schools. My cousin goes to Wharton at UPenn and you’d think that life is just so much easier with free jobs. Wrong. Over 400 kids show up to every event for consulting, finance, etc. Pichu says we have too many people focused on money. He’s gotta go out there because even the kids in the other schools at Penn (other than nursing) are clamoring for $$$. It’s so cutthroat there with people doing anything to get jobs. Companies also limit the number of people they will take from Penn for each year so there are tons of people trying to compete for a few slots. Therefore, competition is way higher, the stress is way higher, and there is this toxic hierarchy of people showing off their summer internships and jobs. Example 3. I guess I’ll cover social life. Be thankful that at Princeton at least we have lots of options that are fun and many non-competitive that allow for people to do engaging things outside the classroom. We have New York and Phillie in close proximity as well. Eating Clubs are at least PUID a lot of the times and optional. If you went to a place like Dartmouth or Vanderbilt, frats and sororities dominate the social scene. And trust me, pledging is way more harsh than bicker any day. People literally transfer out of these places if they don’t get in. Also, especially at these small schools out in the middle of nowhere, people don’t have as many options for EC’s due to there not being enough people to fill them. People I know get ultra depressed during winter with nothing to do but study with few meaningful EC’s and no social scene they feel a part of.

Listen, Princeton isn’t flawless. But no school is. The concerns you voiced can be tough at Princeton at times like the workload. I do agree that professors try to make the courses as rigorous as possible to make us learn the most. Sometimes, I think that is excessive. But to have this idea that because you hear that people are having a good time at other places that somehow they are significantly better in many regards is just not true.

[n1nj4-l0v4]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[saintofsunflowers]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[txny-archxr]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[nepaca]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[the-yaoi-galla]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[lavendermiilk]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[yua-shizuka]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.��� ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[fangirl-with-a-shoulder-fettish]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/

[professorsudowoodo]

‘I didn’t know who I was anymore’: Cancer’s social stress hits young adults hard

(CNN)Alex Marshall was a freshman in college when she had her first cancer scare.

Intense chest pain and difficulty breathing were serious alarms for the swimmer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Her training came to a halt when she ended up in the hospital — for 10 days.

With the hallmark symptoms of a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, Marshall and her family feared the worst, but doctors determined that a severe case of mononucleosis was the cause of her problems.

“I was released from the hospital, and I was like, ‘OK, we dodged a bullet. It wasn’t cancer,’ ” said Marshall, now 22. The mass in her chest that was causing her pain and other symptoms was covered in the highly contagious Epstein-Barr virus, best known as the cause of mononucleosis.

Two years later, while pursuing a more rigorous academic schedule and training for the Canadian Olympic trials through dual citizenship on her father’s side, Marshall began to notice more breathing problems and what seemed likea lingering cold.

“I just played it off, because I was getting cold-like symptoms, and then I would just get over it. And it would come back again two to three weeks later. I dealt with that all of summer.”

Come fall, the familiar pain in her chest returned.

Despite the pain and difficulty breathing, her performance in the water did not suffer. Coach Jeff Dugdale saw no signs of health problems in the water but instead was impressed with her performances. “I remember to this day; it was the last weekend of September when we were swimming (at) Auburn. She had one of her best meets where she got her best time.”

Still, the complaints prompted Dugdale to send Marshall to the campus wellness center, where staff referred her to a specialist. The days that followed included an X-ray, a MRI and a biopsy of a mass in her chest. Alex had symptoms that suggested Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer that invades the bodies white blood cells and weakens the immune system.

“Monday rolled around, and I hadn’t heard anything, nothing,” she said. “I texted my family group chat, ‘I haven’t heard anything. It’s 5 o’clock; we should’ve heard something by now.’ ” Her messages were met with encouragement to be patient and that everything would be OK.

But when her parents showed up at her door 30 minutes later, she instantly knew that her test had confirmed their biggest fear: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I didn’t hear a word,” she said, “it was like the adults in those Charlie Brown movies. Nothing they said made any sense.”

‘Different than other patients’

According to the National Institutes of Health, most new cases of cancer are found in people over the age of 55, but young adults are more likely than either young children or older adults to be diagnosed with certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And for the adolescent and young adult population, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death.

Adolescence and young adulthood are already transitional phases that bring unique age-related challenges. Being diagnosed with cancer during this time can be especially trying. The social difficulties faced by this group were highlighted in a study recently published in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

The question researchers wanted to answer: Compared with cancer-free peers, how were patients in the adolescent and young adult population affected by a cancer diagnosis?

Over two years, cancer patients ages 14 to 39 self-reported their social functioning.

Researchers found that one in three young cancer patients experienced lower social functioning than their peers. Additionally, although there were improvements in the first year after diagnosis, after two years, social functioning was still worse than that of the general population.

“The cancer diagnosis in this age range is really impactful, not just at the time of diagnosis but through treatment and beyond treatment,” said study co-author Dr. Brandon Hayes-Lattin, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University.

Marshall immediately felt the impact of her diagnosis. “Day one, I was really upset,” she said. “I was thrown into the spotlight of ‘cancer girl,’ and I wasn’t quite ready for that. I didn’t really want that.”

Her feelings of depression and isolation were similar to those of study patients who reported their lowest scores of social functioning at the time of their diagnosis.

Fueling those emotions and confusion, in part, was the lack of immediate changes to her appearance. “I still had my hair. I didn’t really feel different, because when I looked in the mirror, I saw my old self looking back at me, and I still felt great.”

That all changed when she began chemotherapy and experienced the common side effects of weight and hair loss. The champion swimmer fought hard to stay in shape and refused to let the drugs deplete her.

“There were two weeks between each session, and once she rebounded, she would do leg lifts or walk around the block,” said her mother, Lucia Marshall. “Sometimes,we’d walk around together, and she’d hold on to my arm because she was too weak to stand on her own. She never gave up. Even though she was going through this, she wanted to exercise.”

Cancer, Hayes-Lattin notes, can disrupt more than a patient’s daily routine. It changes relationships with peers and how a person functions in school and work. Swimming and fitness, for Marshall, occupied a large part of her life and her identity. “Cancer can throw a wrench in that to a substantial degree,” Hayes-Lattin said.

“What makes it challenging for adolescent and young adult patients that’s different from younger patients and older patients is that there are some really unique things that face this group,” said Dr. David Freyer, director of the children’s center for cancer and blood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of five institutions involved in the new study. “You think about where they are. They’re life planning and in developmental life stages.”

Winning in and out of the pool

While she was home, her coaches wanted Marshall to focus on her recovery.

“My promise to her was, ‘if we win the national championship and you win your championship, we’re going to put “we kicked cancer’s ass” inside of our national championship rings,’ ” Dugdale said.

And they did just that. On March 12, 2016, the Royals men and women’s swim teams claimed the NCAA championship for the second consecutive year, and 12 days later — surrounded by family, friends and teammates — Marshall completed her final treatment. “The very next day, she was in the water,” her mother said.

The next phase and transition, from patient to survivor, presented new challenges.

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“That last day of my chemotherapy treatment, it was really exciting. I rang my victory bell, and I was cancer-free. But I think that’s when people kinda cut everything off,” Marshall said. ” ”You’re cancer-free now. You’re done with treatment. Go back to your old life.’ But that’s not the case at all. I had never felt so lost or confused in my entire life. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

The struggle with that transition is a sign that “we’re not doing the best we can,” said Dr. Timothy Griffin, chief of hematology/oncology at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, another of the institutions involved in the new study.

“You really need to have the care managers, social workers, behavioral medicine specialists, licensed counselors or psychiatrists,” he said. “Those people need to be involved in the patient too so they can support the nonmedical part.”

Marshall saw therapists both while undergoing treatment and during her transition to life in recovery. She says the assistance really helped during the challenging time.

Marshall tried to find some normalcy and returned to the pool. “I felt like I was gaining (my) identity back more and more each day and less of the cancer girl. It was nice to go back to old activities that I did such as swimming. So that helped navigating my survivorship a bit more in my favor.”

In her third appearance competing for a national title, she surpassed expectations with a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, helping the team take home its third consecutive title.

“She gets second place at NCAA,” Dugdale said. “She gets her best time, which was pretty amazing considering she didn’t have much to lose.”

But she did have something to lose. That race was paramount in helping Marshall find normalcy.

Post-cancer, the swimmer is focused on finishing college and chasing another title.

Of course, not everyone needs another championship ring to feel like themselves again. There were other things that helped along the way.

“It sounds super cheesy,” Marshall said of what helps her during the toughest moments, “but having my dog helped me through a lot of my struggles. He would always make me feel better.”

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/health/college-swimmer-cancer-social-study-profile/index.html

from https://www.makingthebest.com/2017/04/12/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-anymore-cancers-social-stress-hits-young-adults-hard/