Women Over Fifty—A Call to Action
Recently, I was visiting one of my favorite sites, Midlife With a Vengeance. It covers topics of health and wellbeing for baby boomer women and I usually come away inspired and armed with new information about food, exercise and other tips for healthy aging. This visit, however, I came away angry.
Always in the forefront, Midlife reports on a number of health related events in the news. This particular post was about a news item that should concern each of us a lot. And, yes, as women over fifty we should get angry… in fact, we should get very angry.
The news is this: insurance companies are attempting to put “drive-through mastectomies” into mainstream medical practice. This means that women who have undergone surgery to remove their breasts would be treated as outpatients and sent home the very same day of their surgery.
Can you imagine the physical and emotional toll of having your breast(s) removed and then sent home to deal with the aftermath of this invasive and heart wrenching surgery on your own? Aside from the incredible impact on your life, you’d be required to deal with your medications, drains, and pain management without benefit of trained hospital staff on hand to help.
The world has conspired to pull off some pretty lousy treatment of women over the past several millennia and this is no exception. However, it is rather shocking to realize, in an industrialized nation in the twenty-first century, such an unenlightened stance could even be considered.
Please join me in signing a petition supporting The Bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, which requires a minimum two-day hospital stay for mastectomy patients. The LifeTime Channel has dedicated a special page on their website and makes this process a simple one. It only takes a moment and, if there ever was a cause that called for women over fifty to unite our voices in support, this is it. Let’s let Congress know how we feel and let’s end this barbaric practice now and forever!
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February 24th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
It sounds awful I know.
But then this kind of discrimination has been happening in other forms for years and we, as women, have accepted it.
Have a Cesarean and if you get next to no drugs for the pain because you need to breast feed and have to be up walking around looking after a baby right away. Have a Hysterectomy, which as my Ob/Gyn said is basically the same operational trauma, and you get to lie around for days. Although that was 8 years ago, maybe that too is a drive by now.
Women’s bodies are worshipped and abused.
Now if men had their testicles removed …
June 17th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Wow…
Thanks for the this very informative article. I just signed the petition as well.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:52 am
i agree, we really need to get rid of this. we really need to be able to recover after such an experience.
June 13th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Home same day?!!!! I’m all for recovering at home at long as you have proper support. However, I knew one woman who had hers done while an inpatient, and still had problems dealing with the whole thing, drainage, etc. Her niece came in to stay with her and help. Not everyone has someone to help recover at home. I think it should be a case by case choice.
June 12th, 2009 at 8:11 am
This is a terrible practice to support. Women need physical and emotional support after that kind of surgery. We should all stand up and say NO
June 12th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Eileen,
Thanks for sharing this petition drive. Who in their right mind but someone who has never undergone this surgery or known someone who has, would push for this kind of cruel treatment? The more of us who talk about this and blog about it the better it will be for our sisters, mothers, etc who will face this surgery. Obviously when women get talking change happens, we’ve seen it over and over. So please women, yak it up about this and sign to show your support for a min. 2 day stay.
Greg
June 11th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Petition signed, and I, too, am anry. Skimping on breast cancer treatment is a travesty. The organ that nurtures life deserves more than a McMectomy, and women are not cars. Is there a parallel proposal for testicular cancer? There shouldn’t be … in either case. “Mismanaged care” continues to trickle down and take its true costs in people’s health and emotional lives. Health care reform can’t come a moment too soon. I hope we as women in the wisdom years can find our groove on how to help make it happen. Perhaps refusing to give into this kind of proposal is a beginning.
June 11th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I am honored to sign this petition!
June 11th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I just signed the petition. Thanks for bringing it to the attention of your readers. It’s appalling to think insurance companies are trying to cut corners at the risk of their patients.