News on August 12th

Garpet's Gossip

My recent treatment regime involves having to get to the hospital at 8 am to receive my chemo therapy and then wait around for four hours from the end of this treatment until I can receive the radiation therapy.

Naturally to hang about in hospital for this time is difficult in the extreme. After all what would there be to do?

• Go and sit in the library and read a good book?
• Wait in the cafeteria with those noxious chemicals running through the body and hoping that the smell of the food will not induce a bout of nausea?
• Find a nice waiting room and try and read a good book or watch the idiot box where the main shows in the morning are breakfast television apparently aimed at those who stay at home either to undertake domestic duties or enjoy the joys of retirment.
  

There are shows that are regualr serials on one free to air channel, shows that feature one of two personalities that undertake interviews, show cooking tips and of course encourage the marketing of various forms of tools that will assist those who remain at home. There are of course those wonderful adverts designed it seems to remind us all that we are mortal and that taking out life insurance for a price per week that is the equivalent of a cup of coffee these days is a great investment. This is then of course accompained by those adverts that tell us that as we get older there is a good chance that we will die and asks whether we have prepared for this event or are likely to leave our loved ones in the lurch having to pay for those really expenside funeral costs. The advgerts then of course provide its viewers with the opportunity to prepay their funeral costs and save the family the grief of haivng to find thousands of dollars at the time in their lives when they have just lst their loved one - namely YOU the person watching the show.

So the best thing to do is to call upon your lovely carer to come and pick you up and take you home. There you can be useful and prepare a nice mid-day meal and then have your carer come home for a lovely cooked meal before invoking another favour - namely that she take you back to the hospital for the radio therapy treatment.

Since in my case this involves only three days out of her busy working life I was not afraid to try it and I have to say it is working out well!

I get to feel useful and she gets a nice home cooked meal and a little time out from the stress and rush of the office.

As the food is cooking I can take it easy and do some research on the web about my favourite topic at present - namely oesophageal cancer. Well it's not really a favourite topic, but what they hey the more you know the less you have to worry about. Then again reading the data I am thinking seriously about revisiting my views on this.

For those of you who have an interest in Oesophageal Cancer you may be interested in the information that is available at http://www.aihw.gov.au/cancer/datacubes/index.cfm

The data which is provided lists various forms of cancer and the Oesophageal Cancer rates are provided at:
http://www.aihw.gov.au/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/Cancer/cancerageratesv7

For people not familiar with 'cubes' of data and their abililty to interact with the data by using the little icons on the bottom of the page to get various tables and graphs from the raw materials provided on line I would be happy to assist if called upon.

This is a fabulous if frightening resource for all Australians. I give you an example only of the sort of data that is available for information. Since the data is completely interactive it does require some knowledge of how to use "cubes" (this is something that those familiar with Cognos Powerplay Products will be able to do with ease.

Number of new cases and age-specific rates for selected cancers by year of registration, sex and 5 year-age groups

All Registrable Cancers (except NMSC) ---------------- C00 Lip C01-C14 Head and neck C15 Oesophagus C16 Stomach C17 Small intestine C18-C21 Colorectal C22 Liver C23-C24 Gallbladder C25 Pancreas C30-C31 Nasal cavity C32 Larynx C33-C34 Trachea, bronchus and lung C37-C38 Other thoracic organs C40-C41 Bone and articular cartilage C43 Skin?melanoma C45 Mesothelioma C46 Kaposi's sarcoma C47-C49 Connective and other soft tissue C50 Breast C51-C52 Vulva and vagina C53 Cervix uteri C54-C55 Corpus uteri C56-C57 Ovary and other female genital o... C58 Placenta C60, C63 Penis and other male genital or... C61 Prostate C62 Testis C64-C66, C68 Kidney, ureter and urethra C67 Bladder C69 Eye C70-C72 Brain and other central nervous ... C73 Thyroid gland C74-C75 Other endocrine glands C76-C80, C26, C39 Unknown primary site C81-C85, C96 All lymphomas C88 Immunoproliferative neoplasms C90 Multiple myeloma C91-C95 Leukaemias ---------------- Nest Columns All Years ---------------- 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 ---------------- Nest Rows All Sexes ---------------- Male Female ---------------- Nest Rows Nest Columns All Age Groups ---------------- 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-84 85+ ---------------- Nest Rows Nest Columns All States ---------------- Nest Rows Nest Columns

MEASURES ---------------- Number Age-specific Rate ---------------- Hide Calculated Categories as values as % of row total as % of row subtotals as % of column total as % of column subtotals as % of grand total 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 All Years C15 Oesophagus 592 657 651 635 758 842 735 802 848 859 918 959 946 983 970 1,005 1,084 1,070 1,078 16,392

All Years ---------------- C15 Oesophagus All Sexes All Age Groups All States MEASURES ---------------- [+] C15 Oesophagus [+] All Sexes [+] All Age Groups [+] All States [+] MEASURES ---------------- [Hide Total] [Insert Calculation...] [Hide/Show...]

All Registrable Cancers (except NMSC) ---------------- C00 Lip C01-C14 Head and neck C15 Oesophagus C16 Stomach C17 Small intestine C18-C21 Colorectal C22 Liver C23-C24 Gallbladder C25 Pancreas C30-C31 Nasal cavity C32 Larynx C33-C34 Trachea, bronchus and lung C37-C38 Other thoracic organs C40-C41 Bone and articular cartilage C43 Skin?melanoma C45 Mesothelioma C46 Kaposi's sarcoma C47-C49 Connective and other soft tissue C50 Breast C51-C52 Vulva and vagina C53 Cervix uteri C54-C55 Corpus uteri C56-C57 Ovary and other female genital o... C58 Placenta C60, C63 Penis and other male genital or... C61 Prostate C62 Testis C64-C66, C68 Kidney, ureter and urethra C67 Bladder C69 Eye C70-C72 Brain and other central nervous ... C73 Thyroid gland C74-C75 Other endocrine glands C76-C80, C26, C39 Unknown primary site C81-C85, C96 All lymphomas C88 Immunoproliferative neoplasms C90 Multiple myeloma C91-C95 Leukaemias ---------------- All Years All Sexes All Age Groups All States MEASURES ---------------- [+] All Years [+] All Sexes [+] All Age Groups [+] All States [+] MEASURES ---------------- [Hide Total] [Hide/Show...]