Don’t buy a pink appliance

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you’ve been in the mall recently, you’ve seen all kinds of pink items for sale, from cute little pink ribbon pins to wallets, mixing bowls, cameras, mixers and vacuum cleaners.

If they can make it in pink, they have and they want you to buy it.

Check the fine print on these items to be sure that your purchase will result in a reasonable donation in the timeframe that you are shopping.

If you want to make a real difference in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in South-Central Ontario, join us in raising money to purchase a breast coil for the Hamilton General Hospital.

The breast coil is used with the MRI machine to look in the breasts to see if tumors are present.

Using the MRI (magnetic resonance imagining) machine is superior to a regular mammogram because we can see more on the images. The images are more detailed and include parts of the body like the chest wall and the armpits, where cancer can spread to the lymph nodes.

The breast coil is a lot more comfortable than a mammogram.

At the moment, the Hamilton General Hospital can do about 12 breast studies per month with their MRI, using a breast coil borrowed from the Henderson Hospital. Of course, when the breast coil is at the General, it means that the Henderson can’t do any breast studies.

Dr. Michael Patlas, the General’s expert radiologist for breast x-rays and MRIs, estimates that the General would be able to do 4X as many breast studies every month if they had their own breast coil.

This is important for women in our region. At any one time, the General has 20 patients waiting for a breast MRI. Imagine these women being able to get their studies done within 2 weeks instead of 2 months (or longer).

At this time, it is recommended that no one undergo surgery for breast cancer without an MRI study but this just isn’t feasible in our region. Women often have to face the decision of proceeding to surgery without an MRI (and possibly missing tumors or lymph nodes that could be seen on MRI) or waiting for an MRI, knowing that the cancer is growing and possibly spreading during the wait.

Please join us in raising money for this very important piece of equipment.

I am working with Kelly Arnott who organizes the running races in the Burlington area. We are working very closely with the Radiology Department at the Hamilton General Hospital to make a breast coil for the General a reality.

Kelly is putting the proceeds of the 2009 Chilly Half Marathon & Frosty 5k towards the breast coil. Participate in these races yourself or sponsor a participant.

Here at Advanced Rejuvenation, we will be holding monthly fundraising events, donating the proceeds of a particular treatment each month. To find out more, sign up here for our electronic newsletter.

Dr. Rose Jeans
Advanced Rejuvenation Medical Spa

What to do about thinning hair — Part 2

In my first post about my thin hair, I discussed the simple styling changes that Amy suggested and the difference they made to the appearance of my hair.

Since then I have made the plunge and had the Great Lengths 100% natural human hair extensions put in my hair.

Here are the pics:

Thin hair before

Thin hair after extensions

I had one bundle of hair put in, mostly across the top and sides of my head. The color was a perfect match to mine.

Here’s what I really like about the hair of the extensions: it’s naturally wavy. My own hair has a little bit of a wave to it but doesn’t cooperate with styling very well. If I want to style my own hair to have volume, I have to put a ton of products in it and it feels stiff.

With the hair extensions, I blow-dry my hair with a round brush, the way I always have done, and I get amazing shape and volume. I have never had this much hair in my life!

The new hair looks entirely natural. Amy did tiny little bonds — I think 1/4 of normal size? — so they don’t show at all.

I saw Amy do extensions on a man who came in with a brush cut and walked out with a full head of hair, maybe 10 – 15 cm in length. It was a very challenging job and took all day. When it was done, he looked absolutely great and very natural.

Amy is certainly very talented with the Great Lengths extensions. I wouldn’t trust my hair to anyone else.