Welcome to Meg Militello's Journal

A few months ago on one of our frequent drives to Panera for dinner, my best friend Andrew told me that he came to a huge decision... he wanted to change his college major. As a History major, I assumed he would change to English or maybe even Communication Studies. Andrew is a definite people person and I could totally see him on television.

As I was imagining him on the evening news, he brought me right out of the daydream by saying, "I want to be a doctor." A doctor?? Totally not what I was expecting! He explained that while he loved history, he felt like he was meant to do something different with his life.

Okay, what do I think about this? Isn't it a lot of hard work to become a doctor? Andrew is smart so I know he could handle it. But what about the fact that he's already invested time and money in his current major? It can't hurt to have another subject under your belt and I'm sure he's taken some general classes that are needed for any major.

The more we talked and I thought about it the cooler it became. Sure, it's a big change, but life would be pretty boring without a few of those. I was curious about the steps someone would have to take to become a doctor and found this basic outline:

(VISIT LINK)

As for Andrew? He started another semester today, but this time it's filled with biology and chemistry classes. I'm really proud of him for following his heart and can't wait to see where this path takes him.

If a young friend or family member has cancer, chances are they'll be working with a lot of different staff members during their treatment. I found these definitions (from the Family Handbook for Children with Cancer) to be really helpful in my understanding of who does what on a health care team.

*FYI, they wrote these for parents, so excuse the child references if you don't have one!


Attending Physician: a doctor who specializes in cancer and supervises the medical care of your child.

Child Life Specialist: a person who has completed a master's program and is trained to provide activities and services to meet the psychosocial, emotional and developmental needs of pediatric patients and their families.

Clinical Nurse Specialist/Nurse Practitioner: a nurse who has completed a master's program and specialty training in caring for children with cancer. He/she may coordinate the medical and nursing care of your child.

Chaplain: a person who is trained to offer spiritual care, support and prayer according to each family's individual needs.

Fellow: a doctor who has completed medical school and a pediatric hematology, oncology or stem cell transplantation.

House Officer/Resident: a doctor who has completed medical school and is now receiving specialty training in pediatrics.

Nurse: a person who is trained to provide daily nursing care and teaching to children and their families in the hospital or clinic.

Nutritionist: a person who is trained to evaluate your child's nutritional needs and weight. The nutritionist also helps to provide teaching and support about eating and drinking when your child goes home.

Pharmacist: a person who is trained to prepare the medicines and nutritional support that your child will need.

Physical Therapist: a person who works with your child to maintain or restore a level of fitness through strength and endurance exercises.

Psychiatrist/Psychologist: a person who is available to help you and your child cope with feelings of anger, fear, depression, and hope that you or your child may experience.

School teacher/Liason: a teacher who works in the hospital to help your child keep up with school work during the hospital stay. The teacher can also keep in touch with your child's teacher at home.

Social Worker: a person who is trained to help you and your child cope with illness and hospitalization through counseling, support groups, financial assistance and resource referral.

Volunteer: a person who is trained as an unpaid helper with non-medical activities for your child.

Hey everyone, this is my very first blog! My name is Meg and I'm pretty excited to start sharing my thoughts and ideas. One of my biggest hopes is that I can somehow contribute to a world without cancer. Science was never my best subject in school, but I don't think you need to be a scientist to help create awareness and work towards a cure! So, whenever I find some cool new information or ways to help prevent cancer I will share them with you.

Since we're into July and it's a particulary sunny day, I thought I'd share some research I did on sun exposure and how to help prevent skin cancer. Here are some of the things I didn't know about sun exposure:

1. Did you know people in their 20s can develop skin cancer?

2. The sun has three types of ultraviolet rays; UVA, UVB and UBC. UVA rays cause skin aging and wrinkles. (Yuck!) They can pass easily through that protective shield that surrounds the earth called the ozone layer. Also, the bulbs used in tanning beds are UVA. UVB rays cause sunburns and can damage your immune system. Luckily, UVC rays (which are the most dangerous) can't get through the ozone layer.

3. You should even protect yourself from the sun's rays in the winter because the skin can absorb them any time of the year. I think I'm safe in Buffalo, though, because I'm all bundled up anyway!

I have been trying to be more sun-savvy and protecting myself against those harmful rays. I did some research on sunscreen to find out that there are a ton of different kinds out there. SPF stands for 'sun protection factor' and the higher the SPF, the more protected you are. I highly recommend Coppertone SPORT, a spray sunscreen that you don't even have to rub it in! (It's great for athletes because it's ultra sweatproof, too.) No matter what kind of sunscreen you choose, make sure you pick one that protects from UVA and UVB rays.

Finally, don't forget your eyes. (Those handy things that are helping you read my blog!) UV rays can damage your eyes so grab your sunglasses before you leave the house.

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful summer. Stay safe!