This particular story involves Kroger. It has a happy ending.

Commercially-produced cheese – and I’m speaking particularly of cheese from US producers – comes with the risk of ingesting rBHT (bovine growth hormone). rBHT is given to dairy cows at factory dairy farms to increase milk production. They also have to give these cows antibiotics to control the udder infections they get due to overstimulated milk glands. Sounds yummy, doesn’t it?

For those of us who have fought the hormone-positive breast cancer troll, it’s important to be aware of hormones in food – and I’m talking about added hormones, not those that occur naturally in the course of the plant’s or animal’s  life cycle.

In my quest for good US cheddar, the kind you can buy without going broke, I’ve settled on Tillamook as the best available choice. It’s labeled rBHT free, tastes wonderful, melts beautifully on a grilled cheese sandwich or a cheese omelet, winner all around.

It’s available at my local Kroger.

Or it WAS available, until late May when I could no longer find it in the cheese display.

No one in the deli department had any clue what I was talking about – and the person who DID know was, of course, never there when I asked.

Finally got a name, and a phone number, and a time when that Knower of All Things Cheese would be in the store.

That day was today. And of COURSE he wasn’t there. But the chef in the deli/prepared foods area was.

The chef (John Jefferson, at the Kroger Ridge Rd. store, for those who like full-disclosure), listened to my tale of cheese frustration and promised to call me with a Final Answer, once he found out what that was.

Turns out it was an IT error (don’t you just love it, as an IT geek, when you get blamed for something like this?) – apparently the automatic ordering system hadn’t been set up properly to re-order Tillamook cheese when supplies ran low.

I enthusiastically bought Tillamook, 8 oz. every couple of weeks, from January to May.

They didn’t re-order.

You do the math

I’ll have more Tillamook in my fridge next Tuesday.

Customer: 1 (gets what she wants)

Kroger: 1 (keeps a customer)

Everybody wins.

Are you listening, Walmart?

Yes, kids, that’s a vaccine, as well as treatment for DCIS HER-2/neu.

The immune-therapy/vaccine has been in limited trials at UPenn since 2004. An Oncolink interview with Dr. Czerniecki about the first clinical trial is here.

A second trial is still ongoing – if you or anyone you know has been diagnosed with DCIS HER-2/neu, visit this link to find out how they might participate in the trial.

Here’s a video of Dr. Czerniecki talking about his work:

The really exciting part of this isn’t just the possibility of ending HER-2/neu breast cancer. It’s that HER proteins are the bad guys in many types of aggressive cancer: ovarian, stomach, and uterine.

Dr. Czerniecki and his team are working on immune therapy for hormone-positive breast cancer (the type I had), and I plan on being near the front of the line when it’s available.

Czerniecki might be the Jonas Salk of the 21st century, partly because he doesn’t want to partner with drug companies to fund his FDA trial.

The Pennies In Action website gives information on how to help fund the trial. Know any gazillionaires with a cancer history in their family? Ask them if a $1M investment (or more) would be worth it to them…

Dr. Danielle Ofri makes a great point, that doctors have to serve as translators as well as diagnosticians, helping patients understand their conditions, not just telling them what those conditions are – too frequently in jargon that the average Joe or Jane wouldn’t understand without a medical encyclopedia.

Give it a listen – thanks!

I wanted “Cancer for Christmas” on the Amazon Bestseller list as the perfect close-out to Breast Cancer Awareness month.

I planned. I strategized. I executed.

Here are the results, in living color:

Here are the stats on the book, also in living color:

#4 in its category on Amazon - BESTSELLER!

Thanks for this go to a huge number of people, but the biggest players are Mary Foley, who shared the plan with her honkin’ huge mailing list; Shela Dean, who showed me “the way”; the book’s fans on Facebook, who shared the push; and a host of Twitter-ific folks, including Alicia Staley, Mary Fender, and Chris Brogan.

What. A. RIDE!

Get in touch with me here: info [at] cancerforchristmas.com, or by phone at (804) 467-5716.

I’d like to help as many people as possible to become active participants in their health care!