Ms. Moons Goes to Washington

I was in Washington D.C. part of this past week....and oh what an incredible experience it was! I have been so excited to write this post. I could not wait to tell you guys about it!!

I was a "consumer reviewer" at the Department of Defense US Army Medical Research & Materiel Command’s Congressionally Directed Breast Cancer Research Program panel (mouthful!).....to be referred to from now on as DoD BCRP . LOL I was nominated by and proud to represent my HER2 Support group. The Department of Defense paid for my airfare, hotel and meals.

The DoD BCRP has something like $150 million in congressional funds to be specifically applied to breast cancer research. So a panel of scientists and consumers (me and others) reviewed proposals with a goal of allocating funding to support high-risk, high-gain research.

So, what did I do...what did we do...? We would read and evaluate research study proposals, discuss them and then vote on them. My vote counted equally with the scientists!

I was so HONORED to be a part of it. There were just a couple consumers reviewers besides me...and LOTS of scientists. It was like alphabet soup of degrees in the room: PhD, MD, MPH, etc. The critical mass of brain power was incredible!! So many great minds in one place! There were molecular scientists, breast surgeons, surgical oncologist, epidemiologists, biomedical engineers...and a dozen others I have never heard of before. But they were all SO nice and so cool...and most were really fun. There were even a couple cuties so that was enjoyable! :-)

By the way, EVERYONE knew Dr. O'Shaughnessy (my Dallas oncologist).....and hold her in the highest regard. She is famous...in a good way!

As we were reviewing the research proposals, I found it interesting that it wasn't all just "out-of-this-world-can't-get-my-little-brain-around-it" science but also proposals relating to the effects of nutrition and exercise, which I thought was great. I was especially interested in the evidence-based alternative breast cancer therapies. Some even pertained to Native American use of medicinal herbs to treat breast cancer.

We reviewed 48 proposals. There were 49 but 1 got triaged (eliminated before review). In the beginning it took around 40 minutes to complete each review, discussion and vote. Then we picked up the pace. Regardless, we worked hard...really hard...morning 'til night!

Amongst all the talk of T cells, epidemiology, polymorphisms, nanoparticles, immunology and epigenetic something or others, I did get the chuckles a couple times. One of the scientists had a very strong accent and kept saying "toomah"....tooooo ma. Reminded me of Arnold in Kindergarten Cop. LOL

Watch and then hit your back button: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaTO8_KNcuo&feature=related

I also had to bite the inside of my cheek so I wouldn't giggle when they were talking about cleavage. They were not talking about what I used to have peeking out of the top of my shirt but rather splitting cells or something.

One time one of the scientists made a joke about using polymeric nanoparticles for drug delivery...and how that was just like trying to determine genetic factors in a genome wide association study without a symptom cluster. Oh, the eruption of laughter.....! I guess it was a real knee slapper!!!

Seriously, the scientists were GREAT! Some were older, some were younger, some were male, some were female, some were outgoing, some were shy. But they were all lovely...and so grateful for my involvement. Can you imagine?!?! They thanked me. Here are these people that have dedicated their lives to eradicating this disease and they were thanking me! I was weepy with gratitude to them!

I am so glad I was able to do this! It was empowering. It made me feel like I was ACTUALLY doing something. Like it was not all for naught. I was able to represent all of us that have been touched by breast cancer. I am so grateful!

xoxo