National Take-Back Initiative for controlled substances this Saturday, Sept. 25

The DEA offers us the chance to anonymously surrender (their word) our expired/unused/unwanted drugs for destruction this Saturday. Here is a news item on it: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/21/drug.take.back.campaign/index.html?iref=allsearch

And the DEA page: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/takeback/

You can search for locations in your area that are set up to receive your unwanted drugs on this page. For me in Omaha, it lists sheriff and police stations and mobile command posts. Solid drugs only are accepted, and meth and marijuana are not part of this program.

If you have unwanted drugs in your house from recent treatment, the EPA recommends that you contact your local waste management service to find out specific disposal instructions for your area: http://www.epa.gov/ppcp/faq.html. The main point - don't flush them!! Here are recommendations from Illinois - you should be able to find your state's recommendations by calling your local public library.

An example of what drugs live on in the water even after wastewater treatment can be found in this 'medicinal salts' product recently highlighted on BoingBoing: http://boingboing.net/2010/09/15/alvisos-medicinal-al.html . (Fact: these are not just drugs that folks flushed, but some drugs live on in our human waste, passing through our bodies without being absorbed or changed, so wastewater will always have some drugs in it.)

Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma in the News

I found Huston Diehl's obituary this weekend while searching for news on ACC/AdCC. She died this past week from the disease, after being first diagnosed in 1998. As a professor at the University of Iowa, she was a prolific author, and great mentor of others. Here is a link in Worldcat for her name (some materials may possibly be attributable to another author with a similar name, but most are hers or reviews of her work): http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au:huston+diehl&qt=advanced&dblist=638 . They had a symposium in May to honor her - how cool is that, I had no idea that such things took place in academia:
http://www.english.uiowa.edu/includes/documents/diehlsymposium5_2010.pdf

This announcement about the symposium links to the English Department's Facebook page photo albums to show the activities and smiles the days brought: http://www.english.uiowa.edu/news/2010/05_06.shtml

Here is the link to her obituary in the Press-Citizen newspaper: http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100910/NEWS02/9100312/Huston-Diehl-61. And here is the link to the funeral home's condolence page: http://www.funeralquestions.com/obits/lensing/memorial.asp?listing_id=160923 . Memorials are requested for a scholarship fund - what a wonderful way to memorialize her work.

Someone asked me why I include obituaries on this blog. My main reason is to pass on history of who has shared this path, as individual as it is for most of us. The other reason is to show that life doesn't end with a cancer diagnosis - no matter how short or long the time someone has after being diagnosed, important things take place, opportunities and successes happen, and most are mentioned in obituaries. You can't read Dr. Diehl's obituary without feeling her passion for education and the students that she dedicated her life towards, even after ACC showed up.

These postings are not to bring down my readers - they are intended to lift us up, to say there is a tomorrow and something wonderful and meaningful can still take place even though we are walking around with a confining garment called cancer. And remember - I write for the future Cheeky Librarian, so some middle of the night-o dark thirty moment, I can read this post and remember to hang around another day, just to see what is coming next.

Farewell to Jessica Roark

News on Jessica Roark's death came this morning:

KU grad left legacy of courage http://www.kansan.com/news/2010/aug/31/2010-ku/

Additional news story (9/1/10): http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/sep/01/ku-alumnas-outlook-life-positive-influence-she-lef/

Tribute to Jessica in the Kansas City Star (9/19/10) http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/19/2235287/tribute-jessica-roark.html

Jessica Roark has appeared at least twice before in this blog -

First http://cheekylibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/05/adenoid-cystic-carcinoma-in-news.html

Then http://cheekylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/05/adenoid-cystic-carcinoma-in-news_20.html

I want to claim Jessica's quote from her 2008 interview as advice for my life:

“Sometimes I think about what happens if I die, but you can’t think like that,” she said. “You have to live your life however you want to live it. You can’t plan for a car accident tomorrow, but you’re going to get in your car anyway.”

Thank you for all you did for the world, Jessica, and for living your life however you wanted to live it. May we all do the same.