bee in britain: DAY HUNDRED THIRTY FOUR

A couple weeks ago I had lunch at the university with a young lady from church. Leah had pointed out Amanda as someone who might have some feedback regarding the anti-smoking campaign I’d been observing on cigarette cartons since I’d first arrived in England. On that first occasion we mostly spent the time getting to know one another. (DAY 115.) Amanda has been a stalwart member of the church since her early teen years, had a father who was out and out schizophrenic, had to return home early from a mission due to undiagnosed depression – something she’d been dealing with for years, but the extent of which she hadn’t fully realized. From there she began studying-studying, is a bit older than Erin, and at this juncture will complete a doctorate before the year’s end. The most amazing and wonderful thing is that she married, as I mentioned last time, after much soul-searching and prayer, an awesome guy who is eleven years younger than she is – celebrating a year of marital camraderie next month. (For the longest time, she just couldn’t get over the fact that he seemed just too immature – which he probably was at that point. I’m sure he {and she} has grown a good deal since they first began dating.) As you can see, she is quite an amazing young woman. I wish you could all meet her – quite an example of perseverance.

My original interest in contacting Amanda had been to see if I could find out whether the gruesome, graphic designs found on the cigarette packages were making any difference on smoking patterns. (All I ever saw were discarded boxes on the ground all over the streets. Made me wonder if people even ever considered them at all before lighting up.) Although we never did get to this question during our first luncheon engagement, Amanda did tell me in an email that there had been some reduction in numbers of smokers since the campaign began, but that of course, since there are multiple factors, a direct corollary regarding which in particular has led to the alteration could not be definitively pinpointed with certainty. She mentioned that in Australia they’ve gone a step further and pioneered the use of generic packaging. An interesting idea – seems like a good one to me! Maybe this is the next innovation we’ll see in the UK. (America? Do you really think powerful tobacco company lobbyists are going to lie down for that one?!)

[If this isn’t enough to convince you, nothing will! http://whyquit.com/whyquit/notables.html ]

Amanda is what you would call a social research scientist, with most of her findings resulting from a qualitative approach. She had originally set out to do out and out, straight-on research, but at the university in London where she was studying she discovered one day that being holed up in a cubicle all day, every day, was not going to hit it in her book. So she changed her major slightly, and now does the sort of research that involves interactions with human beings – much better for her sensibilities. Her doctorate, and present research, involves a very interesting facet surrounding lung cancer: rather than the disease itself, it considers the supportive care needs of surgical lung cancer patients following treatment or surgery, including how patients are prepared by medical care providers to deal with the consequences of their surgery prior to having it, as well as the assistance they are, or aren’t, given to deal with the after effects.

She considers, specifically, levels of pain and/or breathlessness that a lung cancer patient may experience following surgery – what expectations they had had prior to surgery and what help they were now receiving to deal with it. Quite a few of the patients she interviewed had NO idea that six to twelve months later they would still be dealing with major effects of their surgical procedures. One lady reported that she had been advised by her doctor that she could expect to encounter ‘a bit of discomfort’ following the measures taken to check her cancer, whereas in her experience she felt as if she’d been ‘in a car crash’. And there’s the major problem – doctors are trained to take care of ‘The Problem,’ and then, having completed that step, are under the erroneous impression that their job is done. Only in rare instances had patients been referred to a respiratory physician to deal with the pain and breathlessness they had been dealing with.

Some of the questions in Amanda’s survey dealt with the resumption of smoking following lung cancer surgery. A goodly number of surgical recipients confirmed that they welcomed their doctors asking them pointed questions concerning this topic, while the majority of physicians reported that they felt awkward about addressing the issue in follow-up appointments, not wanting to cause offense on what they assumed was a touchy subject.

Since I last got together with Amanda she’s been busy, away presenting the findings of her research at a couple different medical conferences. (She emailed: I'm in Liverpool at the National Cancer Research Institute Conference (I'm giving a 10 minute talk this pm), then on Wednesday I go to York for the UK Centre of Tobacco Control Studies Conference (am giving 2 10mins presentations there). Its times like these that growing up in the church really helps! :) These were, in fact, poster presentations, as I’ve often seen at various conferences that were held at the Conference Center at BYU. One major difference, Amanda tells me, is that rather than being made of paper, as I’ve always seen them, these days she gets her posters printed on fabric. They are more resilient than card and can be folded up and put in your suitcase rather than lugging a bulky tube around. Brilliant – as they say here! According to Amanda, the main conclusion of her research is that ‘providing a greater level of supportive care to patients following lung cancer surgery is urgently needed, as is, secondly, providing better, more factual, pre-op counseling, on the front end.’

And here are the joyful results of Amanda’s diligence and hard work that she shared with me a couple days ago: Last Friday I was interviewed for a lecture job here at the university, within the department I am in now. It was quite stressful, there was a panel of 6 professors and it was very competitive. Did I tell you about it? I can't remem-ber now! There were actually 7 new posts that they were interviewing for. Anyway, the good news is that I got one! Apparently over 70 people applied and they interviewed 24 people over 2 days. Many of the interviews were with internal applicants, and 2 of the other people that I know who were interviewed didn't get a job! I feel pretty lucky/blessed :) Awe-Some, huh?! It is SO great – I am SO happy for her! She deserves all the blessings that are coming her way.

[As a side note, going right along with this same topic: here in Birmingham, at the university, as a student you can drink in the safely of your very own lounge, right on campus – and we’re not talking sodie pop here. Rather, more wobbly pops!]

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