Dancing the night away – for a good cause

On Friday, Dec. 4, we hope you will break out your blue-suede shoes for a good cause.

Members of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford community will gather to kick off the holidays right and dance the night away at the annual Texas Health HEB Holiday Gala, themed “Blue Christmas” this year. Proceeds will support the Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford Bluebonnet Retreat.

The Bluebonnet Retreat gives patients living with cancer a chance to “get away” from the reality of facing treatments. Participants get to know each other through crafts and outdoor activities, find fellowship with others facing similar experiences and celebrate life. The camp is offered free to participants and is supported through endowment earnings, charitable donations, and the Gala.

Though this is the 24th annual Texas Health HEB Holiday Gala, this year’s event will be more of a come and go cocktail party vibe without any auction to take away from the mixing and mingling. Guests are invited to relax, have fun and kick off the holiday season all while supporting a worthy cause.

Tickets cost $150. The event will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4, at the Dallas Marriott Las Colinas. For more information, call Cathy Sheffield at 817-317-5252 or visit TexasHealth.org/HEBGala.

Healthy chili for fall football

With cooler weather, tailgate parties and fall arriving, the sound of homemade chili is very inviting. In order to have healthy meals, red meat is usually limited. So I had to have an alternative -- using turkey, this is a great recipe for White Chili!! It takes about 30 minutes to make and it tastes great. So here it is:

1 pound ground white turkey meat
1 chopped white onion
2 tsp. chopped or minced garlic
2 cans Great Northern beans
2 13 1/2 oz cans of low sodium chicken broth
2 cans of chopped green chiles
1 tsp. of cumin

First drain the beans in a colander. Use a small amount of canola or olive oil in a large pot. On medium heat, add onion and garlic; saute until translucent. Add turkey and brown.

Add the beans, chicken broth and green chiles. Cook on low-medium heat for 15 minutes. Add cumin before serving.

This is a great meal particularly if you add a salad and some old fashioned cornbread. I make my cornbread with a mix, skim milk and egg whites, but I still use my great grandmother's iron skillet. The very best way to have cornbread that is crisp on the outside and tasty on the inside, is to put the skillet with about 1/8 cup of oil, in the oven while it is heating up. Cook according to the mix directions and add a little Smart Balance or Promise to the cornbread and you have a completely satisfying comfort food meal.

Mary Lou Wilson, RN, BSN
Director, Women's Services
Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford

Simple screening tools still valuable

I'm mad!

The reason I'm mad is because my best friend was diagnosed with a mammogram that identified breast cancer several years ago when she was between the ages of 40 and 50. This week the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced "updates in its recommendations on screening for breast cancer in the general population. They judged that, although women in their 40s and women in their 50s benefit equally from routine screening mammography, women in their 40s experience greater harms from screening than women in their 50s. The harms assessed by the USPSTF were radiation exposure, false-positive and false-negative results, over-diagnosis, pain during procedures, and anxiety, distress, and other psychologic responses." This task force may very well control whether insurance will pay for screening mammograms.

If you examine the members of the Task Force, not one of them is an oncologist, radiation oncologist, breast surgeon, or breast radiologist. That means they haven't seen the faces of the women who are diagnosed with cancer; they haven't seen the relief of women knowing that they are cancer free for another year. Before I came to Texas Health Resources, I worked in a breast center and saw hundreds of women from ages 19 to their 80s diagnosed with breast cancer. Most of the under 40 aged women identified their own cancer by noticing lumps on self breast exam or a clinical exam from their physician. The USPSTF has also recommended that self exams and clinical exams are not helpful. So tell these women that these simple measures weren't valuable.

These inexpensive screenings cost between $125 - $200. What a minimal cost!! There are better ways to save money in health care than to recommend taking away simple screening tools. The mortality rate of breast cancer has decreased since the use of screening mammography. If you want to view websites that are trustworthy about breast cancer, go to www.komen.org or the American Cancer Society website - www.cancer.org.

Mary Lou Wilson, RN, BSN
Director, Women's Services
Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford