On The Price is Right today, a certain bald blogger with breast cancer in the audience

Watch the Price is Right today! Boing Boing pal Drew Carey very kindly invited me to attend a taping of The Price is Right while I was going through chemo, because the experience of attending a TPIR taping is hilarious, awesome fun. It worked, too: I didn't puke all day! A TPIR taping is like an evangelical revival meeting, where everyone worships LOL—and Drew does a lot of insane improv with the audience between the bits that actually end up on camera. If you ever have an opportunity to go, you must. Anyway, watch today's show (May 2, 2012). If you look closely, you'll spot a bald lady with no eyebrows or eyelashes next to a handsome gentleman in the second-to-the-front row of the audience. That would be me and Miles O'Brien.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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ciacontra

Yay!

I would contend that bidding $1 more than the person before you on The Price Is Right is easily one of the worst things one human being can do to another. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
- Andrew Singleton
  
  Nah. Bidding One Dollar is the worst. Especially if your’e the last person in the row.
  - TheKaz1969
    
    I’ve seen someone NOT the last person in the row do that. The person after them (the actual last person) bid $2.
    
    dumbass…
    - retchdog
      
      this happens relatively often, and it’s a lol every time.
http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

This is awesome Xeni. I hope you had a good time (sounds like you did).
Freddie Freelance

Have you found a food that doesn’t make you sick yet? When my Cousin was fighting Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma he found that the only food he could keep down after chemo was his Mother’s Tomato Gravy over Spaghetti, so he and his partner would go visit my Aunt & Uncle after each chemo session and come home with a quart of sauce for later.

Keep trying your comfort foods ’til you find something that stays down.
http://twitter.com/TerryBorder Terry Border

Remember to spay and neuter your pets.
t3kna2007

That looks like big fun; it’s great to see you and your buddy having it.
Lee Alder

Love the Smile. Makes you look pretty!
John Radi

I never post on these things, but I had to say, you look very cute without hair! :)
- dioptase
  
  When you got it, you got it. My wife has an 8th grade student with alopecia. He OWNS it. Very proud and handsome. Very popular with all the kids. Same for Xeni.
  
  “When life hands you a lemon, say “Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?” – H. Rollins.
  
  Me, my head is too lumpy. If I loose my hair, it’ll be like some Princess Bride curse. “My God, what is that thing!”
SomeGuyNamedMark

Come on down!
http://profiles.google.com/tim.m.holt Tim Holt

Now that’s how to joyfully demolish serious culture!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Marvin-Mouser/1448474276 Marvin Mouser

$420
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXPZfzib5N8
http://www.facebook.com/people/Elissa-Ashwood/745772294 Elissa Ashwood

Xeni, that is fantastic. I’m having radiation and wearing 33 dresses, one for each of these daily treatments. There is something to be said for not only misery, but anti-misery loving company – in the last week 250 people have joined in to wear dresses, use china, hawaiin shirts… Anyone who wants to have a little more fun during cancer, visit http://www.facebook.com/33dresses, or http://www.33dresses.com.
Rev. Benjamin

Superlike : ) hope you had fun!
mobuco

the price is wrong, bitch! god i love this show, but way less now that bob is gone. oh yeah…don’t forget to have your pets spayed or neutered
http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

I love your pic above with the nametag! You have some wonderful people helping you through this, and that’s a great thing!
http://profile.yahoo.com/IQ77JK2XNFTX2EROO72LZZARXY Greg

I saw you on TV! very cool!
penguinchris

The first time I went to California, it was when it (almost) made sense to drive there from New York and back… just to go on The Price is Right shortly before Bob Barker retired. Paid as little as $2.10 a gallon for gas, in Texas – it was in 2007 shortly before gas prices skyrocketed for good.

Apparently I was thin and handsome at the time – here’s a photo with my name tag (which I still have somewhere).

We went three days in a row. When you’re in line going in, the producers interview each person quickly, and use that interview to choose who gets to “come on down” – I thought for sure they’d pick me because all three days they talked to me for much longer than anyone else near us in line (they remembered me well the second and third days). I’m intriguing! ;)

I think I failed because finally they asked if I ever spoke loudly (I’m very quiet and shy) and I said sure (which isn’t exactly true), then they asked if I would shout if I won. I said yes but what I should have done is shouted yes!

It was a really interesting experience… we had to go and sit in line on the sidewalk super early to get in (people camped out overnight, we just went early in the morning). Seeing the set and watching the whole process of filming the show was lots of fun for someone who’s interested in behind-the-scenes stuff, and Bob Barker was hilarious during the commercial breaks. He fielded questions from the audience and every single time he said his “The price is wrong, bitch!” line from Happy Gilmore and joked about that.

Anyway – I caught the end of the show just now, and spotted you, Xeni, apparently making a joke to Miles while everyone else was clapping – you were the only two not holding your arms up in the air clapping (that’s how I looked in the audience too ;)
bluest_one

Xeni, you look so warm and friendly with a bald head!
hotsplice

This might come off as kinda’ piggish, but you look sexy bald. After you beat cancer, you should continue to shave your head.
Kludgegrrl

You look very beautiful Xeni.

Perhaps you might consider keeping the pate bare when you have kicked this cancer’s ass and are all done with Chemo?
- Cowicide
  
  You look very beautiful Xeni.
  
  I know, right? Leave it to Xeni to look beautiful even while getting Chemo.
atomelectron

You are so beautiful Xeni. Be well.
averagekahuna

Saw you applauding madly for a fellow contestant. TPIR is such a great portal into human nature. I love it when someone bids one dollar lower than the previous contestant and thinks they did something really clever. We (we watch it at work during break) always cheer loudest for the contestants who don’t have to check with the audience for help guessing the fourth digit in the price of a car.
DreamboatSkanky

I like you.
Eric Smith

Xeni:

I have been trying to send you some vital information that may save your life.

Dr. Valter Longo’s research has shown that cycled fasting strengthens healthy cells, while making tumors vulnerable to chemotherapy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGafhm1cuSI

Also from my book: Stress and depression also appear to affect VEGF protein production. VEGF stimulates tumor growth and shortens cancer survival. A 2011 study at Fox Chase Cancer Center revealed that a patient’s reported stress and depression levels coincided with high levels of the protein VEGF, which is regulated by stress hormones, and promotes tumor growth in a variety of cancers.

The relevant press release with more details: http://www.fccc.edu/news/2011/2011-04-28-fang.html

And chronic loneliness – long-term feelings of lacking close human connections – has a major impact upon the immune system, significantly raising the risk of a variety of illnesses, from heart disease to cancer. The impairment arises from changes in genetic expression, in the reduced production of leukocytes, the white blood cells which are the “foot soldiers” on the front lines of your body’s built-in protection system.

According to Dr. John T. Cacioppo, co-author of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, Distinguished Service Professor at The University of Chicago, and Director of both the Social Psychology Program at The University of Chicago and the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, “…. these evolutionarily ancient myeloid antigen-presenting cells appear to have evolved a transcriptional sensitivity to socioenvironmental conditions that may allow them to shift basal gene expression profiles to counter the changing microbial threats associated with hostile vs. affine social conditions.”

The relevant study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21300872

Myeloid means “produced in the bone marrow”, and antigen-presenting cells (APCs) are special white blood cells which help fight foreign substances that have entered the body. What this means is that the genes that produce these white blood cells have evolved to be sensitive to stress, and will adjust what they produce through epigenetic control, based upon your stress levels.

Dr. Steve Cole and colleagues at UCLA have discovered similar results, and found a “loneliness profile” in white blood cell genetic expression: 209 gene regions were either over- or under-expressed in those with the highest degree of loneliness. In fact, white blood cells are essentially completely remodeled in the chronically lonely. The altered genes include several involved in activating the immune system and in inflammation, as well as antiviral responses and antibody production. This means long-term social isolation has direct links to increased risks of infections and even cancer. Apparently though, says Dr. Cole, it matters less how many people you know than how close you feel to the ones that matter to you.

The relevant study: http://genomebiology.com/2007/8/9/R189

Your moods and thoughts have a tremendous effect. Hormonally, and epigenetically – that is, changing the way your genes express proteins.

Also from my book:

But there’s more to the power of visualization than just these simple examples. The mind is truly capable of miracles at times. Takefor example, 75-year-old Robert Vandegrif: In 1996, doctors diagnosed Vandegrif with colon cancer and said he had less than two years left to live. But Vandegrif wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

He decided to try a radical new idea.

Printing out pictures of his cancerous organs, he spent hours at a time every day erasing the tumors from the pictures, whilevisualizing the effects taking place on his body.

Six weeks later, Vadegrif ’s tumors had shrunk significantly, leading his doctor to note that she’d never seen such a miraculouscancer recovery in all her years of practice.

Based upon these principles, American company HopeLab has developed the free downloadable game Remission for real-life cancerpatients to use in zapping away their cancer cells mentally – and in the real world.

You can also find out a lot from Dr. Joe Dispenza: http://www.drjoedispenza.com/

I emailed you PDFs of my books – please read the sections from which this info is taken!

love and respect
Eric
Tokyo
http://getonthepath.blogspot.jp
- http://devojane.blogspot.com devophill
  
  Also, Voodoo! Try Voodoo!
  - Eric Smith
    
    Not really. Valter Longo was awarded an $11.5 million grant by the National Institutes of Health for his research: http://news.usc.edu/#!/article/28753/Valter-Longo-Receives-11-5-Million-NIH-Award/
    
    And the story of Robert Vandegrift, who’s now 75, is cited on the American Cancer Society’s home page: http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SurvivorshipDuringandAfterTreatment/StoriesofHope/colon-cancer-survivor-proves-doctors-wrong
    
    Re-Mission was released for PCs on April 3, 2006. By August 2008, over 126,000 copies had been distributed throughout 81 countries. The peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics reviewed and recommended it: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/122/2/e305.full
    
    It’s sad that you would be so flip about something so serious.
That_Anonymous_Coward

I said it before and I am happy to say it again…
Its good to see you smiling!
*HUGS*
anansi133

Wow, that third picture brings up all kinds of complicated feelings for me. I don’t see a sick person, I see someone making an unusual fashion statement, kinda like ST:TMP’s Ilia. It’s odd how much social importance attaches to hair!

And I also think of a woman I dated with alopecia, who I could never persuade to leave the wig off, even with just the two of us. She looked beautiful and exotic without hair, but she never believed it.

And then the cancer thing is just too big to talk about, almost too big to think about. I’ve got another friend who’s going into chemo, and I can never guess just how much I can ask about without getting too heavy. It’s like being in a war but not knowing who’s killing my side.

Xeni, thank you for finding a new thing to blog about. I wish you didn’t have cancer, though.
http://aqfl.net Ant

Too bad no Bob Barker!
professor

Cancer: “I’m going to make you ugly and kill you slowly.”
Xeni: “Seriously??? Ha! Check this out!”
Cancer: “Oh sh*t! You win! I’m outa here…”