What Caught Our Eye: A Story of Two Survivors’ Enduring Friendship; GOP Still at Odds on Healthcare; Living with an Ostomy; The Perils of Hype in Cancer

Via MSNBC — Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent says he doesn’t think his wing of the GOP will be swayed by proposed changes to the legislation.

Moderate Republicans balk at new healthcare bill: https://t.co/wfMLgimPoD pic.twitter.com/F2jh98WwFD

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 27, 2017

Via New York Times — “A month after pulling their health care overhaul bill from the floor, House Republicans are growing increasingly confident that they may have found a way to pass it.”

Via Kaiser Health News — “‘There is a disconnect between what researchers think is statistically significant and what is really significant for patients. Patients hear ‘progress,’ and they think that means they’re going to be cured,’ said Timothy Turnham, former executive director at the Melanoma Research Foundation.”

Via New York Times Well Blog — In a new post in her “Living With Cancer” series, our friend Susan Gubar sheds light on the difficulties of living with an ostomy.

“Six days after an unremarkable lumpectomy, I had rushed to the local hospital, not so much because of pain but out of concern. I had been eating and drinking as usual, but what was going in was not coming out.

I cursed my faulty plumbing — an operation for ovarian cancer had produced infections and then, in 2009, an ileostomy. I’m one of about half a million Americans whose body wastes are collected in disposable external pouches. And now the pouch was clean and empty, which was a problem.”