October is be supportive, caring, understanding and strong while thinking PINK and spread the awareness month!!!

Not only will the women suffering from the illness be affected, so will their friends and family who love them. Breast cancer is no joke. It is expected to kill 40,290 women this year. Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women.

Seeing loved ones diagnosed with breast cancer can be very hard to deal with. How do friends and family cope with cancer? The American Cancer Society provides support groups for patients and family members who are going through the battle. These support groups provide personal therapists or allow the patients to be in group therapy with other patients dealing with the same illness. Families are allowed the same benefits.

Many different feelings and emotions will occur during the diagnosis of breast cancer such as: frustration, anger, sadness, confusion and fear. Fear is the biggest emotion caused by cancer’s influence.

According to the American Cancer Society, Statistics for men and women are:

• About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12.4%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.
• In 2018, an estimated 266,120 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 63,960 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.
• About 2,550 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2018. A man’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 1 in 1,000.
• 460 men will die this year from breast cancer.

FAMILY!!!!

Long distance work can sometimes put a strain on family life, but it does not have to. It is so easy to come home after weeks on the road and either vegetate or be so involved with household chores that you could be with your family and not actually “with your family.” Happy at home makes it easy to be happy on the road. Think about this; one way to connect with your family while home is share stories of your travels and pictures you take along the way. On your journey there are always little bits of time that something fascinating caught your eye, the perfect sunrise or sunset on the horizon or maybe it was more like a “I can’t believe I just saw that” as your jaw hits the truck floor.

If you have school age children at home, tell your children in advance where you will be driving. Have them Google a couple of places, or landmarks that you will be driving by. Then you can take pictures of those areas.  Away from home or not you can ALWAYS share your day and be connected!  Also, make a game out of it.  When they know where your truck is about to head and the part of this amazing nation you are about to see, make it like a Waldo game.  Example: You are going through Colorado so you are challenged to see Elk and get a picture.  Maybe you are traveling south and you are challenged by seeing that perfect cypress tree that looks like it was drawn from a story book or Harry Potter movie.  Think about how many landscapes you travel across. Black dirt, red rock, red clay, sand from desert areas and then the Utah salt flats, etc. Bring it home so they can see, touch and feel the difference of traveling across country.  When you return home, set aside time, at least an hour, and have the kids, grand-kids, or whoever tell you all they learned and then you, in turn, share the pictures you took. It will be a learning experience for them, and you can bond while you do it. It will be like you worked and traveled together.

Melissa Jensen

The sun is shining, you got a great night’s rest, and the route in front you for the day seems manageable as you pull away from last night’s resting place. All should be right with the world. But, in an instant, you find yourself overwhelmed with that nagging feeling that everything around you is a miserable mess.

Chances are depression has not crossed your mind.

The familiar pit in your stomach returns, you feel guilty about being away from your family again. It seems as though every driver on the road makes you mad. You are afraid all the work you need to do to feed your family is going to suddenly disappear. You constantly have a hard time focusing or concentrating. For no reason, you find yourself feeling very sad and alone.

And the thoughts you have are, “What is wrong with me? I need to get over this!”

Does this sound like you? While you may think it’s all in your head, there’s a chance it could be more. What if I told you that you might be suffering from a diagnosable and treatable medical condition, clinical depression? For whatever reason, depression impacts professional truck drivers at a far greater rate than those in the general population. Living through depression myself, my guess is your first reaction might be that real men, especially truck drivers, are tough and don’t get depressed.

My reply, “Even tough guys get depressed—just ask Terry Bradshaw, Junior Seau, Daryl Johnston, or any of the hundreds of NFL, NHL, or MLB players who have come forth to admit they have suffered from depression.”

Depression is not just in your head and it is certainly not a sign of weakness. Depression is a real medical condition that impacts about 6 percent of men in general and has been shown to impact upwards of 15 to 20 percent of professional truck drivers.

Know the Signs of Clinical Depression

According to the Mayo Clinic, depression is characterized by the following symptoms;

• Feelings of sadness
  • Irritability
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities
  • Sleeping too much or too little
  • Tiredness and lack of energy
  • Unintentional weight loss, or weight gain
  • Anxiety, agitation, or restlessness
  • Slowed thinking, speaking, or body movements
  • Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, or blaming yourself for things that are not your responsibility
  • Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions, and remembering things
  • Frequent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, or suicide
  • Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches

Steps to Take to Get Help with Depression

If these symptoms sound like you, there are several steps you can take:

• Make an appointment with your doctor: A common place to begin is an appointment with your family doctor. This person is well-versed in understanding, identifying, and treating depression.
  • Seek out help through your company: Talk to a representative from your company’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP). An EAP is designed to offer you confidential support and information with issues such as depression.
  • Learn more about the condition: To learn more about depression, available resources, or connect with another man who has dealt with depression, visit the Face it Foundationwebsite.
  • Don’t suffer alone: What’s really important is that you take action and seek help. Remember, depression doesn’t mean you are weak!

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1. Risk Factors for Depression in Truck drivers. Silva-Júnior FP, Pinho RS, Mello MT, Bruin VM, Bruin PF. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2009 Feb;44(2):125-9

2. Trucking Organization and Mental Health Disorders of Truck Drivers. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 33:436–444, 201
3. The Epidemiology of Major Depressive Disorder. Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2003-Vol 289, No. 23.

Mark Meier – Founder of Face it Foundation

Each year, over 110,000 people are injured and more than 5000 are killed in the United States in motor vehicle accidents involving commercial trucks. Estimates of the percentage of crashes that are partially or completely attributable to fatigue range. Driver fatigue was recently judged to be the number-one problem in commercial transportation.

What is microsleep?

Microsleeps are short bursts of sleep, often experienced without the person even being aware they took place. They can be experienced by anyone who is tired, but the individuals most at risk are those who work night shifts, have a sleep disorder like insomnia or sleep apnea, or are sleep deprived.

What causes microsleep?

One cause for Microsleep is extreme sleep deprivation. Sleep disorders like insomnia, sleep apnea or narcolepsy, or because of environmental factors such as night shifts or over work. Some medications can also induce feeling of excessive daytime sleepiness or drowsiness, which can result in Microsleep.

Boredom or very monotonous, repetitive tasks can induce microsleep in a non-sleep deprived individual, too. Microsleep is most likely to occur during times when the circadian rhythms dictate the body should be asleep, such as around dawn, very late at night, or in the midafternoon.

When the brain is tired, it rests the parts of it that aren’t currently needed – this is referred to as local sleep. Microsleep is when local sleep goes too far and takes over parts of the brain which are currently in use.

 What are the symptoms of microsleep?

–           You feel sleepy

–           You have trouble keeping your eyes open.

–           Your eyelids droop or close, present a blank expression, or are constantly blinking.

–           You have difficulty focusing on where you are going or what you are doing.

–           You yawn a lot.

–           Your thoughts wander.

–           You feel moody or irritable.

–           If you’re driving, you drift off to the side of the road or have trouble keeping in your lane. You miss your exit.

–           Your head nods gently with a sudden jerk to wake you. The head jerk is often what makes people realize they experienced a microsleep episode, since the brain won’t recognize the short sleeps as sleep.

What are the risks of microsleep?

According to the AAA Foundation, 16.5 percent of fatal crashes are a result of drowsy driving.  Sleep deprivation reduces a driver’s reaction time, alertness, and judgment similar to impairment from alcohol or drug use. In fact, studies have shown drunk driving can be as dangerous as drowsy driving.

What are ways to prevent microsleep?

1. Avoid driving during times when you feel less alert.

This will include nighttime, when your circadian biological clock wants you to be asleep, or during the afternoon dip. This could also include early evening for morning larks or early morning for night owls.

2. Get sufficient sleep before a long road trip.

Don’t drive when you are sleepy, and pull over for a 20-minute power nap whenever you need a break. Turn the car off by taking the keys out of the ignition, as some states have laws against sleeping while a car is still in operating.

3. Keep your mind engaged.

Listen to upbeat music or an entertaining podcast or radio show to help your mind stay focused. There are many apps designed to help you sleep, and there are just as many anti-sleeping apps that will make a noise or vibrate to help you stay alert. Just be careful that you don’t become a distracted driver by looking at your phone.