Prostate Cancer: When to Treat and When to Monitor
In cities such as Jaipur, where advanced medical treatment is easily accessible, selection is a real conversation starter between aggressive treatment and careful monitoring. Many patients begin the journey by detecting the best prostate cancer treatment in Jaipur, where their options become important.
To understand prostate cancer, it is useful to paint the prostate: a small walnut-shaped gland under the bladder and next to the rectum. Most never give it a new idea until something goes wrong, but still, the organ calmly creates most of the fluids that carry semen during ejaculation.
Prostate cancer begins when cells in the prostate start growing uncontrollably. Not all of these cells are aggressive, though. Some just sit there, minding their own business, growing at a snail's pace.
Certain things increase your chances: Age (especially after 50), Family history, Being African-American, Obesity, Diet high in red meat and low in veggies.
Sometimes prostate cancer whispers long before. Watch out for: Urin
When cancer increases, then similar symptoms: blood in urine or semen, pain in the hips, back, or chest, erectile dysfunction
PSA (PSA-Prostate-Specific Antigen) is a protein made by prostate cells. A high level doesn't always mean cancer, but it's a red flag that needs more checking.
Not fun, but necessary. Your doctor inserts a gloved finger into the rectum to feel for lumps or hard spots on the prostate.
When doctors see something unusual, they do a biopsy, which means taking a small needle core from the prostate to look for cancer cells. After an MR or CT scan can be ordered, the team helps check if the illness has spread beyond the gland.
Low-risk cancer is slow-growing and unlikely to spread beyond the prostate, yet high-risk disease has features that suggest? It could move around the body more quickly.
Pathologists combine two main patterns of cancer to make a Gleason score between 6 and 10. A score of 6 or 7 usually means that the tumor is mostly, while a score of 8 or more creates anxiety as the cells seem very aggressive.
This means regular PSA testing, current biopsy, and monitoring. Ideal for low-risk cancer that does not increase or cause problems.
Most are used for elderly patients or people with other health conditions. If the symptoms appear, treatment begins. Until then, this hand is closed.
If the cancer is aggressive or causes symptoms:
Radical prostatectomy – removes the prostate.e
Radiation Treatment – Kill Cancer Cells
Hormone Treatment – Cut the testosterone that drives cancer
Chemotherapy – for advanced cases
If urination hurts or the patient feels bone pain, waiting is rarely wise.
A rising PSA level in many blood tests usually indicates a more aggressive disease and pushes many men against active treatment.
A glygon score of 8 or higher or some rare, rapidly growing cell types is required soon to later.
Gleeson can be carefully seen instead of relieving cancer that scores six or lower on the back, without pain.
In men whose hearts, lungs, or other organs create a greater risk than cancer, careful observation may be more understandable than aggressive surgery.
Some prostate tumors develop so slowly that they rarely change in ten years. In such cases, it seems to jump right into aggressive treatment, more like an exaggeration than progression.
Simple options have power. Squeeze dishes with tomatoes, drink green tea instead of sugary drinks, cut down on red meat, and aim for a daily journey; Together, these habits can calm the body and mind.
Steady watching beats hit-or-miss guesswork. Letting blood tests and scans slip means allowing tiny troubles the room to blossom into big surprises.
The story of each cancer is one by one. A thoughtful urologist weighs the results of your test, general welfare, life goals, and feelings, which you like best.
Living with uncertainty is draining. Byy explaining the why behind each option, a skilled urologist in Jaipur turns fog into practical road signs and soothes anxious nights.
To determine whether the treatment or monitoring of prostate cancer is not a size-dependent landscape. It depends on your age, health, cancer phase, and how you feel about 'waiting and watching'. But the rest was secured – both options can be part of a successful strategy. The key is informed and open interaction with your doctor.
Whether you need security or a game plan, consult a reliable urologist in Jaipur who can set you in the right direction.
Not really. Certain types grow so slowly that they never cause trouble, yet they still need regular check-ins.
Only if you skip the doctor visits, stay on schedule, and have a solid plan for low-risk patients.
At the top of the list are tomatoes, broccoli, green tea, walnuts, and oily fish.
High-grade, aggressive versions can move to bones and other organs if left untreated.
It varies. Some men test every six months while others only once a year.
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Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Veteran Global Health Leader, Dr. Rebecca Martin, Named President of Global Immunization at Sabin
WASHINGTON, July 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Renowned global health expert Rebecca Martin, PhD, recognized internationally for her leadership in developing and implementing immunization programs and strengthening health systems, joins the Sabin Vaccine Institute today as President of Global Immunization, assuming the reins of the nonprofit's efforts in vaccination innovation and extending vaccine access. Martin most recently served as Vice President for Global Health at Emory University, and as the Director of the Emory Global Health Institute, following a 24-year career with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Global Health at Emory. She brings decades of successful partnering with global, regional and country-level health leaders in infectious disease prevention, as well as in-country experience leading low- and middle-income country (LMIC) health and immunization initiatives. Her extensive CDC career includes ten years working in Kenya, Tanzania, and Denmark, seconded to the World Health Organization African and European regions. In her four years in Nairobi, Kenya, she provided technical expertise to eight East African countries focused on vaccine-preventable disease surveillance, prevention and elimination strategies and policies, and new vaccine introductions. For several years in Dar as Salaam, Tanzania, she led surveillance and workforce development for CDC as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and supervised staff in surveillance, health management information systems (HMIS), monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and human capacity development for CDC HIV/AIDS programs. Currently, she serves as the Vice-Chair for WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) Emergency Preparedness & Response Technical Advisory Group (EPR-TAG), an independent advisory group providing strategic guidance on all matters pertaining to public health emergency preparedness and response in Africa. 'With her global, country and local-level experience, Rebecca has the first-hand expertise needed to address today's challenging immunization landscape, and more importantly, to co-create new solutions with public and private partners to boost lagging immunization rates and prevent human suffering,' says Sabin CEO Amy Finan. 'She is an outstanding addition to Sabin's executive team and will lead Sabin's global immunization work as we continue to respond to the needs of individual countries and help shape new global strategies with partners to increase access and uptake of vaccines.' Martin calls her new role a 'full circle' moment. 'I am honored and excited to join the Sabin Vaccine Institute as President of Global Immunization, bringing my experience, knowledge, and commitment to Sabin's critical mission in making vaccines available to everyone, everywhere,' she says. 'I am thrilled to work with the dedicated colleagues at Sabin who are passionate about tackling vaccine-preventable diseases through collaboration with stakeholders from multiple sectors in addition to health,' she adds. 'There is no moment more urgent than now to innovate and double down on our efforts to prevent illness and save lives through immunization.' Sabin's Global Immunization team works with local and national governments and academic, global, and philanthropic partners to put communities at the heart of solutions that tackle urgent vaccination challenges, with a renewed focus to bolster the falling coverage in childhood routine immunization and support life-course immunization. In 2023, almost 14.5 million children received no vaccinations, according to WHO, an increase of 2.7 million more children compared to 2019. The Sabin team brings expertise across the immunization spectrum, including building global communities of practice, identifying barriers and creating solutions to improve vaccine access and delivery of current and new vaccines, and conducting epidemiological research to support immunization. Sabin's skills are applied to multiple infectious diseases, including HPV, typhoid, cholera, rotavirus, COVID-19 and malaria. Additional work includes efforts to immunize zero-dose children and transition to hexavalent vaccines in national immunization programs. During her tenure at Emory, Martin built and aligned multidisciplinary global health infrastructure, fostered global collaborations across health organizations, led interdisciplinary global health research and worked to build the next generation of global health leaders. She was also a member of Emory's Woodruff Health Sciences Center leadership team. Martin's most recent role with the CDC was Director of the Center for Global Health, then the largest operating unit at the CDC. Her achievements include leading the CDC's global efforts across disease initiatives and through the start of the global health security agenda, including polio eradication and disease control acceleration and elimination for vaccine-preventable diseases, malaria elimination, ending HV epidemics, and strengthening health systems to detect and respond to disease threats and emergencies. Martin received her Doctor of Philosophy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in international health with a focus on infectious disease epidemiology. She has co-authored manuscripts and developed strategic plans, normative guidance and guidelines on immunization strategies, vaccine-preventable diseases and surveillance methods for both immunization and HIV, and for global health security. About the Sabin Vaccine Institute The Sabin Vaccine Institute is a leading advocate for expanding vaccine access and uptake globally, advancing vaccine research and development, and amplifying vaccine knowledge and innovation. Unlocking the potential of vaccines through partnership, Sabin has built a robust ecosystem of funders, innovators, implementers, practitioners, policy makers and public stakeholders to advance its vision of a future free from preventable diseases. As a nonprofit with three decades of experience, Sabin is committed to finding solutions that last and extending the full benefits of vaccines to all people, regardless of who they are or where they live. At Sabin, we believe in the power of vaccines to change the world. For more information, visit and follow us on X @SabinVaccine. Media Contact: Monika Guttman Senior Media Relations Specialist Sabin Vaccine Institute +1 (202) 621-1691 press@ A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
As Trump's raids ramp up, a Texas region's residents stay inside — even when they need medical care
WESLACO, Texas — These days, Juanita says a prayer every time she steps off the driveway of her modest rural home. The 41-year-old mother, who crossed into the United States from Mexico more than two decades ago and married an American carpenter, fears federal agents may be on the hunt for her. As she was about to leave for the pharmacy late last month, her husband called with a frantic warning: Immigration enforcement officers were swarming the store's parking lot. Juanita, who is prediabetic, skipped filling medications that treat her nutrient deficiencies. She also couldn't risk being detained because she has to care for her 17-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome. ICE arrests increase across Chicago under Trump, many with no convictions, data shows'If I am caught, who's going to help my daughter?' Juanita asks in Spanish, through an interpreter. Some people quoted in this story insisted that The Associated Press publish only their first names because of concerns over their immigration status. As the Trump administration intensifies deportation activity around the country, some immigrants — including many who have lived in Texas's southern tip for decades — are unwilling to leave their homes, even for necessary medical care. Tucked behind the freeway strip malls, roadside taquerias and vast citrus groves that span this 160-mile stretch of the Rio Grande Valley are people like Juanita, who need critical medical care in one of the nation's poorest and unhealthiest regions. For generations, Mexican families have harmoniously settled — some legally, some not — in this predominately Latino community where immigration status was once hardly top of mind. White House officials have directed federal agents to leave no location unchecked, including hospitals and churches, in their drive to remove 1 million immigrants by year's end. Those agents are even combing through the federal government's largest medical record databases to search for immigrants who may be in the United States illegally. Deportations and tougher restrictions will come with consequences, says Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors restrictive immigration policies. 'We shouldn't have let it get out of hand the way we did,' Krikorian says of the previous administration's immigration policies. 'Some businesses are going to have difficulties. Some communities are going to face difficulties.' Federal agents' raids began reaching deeper into everyday life across the Rio Grande Valley in June, just as the area's 1.4 million residents began their summer ritual of enduring the suffocating heat. This working-class stretch of Texas solidly backed Trump in the 2024 election, despite campaign promises to ruthlessly pursue mass deportations. People here, who once moved regularly from the U.S. to Mexico to visit relatives or get cheap dental care, say they didn't realize his deportation campaign would focus on their neighbors. But in recent weeks, restaurant workers have been escorted out mid-shift and farmers have suddenly lost field workers. Schoolchildren talk openly about friends who lost a parent in raids. More than a dozen were arrested last month at local flea markets, according to local news reports and Border Patrol officials. Immigrants are staying shut inside their mobiles homes and shacks that make up the 'colonias,' zoning-free neighborhoods that sometimes don't have access to running water or electricity, says Sandra de la Cruz-Yarrison, who runs the Holy Family Services, Inc. clinic in Weslaco, Texas. 'People are not going to risk it,' de la Cruz-Yarrison says. 'People are being stripped from their families.' Yet people here are among the most medically needy in the country. Nearly half the population is obese. Women are more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer and elderly people are more likely to develop dementia. Bladder cancers can be more aggressive. One out of every four people lives with diabetes. As much as a third of the population doesn't have health insurance to cover those ailments. And a quarter of people live in poverty, more than double the national average. Now, many in this region are on a path to develop worse health outcomes as they skip doctors appointments out of fear, says Dr. Stanley Fisch, a pediatrician who helped open Driscoll Children's Hospital in the region last year. 'We've always had, unfortunately, people who have gone with untreated diabetes for a long time and now it's compounded with these other issues at the moment,' Fisch says. 'This is a very dangerous situation for people. The population is suffering accordingly.' Elvia was the unlucky — and unsuspecting — patient who sat down for the finger prick the clinic offers everyone during its monthly educational meeting for community members. As blood oozed out of her finger, the monitor registered a 194 glucose level, indicating she is prediabetic. She balked at the idea of writing down her address for regular care at Holy Family Services' clinic. Nor did she want to enroll in Medicaid, the federal and state funded program that provides health care coverage to the poorest Americans. Although she is a legal resident, some people living in her house do not have legal status. Fewer people have come to Holy Family Services' clinic with coverage in recent months, says billing coordinator Elizabeth Reta. Over decades, the clinic's midwifery staff has helped birth thousands of babies in bathtubs or on cozy beds in birthing houses situated throughout the campus. But now, Reta says, some parents are too scared to sign those children up for health insurance because they do not want to share too much information with the government. 'Even people I personally know that used to have Medicaid for their children that were born here — that are legally here, but the parents are not — they stopped requesting Medicaid,' Reta says. Their worry is well-founded. An Associated Press investigation last week revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have gained access to personal health data — including addresses — of the nation's 79 million Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program enrollees. The disclosure will allow ICE officials to receive 'identity and location information of aliens,' documents obtained by the AP say. In Texas, the governor started requiring emergency room staff to ask patients about their legal status, a move that doctors have argued will dissuade immigrants from seeking needed care. State officials have said the data will show how much money is spent on care for immigrants who may not be here legally. Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat any patients who come to the doors. Visits to Holy Family Services' mobile clinic have stopped altogether since Trump took office. The van, which once offered checkups at the doorsteps in the colonias, now sits running on idle. Its constant hum is heard throughout the clinic's campus, to keep medical supplies fresh in the 100-degree temperatures. 'These were hard-hit communities that really needed the services,' de la Cruz-Yarrison says. 'People were just not coming after the administration changed.' Immigrants were less likely to seek medical care during Trump's first term, multiple studies concluded. A 2023 study of well-child visits in Boston, Minneapolis and Little Rock, Arkansas, noted a 5% drop for children who were born to immigrant mothers after Trump was elected in 2016. The study also noted declines in visits when news about Trump's plans to tighten immigration rules broke throughout his first term. 'It's a really high-anxiety environment where they're afraid to talk to the pediatrician, go to school or bring their kids to child care,' says Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, a Boston University researcher who oversaw the study. A delayed trip to the doctor almost cost 82-year-old Maria Isabel de Perez her son this spring. He refused to seek help for his intense and constant stomach pains for weeks, instead popping Tylenol daily so he could still labor in the farm fields of Arkansas, she says. He put off going to the hospital as rumors swirled that immigration enforcement officials were outside of the hospital. 'He waited and waited because he felt the pain but was too scared to go to the hospital,' she explains in Spanish through an interpreter. 'He couldn't go until the appendix exploded.' Her son is still recovering after surgery and has not been able to return to work, she says. Perez is a permanent resident who has lived in the United States for 40 years. But all of her children were born in Mexico, and, because she is a green card holder, she cannot sponsor them for citizenship. Maria, meanwhile, only leaves her house to volunteer at Holy Family Services' food bank. She's skipped work on nearby farms. And after last month's arrests, she won't sell clothes for money at the flea market anymore. So she stuffs cardboard boxes with loaves of bread, potatoes, peppers and beans that will be handed out to the hungry. Before the raids began, about 130 people would drive up to collect a box of food from Maria. But on this sweltering June day, only 68 people show up for food. She brings home a box every week to her children, ages 16, 11 and 4, who are spending the summer shut inside. Her 16-year-old daughter has skipped the checkup she needs to refill her depression medication. The teenager, who checks in on friends whose parents have been arrested in immigration raids through a text group chat, insists she is 'doing OK.' Maria left Mexico years ago because dangerous gangs rule her hometown, she explains. She's married now to an American truck driver. 'We're not bad people,' Maria says from her dining room table, where her 4-year-old son happily eats a lime green popsicle. 'We just want to have a better future for our children.' Juanita, the prediabetic mother who hasn't filled her prescriptions out of fear, was not sure when she would brave the pharmacy again. But with a cross hanging around her neck, the devout Catholic says she will say three invocations before she does. Explains her 15-year-old son, Jose: 'We always pray before we leave.'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
As Trump's raids ramp up, a Texas region's residents stay inside — even when they need medical care
These days, Juanita says a prayer every time she steps off the driveway of her modest rural home. The 41-year-old mother, who crossed into the United States from Mexico more than two decades ago and married an American carpenter, fears federal agents may be on the hunt for her. As she was about to leave for the pharmacy late last month, her husband called with a frantic warning: Immigration enforcement officers were swarming the store's parking lot. Juanita, who is prediabetic, skipped filling medications that treat her nutrient deficiencies. She also couldn't risk being detained because she has to care for her 17-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome. 'If I am caught, who's going to help my daughter?" Juanita asks in Spanish, through an interpreter. Some people quoted in this story insisted that The Associated Press publish only their first names because of concerns over their immigration status. As the Trump administration intensifies deportation activity around the country, some immigrants — including many who have lived in Texas's southern tip for decades — are unwilling to leave their homes, even for necessary medical care. Tucked behind the freeway strip malls, roadside taquerias and vast citrus groves that span this 160-mile stretch of the Rio Grande Valley are people like Juanita, who need critical medical care in one of the nation's poorest and unhealthiest regions. For generations, Mexican families have harmoniously settled — some legally, some not — in this predominately Latino community where immigration status was once hardly top of mind. White House officials have directed federal agents to leave no location unchecked, including hospitals and churches, in their drive to remove 1 million immigrants by year's end. Those agents are even combing through the federal government's largest medical record databases to search for immigrants who may be in the United States illegally. Deportations and tougher restrictions will come with consequences, says Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors restrictive immigration policies. 'We shouldn't have let it get out of hand the way we did,' Krikorian says of the previous administration's immigration policies. 'Some businesses are going to have difficulties. Some communities are going to face difficulties." Federal agents' raids began reaching deeper into everyday life across the Rio Grande Valley in June, just as the area's 1.4 million residents began their summer ritual of enduring the suffocating heat. This working-class stretch of Texas solidly backed Trump in the 2024 election, despite campaign promises to ruthlessly pursue mass deportations. People here, who once moved regularly from the U.S. to Mexico to visit relatives or get cheap dental care, say they didn't realize his deportation campaign would focus on their neighbors. But in recent weeks, restaurant workers have been escorted out mid-shift and farmers have suddenly lost field workers. Schoolchildren talk openly about friends who lost a parent in raids. More than a dozen were arrested last month at local flea markets, according to local news reports and Border Patrol officials. Immigrants are staying shut inside their mobiles homes and shacks that make up the 'colonias," zoning-free neighborhoods that sometimes don't have access to running water or electricity, says Sandra de la Cruz-Yarrison, who runs the Holy Family Services, Inc. clinic in Weslaco, Texas. 'People are not going to risk it,' de la Cruz-Yarrison says. 'People are being stripped from their families.' Yet people here are among the most medically needy in the country. Nearly half the population is obese. Women are more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer and elderly people are more likely to develop dementia. Bladder cancers can be more aggressive. One out of every four people lives with diabetes. As much as a third of the population doesn't have health insurance to cover those ailments. And a quarter of people live in poverty, more than double the national average. Now, many in this region are on a path to develop worse health outcomes as they skip doctors appointments out of fear, says Dr. Stanley Fisch, a pediatrician who helped open Driscoll Children's Hospital in the region last year. 'We've always had, unfortunately, people who have gone with untreated diabetes for a long time and now it's compounded with these other issues at the moment,' Fisch says. 'This is a very dangerous situation for people. The population is suffering accordingly.' Trepidations about going to clinics are spreading Elvia was the unlucky — and unsuspecting — patient who sat down for the finger prick the clinic offers everyone during its monthly educational meeting for community members. As blood oozed out of her finger, the monitor registered a 194 glucose level, indicating she is prediabetic. She balked at the idea of writing down her address for regular care at Holy Family Services' clinic. Nor did she want to enroll in Medicaid, the federal and state funded program that provides health care coverage to the poorest Americans. Although she is a legal resident, some people living in her house do not have legal status. Fewer people have come to Holy Family Services' clinic with coverage in recent months, says billing coordinator Elizabeth Reta. Over decades, the clinic's midwifery staff has helped birth thousands of babies in bathtubs or on cozy beds in birthing houses situated throughout the campus. But now, Reta says, some parents are too scared to sign those children up for health insurance because they do not want to share too much information with the government. 'Even people I personally know that used to have Medicaid for their children that were born here — that are legally here, but the parents are not — they stopped requesting Medicaid," Reta says. Their worry is well-founded. An Associated Press investigation last week revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have gained access to personal health data — including addresses — of the nation's 79 million Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program enrollees. The disclosure will allow ICE officials to receive 'identity and location information of aliens,' documents obtained by the AP say. In Texas, the governor started requiring emergency room staff to ask patients about their legal status, a move that doctors have argued will dissuade immigrants from seeking needed care. State officials have said the data will show how much money is spent on care for immigrants who may not be here legally. Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat any patients who come to the doors. Visits to Holy Family Services' mobile clinic have stopped altogether since Trump took office. The van, which once offered checkups at the doorsteps in the colonias, now sits running on idle. Its constant hum is heard throughout the clinic's campus, to keep medical supplies fresh in the 100-degree temperatures. 'These were hard-hit communities that really needed the services,' de la Cruz-Yarrison says. 'People were just not coming after the administration changed.' A mother almost loses a son. A daughter is too scared to visit the doctor Immigrants were less likely to seek medical care during Trump's first term, multiple studies concluded. A 2023 study of well-child visits in Boston, Minneapolis and Little Rock, Arkansas, noted a 5% drop for children who were born to immigrant mothers after Trump was elected in 2016. The study also noted declines in visits when news about Trump's plans to tighten immigration rules broke throughout his first term. 'It's a really high-anxiety environment where they're afraid to talk to the pediatrician, go to school or bring their kids to child care,' says Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, a Boston University researcher who oversaw the study. A delayed trip to the doctor almost cost 82-year-old Maria Isabel de Perez her son this spring. He refused to seek help for his intense and constant stomach pains for weeks, instead popping Tylenol daily so he could still labor in the farm fields of Arkansas, she says. He put off going to the hospital as rumors swirled that immigration enforcement officials were outside of the hospital. 'He waited and waited because he felt the pain but was too scared to go to the hospital,' she explains in Spanish through an interpreter. 'He couldn't go until the appendix exploded.' Her son is still recovering after surgery and has not been able to return to work, she says. Perez is a permanent resident who has lived in the United States for 40 years. But all of her children were born in Mexico, and, because she is a green card holder, she cannot sponsor them for citizenship. Maria, meanwhile, only leaves her house to volunteer at Holy Family Services' food bank. She's skipped work on nearby farms. And after last month's arrests, she won't sell clothes for money at the flea market anymore. So she stuffs cardboard boxes with loaves of bread, potatoes, peppers and beans that will be handed out to the hungry. Before the raids began, about 130 people would drive up to collect a box of food from Maria. But on this sweltering June day, only 68 people show up for food. She brings home a box every week to her children, ages 16, 11 and 4, who are spending the summer shut inside. Her 16-year-old daughter has skipped the checkup she needs to refill her depression medication. The teenager, who checks in on friends whose parents have been arrested in immigration raids through a text group chat, insists she is 'doing OK.' Maria left Mexico years ago because dangerous gangs rule her hometown, she explains. She's married now to an American truck driver. 'We're not bad people,' Maria says from her dining room table, where her 4-year-old son happily eats a lime green popsicle. 'We just want to have a better future for our children.' Juanita, the prediabetic mother who hasn't filled her prescriptions out of fear, was not sure when she would brave the pharmacy again. But with a cross hanging around her neck, the devout Catholic says she will say three invocations before she does.
