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Coronavirus: what cancer patients need to know

8 Mar

CORONAVIRUS INFOGRAPHIC2So now there’s a pandemic. And my workplace and our scientists are right in the thick of it. I interviewed a couple of friends and Fred Hutch experts: one in infectious disease (Dr. Steve Pergam) and one in public health, health policy, outcomes AND oncology (Dr. Gary Lyman) to find out who’s most at risk for contracting COVID19.

That’s the brand new coronavirus that apparently leapt from some type of animal to somebody in China and now the infection has spread from there to Italy, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Thailand, you name it and now Seattle, where I’ve lived my entire “adult” life.

As it turns out, we’re now the country’s COVID19 epicenter. Not really all that much better than our previous reputation as Serial Killer Central.

Anyway, these two devoted scientists shared great data on COVID19 and who it picks on the most. They also had some great tips on little things we can do to boost our immune system (get that sleep!) and keep this new beast at bay.

Here’s their advice for cancer patients (past and present) and other folks with underlying health conditions (think COPD, heart disease, diabetes, HIV).

Wash your hands and read on.

Coronavirus: what cancer patients need to know: Advice for cancer patients, survivors and caregivers on who’s most at risk for COVID-19 and what you can do to stay healthy


FULL LINK: https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2020/03/coronavirus-what-cancer-patients-need-to-know.html

I’m having a moment

21 Apr

TalkIBC momentDiscovered a new Twitter tool that I’m geeking out about a little. It’s called ‘Moments’ and it lets you string a bunch of tweets together — yours and others’ — to create a short story.  It’s a bit like Storify, which recently lost its battle with cancer … er … capitalism. RIP, brave fighter! ; )

Anyway, I’ve put a couple of cancer advocacy Moments together and am going to attempt to share them here. The first is from Lung Force Day at the University of Washington back in March, a very informative sweep of the latest in lung cancer screening stats; smoking cessation apps; electronic vaping and Diane Maping (sorry, couldn’t resist). ; )

It was also a lovely opportunity to see the UW’s glorious cherry blossoms and hobnob with the area’s lung cancer oncs, surgeons, radiologists, researchers and (maybe) one patient advocate? Let’s fix that.

cherry blossoms

Big shout out to Fred Hutch’s Jonathan Bricker and SCCA’s Donna Manders, who are both doing amazing work to help cancer patients get through treatment; kick their smoking habit and sidestep the creepy lung cancer shame and blame game. Remember, if you have lungs, you can get lung cancer. And even if people smoke, they don’t “deserve” to get fricking cancer. Nicotine is super addictive.

Ditto for a lot of the other things we do that give us this craptastic cluster of diseases: drinking too much alcohol; suntanning; sitting on the couch watching TV and eating crap food all the time instead of exercising.

Just sayin’.

lung force day snipHere’s my Lung Force Moment. Please excuse the typos, blurry slides and lack of chronology. You can reorder your tweets but I’m too damn lazy — the sun’s shining and it’s time for Miss Public Health Sciences to go practice what she preaches. ; )

Hope the information is helpful!

My second Twitter Moment is from the Inflammatory Breast Cancer talk that Houston area patient advocate Terry Arnold — aka @TalkIBC — gave in Seattle at the swanky, restyled Cancer Pathways (formerly Gilda’s Club) on Capitol Hill. Terry is an IBC patient who went through seven kinds of hell trying to get a doctor to correctly diagnose her big red swollen feverish boob back in 2007.

Seriously, health care? What a shitshow.

Terry shared her diagnosis story and her path to advocacy (so far, her nonprofit IBCNetwork Foundation has raised $1M for IBC research) and some incredibly infuriating (and darkly hilarious) stories and slides of stupid things her five doctors told her before MD Anderson took one look at her and figured it out (FYI, they actually have an IBC clinic). None of the other docs would believe it was cancer. One guy told her her boobs were aging at a different rate, FFS.

After giving a Patient Perspective talk to 30 or so young docs at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Terry brought it (and how!) to the breast cancer patient community, along with Drs. Julie Gralow (onc), Sara Javid (surgeon) and Diana Lam (rad onc).

The breakdown: IBC comes on fast and aggressive; presents as a red, swollen, feverish breast, sometimes with orange peel skin; is often misdiagnosed / mistaken for mastitis and thus diagnosed later; and it’s more prevalent in young women and African-Americans. It’s a tricky one, a rare one (but data is incomplete so it may be more prevalent than we think) and it’s absolutely treatable. One day, hopefully very soon, it will be beatable.

Here’s my TalkIBC Moment along with heartfelt thanks to all the patients and docs and researchers working to take this mofo down. Please share with your networks so more women — and more importantly more doctors! — learn about this creepy breast cancer subtype.

As always, thanks for the read. Cheers and enjoy the day.

Terry and her crazy diagnoses

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Meet the #LobMob of breast cancer

18 Feb
lobular breast cancer patients

Illustration by Kimberly Carney / Fred Hutch News Service

Finally got a chance to write about lobular breast cancer, my particular flavor, and profile rock star patient advocate (and friend) Leigh Pate.

Leigh was diagnosed about the same time as me; she’s also a lobular gal and has already done a bit of advocacy around lymphedema, that really annoying swollen arm thing that breast cancer patients get when surgeons take out some or all of our lymph nodes.

Leigh and I met first over the Interwebs and later over cocktails at The Triple Door in downtown Seattle where we talked about lymphedema (or milk arm, as it used to be known). Because, you know, cancer patients know how to party.

After she recovered from treatment (and took a moment to breathe), Leigh sort of leaned into cancer research, as many of us do. She realized quickly that invasive lobular is lumped in (no pun intended) with invasive ductal and treated identically — mainly because lobular is almost always estrogen receptor positive (ER+ in cancerspeak).

But lobular is a different animal entirely, down to its tiny biological bits. And it’s a hard one to catch early, because it doesn’t image as well as ductal. Particularly if you have dense breasts — that’s where that whole “doublewhammied” thing came from. That and the fact I had two tumors in both breasts. Another weird lobular trait: many women have tumors in both breasts and/or have more than one tumor per breast.

There are other differences. Lobular spreads to oddball places like the GI tract when it metastasizes. The cells travel single file, kind of like deadly little tree branches. This weird growth pattern means it doesn’t always make a lump (mine was a “tuck” that pulled from inside and crumpled in when I raised my left arm).

But again, the cancer has been cast as “just like ductal” for a long time. So not everybody knows these quirky differences. Not even patients or PCPs or sometimes not even oncologists. Women come in with weird abdominal symptoms and they’re told they have irritable bowel syndrome (because hey, don’t ALL women have IBS?). But no, they have stage 4 lobular cancer.

leigh pate - lob mob

Leigh Pate, lobular breast cancer patient/advocate. Photo by Robert Hood / Fred Hutch News Service

Anyway, tired of the status quo and encouraged by an uptick in scientific interest, Leigh and a bunch of her BC buddies (the #lobmob), put together the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance to raise its profile — and eventually, they hope, funds for more research. The timing is perfect because there are some cool new  lobular studies being done right now (at Fred Hutch and elsewhere) and we can all help get the word out.

You can read my full story here, which includes some intriguing history regarding combined hormone therapy (HRT increases the risk of lobular, not ductal — I did not know this!). You can also see where scientists are looking, genetically, hormonally and otherwise, in order to shut this shitshow down.

As always, thanks for the read. Enjoy your day, peeps!

The elephant in the bedroom – yeah, I talked about sex after cancer treatment

3 Aug
elephant

Illustration by Kimberly Carney / Fred Hutch News Service

Sex after cancer is complicated. You know what else is complicated? Writing about sex after cancer.

I tackled the topic last week in a two-part series for FredHutch.org. And even though it felt like I was walking around in my underpants when the stories came out (I talked a little bit about my own experience in this realm), I’m glad I covered it because it’s a big issue for cancer patients and it doesn’t get a ton of attention.

As I said in the story, cancer cuts us to our sexual quick. We lose body parts. We lose our libido. Oftentimes, we lose our sexual selves. Men struggle with impotence; women are plunged into menopause decades before they would naturally arrive; and many are left to sort it all out on their own.

Why? Because people often don’t feel comfortable talking about this stuff – not doctors, not patients, not even their partners. Sex after cancer has become the elephant in the bedroom.

Here’s a link to Part 1, which covers the sexual aftermath of cancer treatment and how surgery, chemo, radiation and hormone treatments — all those things they do to keep us alive — can cause all kinds of sexual side effects, from fatigue and body image issues to erectile dysfunction and vaginismus.

And here’s Part 2, which offers a few experts tips and tricks that we as patients can use to hack our post-treatment sex life.

As I said, it’s not easy to write about this stuff or talk about this stuff. So I’d like to give a huge shout out to two amazing patients: stage 4 anal cancer patient Michele Longabaugh and testicular cancer patient Jon Dibblee. Both were kind and courageous enough to talk about the sexual challenges they’ve faced since treatment and I can’t thank them enough for their candor and insights. Many thanks, also, to Nicki Boscia Durlester and her private breast and ovarian cancer Facebook group, Beyond the Pink Moon. It’s so important to have safe, supportive places like this where patients can bond and bare all.

Did your cancer and treatment lead to sexual side effects? Did your doctor downplay the damage or mention it at all? Let me know in the comments section. Still have more to say? Please join me and the folks at Fred Hutch  tomorrow (August 4) at 10 a.m. (Pacific) for a tweetchat on the topic. Use #ChatFredHutch to join the conversation.

tweetchat image.png

Coming to terms with your post-cancer body

7 Mar
Photo by Robert Hood / Fred Hutch News Service

Photo by Robert Hood / Fred Hutch News Service

Once you’re flagged as somebody who might have cancer, you’re basically strapped onto the world’s worst carnival ride.

The ride starts off slowly at first with biopsies and consultations but then once you’re diagnosed, it picks up speed. Then there are scans, MRIs, surgery appointments, oncology consults and shopping excursions to buy things you’ve never heard of like surgical camisoles. Suddenly, the Merry-Go-Round or Tilt-a-Whirl or whatever it is starts going at breakneck speed. You go through surgery, you go through chemo, you go through radiation, you do it all. You get used to this new reality, this tumultuous spinning wheel of blood draws, port infusions, belly shots of Neulasta, daily blasts of radiation. You go around and around, back and forth, up and down, over and over. You’re strong and on top of things one day; you’re addle-brained and couch-bound the next. You spend all of your time in pajamas and patient gowns. You forget how to talk to people. You forget who you are. You’re bald, boobless, beaten down and burned to a crisp. And then suddenly, you’re pushed off the Tilt-a-Whirl or Octopus or whatever it is and told to go back to your normal life. The ride is over.

The only problem is, you’re still spinning.

Ever see somebody get off a high-speed carnival ride that’s suddenly stopped short? They stagger. They lurch. They might even walk into a pole. Or do a face plant onto the sidewalk.

That’s what life after cancer treatment was like for me: a great big WTF. I couldn’t trust the ground under my feet. I couldn’t trust my own body. I couldn’t even trust the reflection staring back at me in the mirror.

I tried to capture what it was like coming back from that and coming to terms with my new body and my “new normal” in this latest essay for FredHutch.org.

Writing about post-cancer body changes – and body image — has, by far, been the hardest thing to put into words and share with others. To be honest, it feels a lot like showing up at work in your underwear. But as vulnerable as it makes me feel to put this out into the world, I think it’s important to let people know about the collateral damage of treatment. And let other cancer peeps know they are most certainly not alone.

As always, thanks for the read, people.

What if people treated other cancers like they do breast cancer?

15 Sep

I’ve been recuperating at home the last week or so, healing up after my fourth and FINAL breast reconstruction surgery (just need to “dot the i’s” and I’m done, folks – high five!). Anyway, like any good invalid, I’ve spent most of my time watching Netflix, devouring books and reading social media posts from friends, colleagues and fellow cancer buddies.

I especially liked But Doctor I Hate Pink’s recent call-to-arms, Pinktober, Metastasized, a series of blog posts that takes on a few of the more inane “awareness” campaigns that have popped up so far.

As most women with breast cancer can tell you, the month of October is a huge pink clusterfuck. There are your Boob-A-Thons, your giant bouncing boob races, your Save The Ta-Ta’s wet T-shirt contests (because women who’ve been forced to have mastectomies love nothing more than having healthy normal breasts shoved in their faces). Stores sell everything from pink clogs to pink stun guns with a fraction of the profits going towards yet more “awareness” as opposed to research which could, hello, save women’s LIVES not just their boobs. Even the NFL, which has so clearly demonstrated its love of women in recent days, gets into the act with pink cleats and pom-poms. As I mentioned, a clusterfuck.

Follow the bouncing boob. More importantly, follow the money.

Follow the bouncing boob. More importantly, follow the money.

Particularly annoying are the wrong-headed campaigns encouraging women, including survivors and metavivors (women with metastasized breast cancer who are not exactly “surviving” this crap) to post cryptic and vaguely sexual status updates on Facebook (“I like it on the floor!”), don T-shirts adorned with vapid boob-related slogans or bedazzle their bras (provided they still have them) with lace and sequins, again all in the name of breast cancer awareness.

But Doctor I Hate Pink does a great job of taking on these egregious offenders in her posts (she’s also started a cool new #mycancerisnot4sale social media campaign to fight the pink profiteering). “After five years of being truly, horribly sick, I can tell you that [breast cancer] is not a cute, fun little disease that you can play with or have a party about,” she writes. “Breast Cancer is the most trivialized disease in history … Do they have a tighty whitey decorating party for anal cancer?  Let’s put a little brown glitter around the back end of the underwear, hey? Maybe some red sequins to show one of the signs that cancer lurks in that area? Yeah, let’s tell that cancer story through decoration.”

I love her feistiness and her humor and I especially love her point. You really don’t see other cancers – lung, liver, colon, bladder, prostate, anal, cervical, ovarian, etc. – being trivialized and/or sexualized in the same way that breast cancer has been over the last decade or so (although there is a rather interesting “put your cock in a sock” testicular cancer campaign currently rampaging through the interwebs).

What would it be like if other cancers were treated in the same ridiculous and demeaning fashion that some of these PR geniuses and clueless clods treat breast cancer? Read on to find out (with sincere apologies for those going through colon and testicular cancer). My edits are in italics. The rest is verbatim. As always, looking forward to your thoughts.

NATIONAL BRA (Breast Reconstruction Awareness) DAY promotion letter 

Testicles are so much more than just “the boys” or “gonads.” They’re fabulous. They make us feel sexy, whether we’re in our best outfit, lounging around in our favorite flannel PJs, or just bare butt naked (sic). This fall, we want to spread this sensation of beauty and testicle empowerment to testicular cancer patients and survivors, as well as men nationwide.

Many men who undergo orchidectomy aren’t adequately informed about reconstruction options and reimbursement.  In order to help raise awareness of these available options, we’re celebrating National TRA Day 2014 with a grassroots social media campaign using the hashtag #WHATSUNDERHERE.

Each participant receives a pair of boxer shorts with the #WHATSUNDERHERE hashtag on the front. In addition to the shorts, each kit comes with a set of cards with fun and thought-provoking sayings, such as: “Is Cancer Free,” “Looks Great Naked,” “Will Not Take Cancer Lying Down,” among others.

NATIONAL ‘NO BRA’ DAY – Facebook post from July 2011 

Colons are Fantastic… We all think so. And what better way to express the way we feel than to support a full day of colon freedom?? Humans are magnificent creatures, and so are their colons. Let us spend the day unleashing colons from their colon zoos.

Support breast cancer? Really? Does this hideous disease really need our SUPPORT?

Support breast cancer? Really? Does this hideous disease really need our SUPPORT?

People, free your colons for 24 hours by removing those dreadful (but at times oh-so-helpful) underpants. Our poop chutes should not be hidden! It is time that the world see what we were blessed with. Your colons might be colossal, adorable, miniature, full, jiggly, fancy, sensitive, glistening, bouncy, smooth, tender, still blossoming, rosy, plump, fun, silky, Jello-like, fierce, jolly, nice, naughty, cuddly… But the most used adjectives to describe your colons on this day should be joyous, wild, and spectacular.

Everyone can participate! If you don’t want to free your colon, then your job will be to support everyone else by rocking something brown. It can be a brown tie, brown boxers, brown socks, a brown Colon Cancer Awareness Ribbon, I ♥ Colons Bracelet…. If it is brown, it supports us. (Your support means quite a lot to us…)

**If wearing underpants on this day is absolutely necessary, you can definitely show your support by wearing something brown.**

Yay for colons!

Pardon my dust …

23 Aug

under construction signJust a note to let you know this site is under construction. Not the website: me.

Since January 2013, I’ve been working with a great plastic surgeon at UW Medicine to reconstruct my girls, lost to breast cancer in April of 2011. I had high hopes that I’d be able to keep all of you up to date on my progress, but between the multiple surgeries, the creepy complications, the healing process, the physical therapy, the emotional upheaval, the fabulous new job (took a full-time writing gig at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in January) and my other much-less-fabulous job – dealing with the aftermath of breast cancer and treatment – I’ve just been too dang busy.

So instead of beating myself up about not putting up a blog post every ten minutes (or ten months, for that matter), I decided to post this electronic version of a yellow “Under Construction” sign.

My next surgery is slated for early September. Yep, just a few days away. I’ll be going through more micro fat transfer (i.e., having fat liposucked from my lower body and injected into my top, particularly Lefty, who had rads) plus swapping out my cereal bowls … er … tissue expanders for “real” implants. I’ll still need nipple construction and tattooing after that but those procedures should be a little easier. Famous last words, right? ; )

If you’re looking for a laugh, here are a couple of links to recent essays on TODAY.com.

Chemo curls: How cancer, and my new hair, helped me grow

Not your Mrs. Robinson fantasy: The brutal truth of dating after 50

And if you’re curious about what I’m doing in the new job, please feel free to check out my stories at www.fredhutch.org.

Thanks for stopping by and for your patience and support as I make my way down the long road to reconstruction. Looking forward to catching up with you all once the dust settles.

Oversharing is caring

11 Aug

showandtellI was standing in line to check in at the plastic surgeon’s last week when a woman tapped me on the shoulder.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Did you write about your breast reconstruction for the University of Washington alumni magazine?”

I nodded and introduced myself and the two of us talked “shop” for a few minutes. She was fresh out of chemo and going in to consult with a plastic surgeon about recon before her double mastectomy. I was heading in to schedule my second round of fat transfer surgery but, as usual, was happy to discuss my chest with another BC buddy (and her husband, as it turned out).

I never talked about my boobs that much until I got breast cancer. Ironic, I know, since the creepy crab monster pretty much stole my boobs. What’s there to talk about, right? But since I was diagnosed, had a double mastectomy, stumbled through treatment and most recently, started down the path toward reconstruction, it seems like all I do is blather on and on about my girls.

And now, god help me, I’m not just talking about them – or writing about them – I’m baring my chest, and my soul, in new and very public ways.

Three weeks ago, I went in to see my oncologist for a quarterly check-up (blood work all came back fine, by the way) and afterward, went up to the surgeon’s office where I stripped down to show her and her colleagues the results of my first fat grafting surgery. It’s a new process and not that many doctors — or patients, for that matter — are familiar with it. I let them poke and prod and ask all kinds of questions about the science experiment I’m conducting on my chest. Not because I’m some kind of exhibitionist but because I’ve always felt knowledge is power and anything that I can do to help educate and inform other BC survivors and/or the people who treat them is worthwhile. 

I have to admit, though, the old me sort of watched in horror as one white coat after another moved in for a closer look at what I’ve come to call my “foundation” (after one round of Brava/fat transfer, I sort of look like a 10-year-old girl entering puberty). Before cancer, I would never have been so blasé about showing my boobs to a room full of strangers. Well, not unless it was Mardi Gras and I’d had more than one martini (kidding!). But after living with breast cancer for 2.5 years, I’ve grown accustomed to opening my gown to whomever happens to wander into the exam room. One of these days, I’m going to scare the bejesus out the janitor, I’m sure.

I’m not just showing off my girls in person, though. I’m also talking about them — on TV, no less. Last month, I was asked to appear on a Seattle talk show called NewDay NW, to chat about my madcap cancer adventure (still can’t use the word “journey”) with Justine Avery Sands, a 32-year-old BRCA gal, who opted for a prophylactic double mastectomy with immediate recon (otherwise known as “The Jolie”). I managed to get through the 8-minute segment without throwing up, fainting or dropping an f-bomb (TV still makes me nervous).

More importantly, I was able to get across some crucial points regarding mammograms, dense breast tissue, the importance of self-exams, and, I hope, through my attitude and demeanor, convey to others – particularly newly diagnosed sisters — that a double mastectomy does not destroy your sense of humor or your strength or your soul or your lust for life. Or your lust for anything, for that matter. Here’s a link for those interested in watching.

The intersection of cancer and self. August 2013.

The intersection of cancer and self. August 2013.

These games of show-and-tell have become part of my new normal. But sometimes I do wonder if I’m mentally ill for being so open and upfront about all my BC stuff. It certainly hasn’t done much for my dating life. I’ve had more than one enthusiastic suitor flee after discovering my high cancer profile (Google me and you’ll see what I mean). Whether they’re turned off by the cancer itself, by pics of me mid-treatment, or by my willingness to discuss the “C-word” publicly (without whispering or anything), I’ll never know.

I do know, though, that a year ago, I wasn’t able to have a conversation about my mastectomy with doctors or family members or friends without tearing up. These days, I’m talking – and even making jokes – about the whole ordeal on TV, in print and in line at the plastic surgeon’s.

I never set out to become the woman who talks about her boobs – or lack thereof — all the time. But I think I’ve been able to help others by serving up a few straightforward answers and insights (along with a healthy slice of attitude). As I mentioned in the interview, for me, sharing is caring. And also, apparently, therapeutic.

So what about you? Are you open about your breast cancer with everyone – even strangers — and if so, has it been a positive or negative (or both)? Or are you more stealth about your diagnosis and treatment? Do you think being open about BC helps you process it? Or is it just time, itself, that helps heal those wounds? Would love your thoughts. And as always, appreciate the read.

Breast cancer comes to Downton Abbey

8 Jan

halsted radical mastIt’s always interesting to see how breast cancer comes across on television (less so during October, of course, when all of those creepy pink stereotypes are hauled out of the closet). 

BC has been the disease du jour everywhere from Murphy Brown (yes, I’m dating myself) to Sex and the City to Weeds to this season’s Parenthood. Now, we have a new TV character facing a breast cancer scare, although “new” may be the wrong word, since the show is set in 1920.

Yes, breast cancer has come to Downton Abbey (warning: spoilers ahead!).

In the two-hour premiere of season three, which aired this last Sunday night here in the U.S., kindly Mrs. Hughes, the estate’s housekeeper, finds a lump in her breast and, after a bit of persuasion from her friend Mrs. Patmore (the cook), goes in for a biopsy.

What did a breast cancer diagnosis mean in 1920? That was the question one of my editors at nbcnews.com posed to me in an email Monday morning. I did some research, interviewed breast cancer surgeon Dr. Deanna Attai and wrote this story. The bottom line: breast cancer in 1920 was probably a death sentence.

“I think most cancers were,” Dr. Attai told me when we chatted via phone. “Just because of the fact they were diagnosed so late. Most of the time, patients had metastatic disease. They had very advanced disease in the lymph nodes.”

At this point in time, we don’t know if Mrs. Hughes truly has breast cancer or not. She has to wait two months for the results of her biopsy (and I thought waiting three days was bad!). If she does have it, her treatment options might include radiation, which was in its infancy at the time.

More likely, though, she would be subjected to the Halsted radical mastectomy, named for the European-trained Johns Hopkins surgeon who performed and heavily promoted it in the U.S.

If you’ve ever been haunted by the stark image of a concave, surgery-ravaged chest (this is the first image that popped into my head when my surgeon told me I needed a double), that’s a Halsted radical mastectomy. Along with the breast (and the tumor), the surgeon would remove all of the underlying chest muscle and all of the lymph nodes. Scarring was extensive and side effects like lymphedema (aka “milk arm”) and even arm paralysis, were common.

Even worse, this debilitating and disfiguring surgery was often performed without the patient’s knowledge, i.e., a woman would go in for a “quick-section biopsy” and wake up “wrapped in bandages from midriff to neck — bound like a mummy in surgical gauze.” Not only did she not have her breast(s), she had little information as to how to deal with the pain, the swelling in her arms or even what she was supposed to stuff in her bra in lieu of boobs. 

Referred to in one breast cancer book as “the greatest standardized surgical error of the twentieth century,” the Halsted radical mastectomy is no longer practiced, although it took until the late 1970s for the barbaric surgery to be phased out (the book, The Breast Cancer Wars, does a good job of detailing the history — and persistence — of the radical mastectomy).

Today, most breast cancer surgeons practice breast conservation, a term that always makes me wonder if breasts are becoming an endangered species.

But I digress.

What does the future hold for Downton Abbey’s Mrs. Hughes? Like everyone else, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see (I’ve become pretty good at living a “wait and see” kind of life these last two years). Since it’s television, my guess is they’ll milk the cancer plot for all it’s worth then give her a magical reprieve, much like Matthew Crawley, who miraculously recovered from his paralyzing war wound. Or she’ll become the newest member of the BC club and will die — or become completely debilitated by her “life-saving” surgery.

Whatever the case, I suppose the good news is that medicine has moved on — a bit, anyway — when it comes to treatment for this crappy disease. Nearly a hundred years later, we have chemotherapy and targeted radiation and tamoxifen and mastectomies that don’t leave us hollowed out and housebound. Nearly a hundred years later, a breast cancer diagnosis doesn’t necessarily equate to a death sentence.

Although, as Dr. Attai put it, “having breast cancer today is still pretty barbaric.” 

Word.

Looking for a ‘shortcut’ to bigger better boobs? Breast cancer ain’t it

9 Jul

Elisabeth Dale of TheBreastLife.com asked me to do a guest post on her blog the other day, which worked out quite well because I was in the middle of a hissy fit about something I find particularly irksome: people who think breast cancer is some kind of golden opportunity to get “bigger, better boobs.”

Here’s the start to my post and a link to the website where you can read the whole shebang:

I was talking to a breast cancer buddy the other day — one of the lucky ones who found her cancer at Stage 0 and got away with a minor lumpectomy — and was amazed and horrified at something she told me.

Apparently, while she was still learning about the staging of her disease, a handful of her friends told her they thought breast cancer was a great opportunity to improve her boobs (my friend’s always been small-breasted). As in, “You should totally do a double mastectomy and then get the boobs of your dreams.”

As someone who’s not only had a double mastectomy but is also currently researching reconstruction, I’d like to offer a little insight into this idea that breast cancer is a convenient way to “upgrade” your girls.

To read more, click here.

I got the “Now you can get bigger, better boobs!” chestnut from a few people after I was diagnosed. And have heard other BC survivors talking about people who’ve thrown that at them, as well. What about you? Have people told you how “lucky” you are to be losing your old/small/droopy breasts to cancer because now you can get bright, shiny new ones? Let me know. Maybe we can start a mob. ; )

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