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From Surviving To Thriving Telesummit


Are you a breast cancer survivor or know someone who is? Join us for the From Surviving To Thriving Telesummit, on April 19th – 23rd. To learn more, go to tinyurl.com

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Categories: Breast Cancer Survivors   Tags: , , ,

Surviving cancer: Ray of Hope

Surviving cancer: Ray of Hope
Valerie CassitySpecial to the Sun The Kern Comprehensive Cancer Awareness Partnership (KCCAP) co-hosted a “Ray of Hope” Cancer Awareness Luncheon June 7, at the Family Life Center in Wofford Heights. The event, which drew 125 attendees, was focused on cancer prevention and education, from nutrition to end-of-life decisions.

Read more on Kern Valley Sun

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Philadelphia-area oncologist steps up work after surviving breast cancer

Philadelphia-area oncologist steps up work after surviving breast cancer
Eleven months ago, Lankenau Medical Center oncologist Marisa Weiss was forging ahead with her latest project, a step-by-step guide to reducing the risk of breast cancer.

Read more on Philly.com

Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by - 03/10/2011 at 6:43 pm

Categories: Breast Cancer Treatment   Tags: , , , , , , ,

Surviving Breast Cancer ? a husband’s view

Surviving Breast Cancer – a husband’s view


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Home Page > Health > Cancer > Surviving Breast Cancer – a husband’s view

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Surviving Breast Cancer – a husband’s view

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Posted: Oct 20, 2010 |Comments: 0
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My wife has had breast cancer twice in the last 13 years and is a survivor, which I guess make me a survivor as well.  I want to try and help those who are going through this ordeal with some guidance and suggestions.

First a little about us, we have been married since 1972 and are high school sweethearts.  We have 4 great kids, all when we were younger and now 10 beautiful grand children.  My wife is my soul mate and I am hers.  Without her I am not sure what I would do or how I would survive.  She is in every sense a survivor. She is a secretary and has worked a good part of her life, except some time off for child rising.  I am retired military and a professional computer trainer. Neither of us smoke or drink except the occasional social drink on New Years.

So as you can see we are fairly normal family now a days.  Except for the fact that she had cancer the first time in her late 30′s which is rare and again a couple years ago.  Both times she had to have a partial mastectomy and radiation treatments.  This time was easier to handle then the first time.

What to expect

I am sure each of you reading this want to know what to expect.  When will it get easier?  When will both of you feel normal again. What is going to happen to her and you during the treatments?  I will try to explain.

From the moment we found out about the cancer, things did change.  We were both very scared and unsure what the future will hold.  Would the radiation treatments work, would they be enough, what kind of scarring and disfigurement would there be. We had so many questions that we didn’t know what to ask or even who.  The doctors were great; they put my wife at ease and did their best to prepare her for what was going to happen.  Treatments went well.  In the beginning she was still able to work till probably the 3rd week or so.  Then she was tired most of the time. I still remember feeling so bad, here I was suppose to be protecting her, keeping her safe and I couldn’t do anything to prevent this or even lessen the suffering.  Some of the medications helped a little, but she wasn’t herself.  I picked up on doing some of the housework, watching the kids, cooking etc.  But never felt like I did enough.  For her part, she stayed home after the 3rd week or so rested as much as possible.  But the treatments were everyday and each time she got more tired and sore.  The soreness is like a bad sunburn but for weeks it doesn’t go away.  I remember putting cream on her after the treatments to help ease the pain.  After the radiation treatments it takes a few weeks before the sunburn disappears and a month or so before she won’t be as tired.  It was several months before the swelling went down, maybe a year before we could tell how much different the breast size was going to be.  My wife went from a D cup to a B cup after the first surgery.  It’s still early yet but this time they didn’t need to do the partial mastectomy.

What will happen?

The doctors will probably tell you what the treatment plan is.  If you get a chance go with her to these appointments.  Work can wait and they should understand.  If you can afford it take family medical leave and stay home with her.  Radiation treatments are like a long x-ray.  She will be placed in a mold to hold her body still and the x-ray will be targeted to the area of the cancer.  This is what causes the burning.  If they have to operate that is usually done first with about six week or so to heal before the treatments start.  My wife was lucky in that she did not need chemical therapy. So I can not talk about those side effects.  I understand they can be much worse.  The x-rays kill the cancer cells but also damage the body and make it difficult for her to get much energy or fight off other illnesses.  I remember the doctor telling us that she had to be careful because her immune system would be in shock for a while and it would be easier for her to pick up other illnesses that normally she would fight off easily.  Treatments are straight forward and finite in period.  Probably the easy part of the whole process. 10 weeks or so and it’s all over with.

What you can do to ease the suffering

This is the hard part.  Like I said before, I was supposed to protect her so now to try and redeem myself.  Waiting on her hand a foot would have been nice, but I working the first time and could not take time off, someone had to bring in the money and like a lot of people we were a two income family down to one income.

Mood swings will be plenty.  Just try to imagine a bad sunburn for 10 weeks without let up.  The constant pain she was in I could see on her face.  Treatments to moisten the skin helped and we made sure to make it our time when we could talk and let each other know what we were feeling.  I know this is hard for men in general, but DO IT.  She needs to know you understand, you care, and you don’t hold it against her.  At this point be a man and talk to her.  She needs you, and as much as you may not want to admit it you need her.  I think talking was the one thing that helped us through this whole ordeal.  If either one of us had kept to ourselves we would not have made it through.

What you can do to ease your suffering

She has a lot on her at this point in time, just the cancer word is enough to scare the crap out of you, then surgery, treatments, recovery, financial stress, stress on the marriage, kids, family and friends all seem to fall on her shoulders.  You need to take control and remove some of this stress on her, which puts more stress on you.  But hey, you’re a man, you can handle it.  And you’re not the one with cancer.

Each of us has our own way of releasing tension.  For me it was sitting in a wooded area, having a good cry and talking to nature (God) although I am not an overly religious person, it helped.  You need to find a support system.  Family or friends that understand you have a lot of stress on you as well.  Someone to take the shift with the wife so you can unwind in what ever helps you.  Maybe a hard workout at the gym, going for a walk, watching a movie, going to the bar, what ever.  Just make sure that she is taken care of for as long as it will take before you get back into the game.  If you drink, don’t take over until you are sober again.  You need all of your strength to help her, not add more stress to her life at this time.

Wrapping it up

Well, I have rambled on long enough.  Our life has been a lot stronger after the cancers than it ever was.  We still talk to each other every night.  We learned the signs of when something was wrong and initiated the conversations so that it does brew under the surface.  I am happy to say WE survived, as individuals and most importantly as a couple.  There are many support groups available now a days.  Find one in your area before you start treatments if possible and attend together.  Listen to what others have to say, and build a friendship with them.  They have gone through what you will be going through and can help in many ways.  My God Bless you and your spouse and watch over both of you.

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Raymond Laubert is a database professional and owns several web based businesses.  He writes articles on starting and running web based businesses which are posted at http://rd-webhosting.com.  He is also The Weekend Chef and has posted over 355,000 recipes at http://theweekendchef.com.  Ray’s full time job is as a Database Professional, trained, certified and working with both MS SQL Server and Oracle.

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Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by - 02/03/2011 at 6:37 pm

Categories: Breast Cancer In Men   Tags: , , , ,

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Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by - 07/12/2010 at 7:25 pm

Categories: Breast Cancer Chemotherapy   Tags: , , , , , ,

Surviving Chemotherapy When One Has Breast Cancer

Chemotherapy is a word that strikes fear into most of our hearts.  We’ve seen the movies and heard such horrible stories about undergoing this difficult treatment for a disease that could very well kill us.  I underwent chemo for breast cancer and know that, in some cases, the cancer isn’t hard … it isn’t painful … it doesn’t make us sick.  That’s the case for most of us who have breast cancer, but don’t have distant metastases.  But then, they say we need to do chemo and we know we’ll feel that.

Although chemo drugs haven’t changed that much, and they’re still terribly hard on our bodies, the management drugs have changed a lot.  Chemotherapy, for many of us, isn’t the show-stopper we thought it would be.  Of course, each of us is different and the chemo drugs affect each of us in different ways, but, for the most part, chemo is definitely doable.   

My breast cancer was Stage IIIa, with a 5.8 cm tumor, 8 of 10 lymph nodes positive, and I was only 39 years old.  That bought me a ticket for the chemo ride.  And I was scared out of my wits.  But, I found an online breast cancer support group, at WebMD, and those women told me everything to expect and more.  I went through four rounds of adriamycin and cytoxan.  Both of them are some pretty stout breast cancer chemo drugs.  After that, I did a controversial treatment that involved extremely high doses of cytoxan, taxol, and cisplatin, so I learned quite a bit about surviving chemotherapy.

First of all, I would highly recommend getting a port.  This is a line that goes into a vein in your chest, the entrance to which sits just under your skin, right below your collarbone.  It requires a quick surgery to put it in but, if you’re having a mastectomy for your breast cancer, you can get the chemo port put in at the same time.  If you choose not to do that, you’ll have to get your chemo treatments through your veins and chemo is really hard on your veins.  This means that you will, most likely, have to endure multiple attempts for them to find a vein, as time goes by.  With the port, it’s already in a vein, so all they have to do is stick the needle into the port to access it.  If you find this uncomfortable, there is a cream they can give you called Emla cream.  One of the first things I learned was to tell them the moment I was uncomfortable.  It’s all fixable.  You’ll put the Emla cream on a bit before you have to have your port accessed and it’ll numb your skin.

Most breast cancer chemotherapy drugs will cause your hair to fall out.  This is because chemo kills the rapidly dividing cells in your body.  Your mucous areas and hair follicles are affected for this reason.  That’s why you may have nausea or develop mouth or throat sores.  Again, all this sounds scary, but is totally manageable.  Since you will probably be losing your hair, which can be quite traumatic, I would advise going wig or hat shopping before you even get your first chemo.  Take a girlfriend with you and be adventurous.  Try on different styles, and even colors.  If you’ve always wanted to be a blonde, now’s your chance!  Make a day of it and have fun with it.  Goodness knows, you have to look for that silver lining every chance you get.  Also, make sure to have your nausea med prescription filled before you go so you’ll have it waiting for you if you need it at home.  You may be pretty tired, afterward, so don’t wait till then to get those meds.

On your first chemo day, they will probably give you some steroids, intravenously or through your port, to help with the nausea.  This may make you hungry; it sure did for me!  But, I would recommend you don’t eat your favorite food on chemo day.  Chemo is manageable, but after you’re all done, you may find that you have associations.  For example, I used to love the cucumber melon fragrance when I was going through chemo.  I had cucumber melon everything!  But, to this day, the smell of cucumber melon makes my stomach do a little somersault because it reminds me of such an unpleasant time in my life.  The same can happen with food.  I still can’t look a chicken burrito in the eye!  But, I’m sure glad I didn’t eat a taco because I would’ve hated for that to be ruined for me!

Many breast cancer chemo drugs are hard on your bladder, so be sure to drink, drink, drink.  If you don’t feel like drinking water, then broth, jello, or even popsicles will help.  Since you’ve gotten your nausea meds all filled in advance, be sure to take them as prescribed, whether you think you need them or not.  Chemo nausea isn’t just any kind of nausea and it’s much easier to stay ahead of it than to try to fix it once it occurs.  If you do happen to get nauseated, and I can’t stress this enough, call your doctor!!!  There are many, many nausea meds and you do not have to feel sick just because you’re doing chemo.  Once they find the right drug for you, it will be so much easier.  So, do not suffer this in silence!  The same applies for if you get sores in your mouth or throat.

You will be tired from this treatment.  Most of us get more tired as the treatments progress because they make our white blood cell counts drop really low.  Because of this, it’s a good idea to keep some Purell, or something similar, with you all the time for use when you’ve had to touch, for example, public restroom door handles.  Your risk of infection will be much higher during this time.

If you lose your hair, it will typically happen in 10-14 days after your first chemo treatment.  If you have long hair, you might want to cut it short in preparation.  I know I felt so out of control of everything, during that time.  When your hair comes out, it lets go quickly and in large clumps, getting all over your pillow and clogging your drain.  For many women, that is more traumatic than even losing a breast.  So, I figured that was the one thing I could control about this whole breast cancer thing … when my hair came out.  I cut it really short, beforehand and, when it started to let go, I had my husband get the clippers and shave my head.  My daughter helped and we did a little Mohawk and stripe action first!

That was my way of shaking my fist at this cancer … it might take my breasts, and it might take my hair for a while, but I beat it to the punch!  It was my way of saying, “You cannot take my spirit!”  You can do the same thing.  Your breast cancer does not define you.  It is but a speed bump in the course of your life.  Strap on your gloves and step into the ring.  This chemo is your biggest punch.  Your spirit is your own and that breast cancer can’t touch it!

Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by - 07/07/2010 at 8:36 pm

Categories: High Risk Breast Cancer   Tags: , , ,

Surviving stage 4 breast cancer?

My mom has stage 4 breast cancer. Before that she had stage 2 breast cancer.Doctors got the tumor removed, test showed she was normal then. After 2 years its re appeared in the liver in 2 points. Its not very big. She had 6 Chemotherapy. After 3 Cancer from one point shrunk and went but again another point in the liver is found that’s affected. Now she has inflammation of her legs and untill it doesnt go she cant take the last chemo. what r the chances of her survival. Any1 has any experience? plz give some gud news

4 comments - What do you think?  Posted by - 05/26/2010 at 7:26 pm

Categories: Breast Cancer Doctors   Tags: , , ,

Surviving Cancer- Mankind’s Grim Ordeal

Cancer, according to recent reports, kills more people than do road accidents and air accidents put together. Cancer has become the single most dreaded killer disease, striking more and more people. World over there has been a whopping increase in the number people being afflicted with Cancer. While in the US it is mostly Colon,Breast and Lung Cancers that afflict people most, in Australia ,Skin cancer too joins the list. In the developing countries like India, Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer and Liver Cancer dominate, along with Oral Cancer because of the large number of Tobacco-chewing people.

Cancer patients are on the rise, but the heartening factor is that great advancements are being made in treating cancer. New effective drugs are being used, new pain alleviating methods treatments are in place and advanced surgical techniques are being deployed. This phenomenon of great developments in Oncology (the study and treatment of Cancer) is spreading throughout the world without exception. The far-reaching and beneficial results of the untiring research in the field of Oncology, are definitely going to reach out to the suffering millions of Cancer patients, imparting them hope and alleviation.

Cancer is a double-edged sword. It strikes a patient physically and it causes untold mental trauma. They say Cancer is curable if detected early. Early detections do occur but these constitute an abysmally low percentage of the total number of Cancer cases detected. In developing countries like India, routine health checks are unheard of. People approach the hospital or the doctor only when they fall sick. Here most Cancer cases are detected only at an advanced stage, with metastases already in progress.

Cancer gives one the stark realization that an incurable affliction has struck entailing huge treatment expenses with negligible chances of survival. On top of this the concern that the surviving members of the patient’s family would face serious financial issues, wreaks mental havoc on the patient as well as the family. But still the treatment has to be somehow undergone. The initial shock at being told by your doctor that you have Cancer, is followed by dejection and self-pity. It is very hard indeed to accept the fact that one has Cancer. Then follows the protracted courses of treatment -Chemotherapy, Surgery and Radiation, not necessarily in that order.

Cancer treatment is indeed traumatic,both physically and mentally. The cost of treatment apart, the treatment itself leaves long-standing scars on the mind as well as the body. The Chemo Injections have a wide range of side-effects like loss of hair, nausea and lowering the vital blood count, leaving the door open to infections. Continuous care and monitoring are vital. Surgery of course ,means removal of the affected part. Radiation too leaves scars and permanent discomforts to the patient’s body, the most prominent being the unbearable burning sensation on the skin.

Cancer patients have to somehow generate the will to survive and withstand the traumas of treatment. Keeping the mind diverted during the treatment helps. Listening to Music, Listening to Cancer patients who have survived the crusade, Reading -all these things help. Everything helps- the kind words from a well-wisher, the soothing prayers of the believers, the constant attention by the nurses and the doctors- every little thing helps.

Cancer patients, best of all , have to believe in themselves. But thanks to modern medicine, new cancer-fighting drugs are available. It has been found that in the case of even advanced Breast cancers , hormone treatments are providing miraculous recoveries. Transplants are too helping the cause, like liver and lung transplants. Even the dreaded Leukemia which meant certain death, today is being treated with a great amount of success. New medicines, New technologies, New treatment approaches are working together to rid humanity of this great malignancy that is Cancer.

Cancer care today lays the emphasis on treating not only the patient, but the patient’s family as well. The goal is to get patients home as quickly as possible, for as long as possible, helped by home nursing aides. The philosophy is to let the patient have a say in his own treatment, to the extent it is medically safe.

Cancer treatment has shown that the key is not to lose hope at any time. It may sometimes seem that life is going to ebb away. You may come perilously close to the edge. But do hold on. Have faith! In God or the Doctors or the people around you. It doesn’t matter who it is that you are banking on. All that matters is that you hang on!

Cancer today is becoming curable. Is this not enough to help you to transcend the trauma of this great malice?

Be the first to comment - What do you think?  Posted by - 04/05/2010 at 7:44 pm

Categories: Breast Cancer Recovery   Tags: , , , ,

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