Thanks to reader Macy for heading me to this fun video, part of the Stand Up to Cancer movement and starring Jim Parsons — the guy who plays Sheldon on TV’s “The Big Bang Theory” (never watched it myself, but Macy says Sheldon is her fave). So, can you spare 3 minutes? Then take a peek, and tell me what you think.
Archive for the ‘Awareness’ Category
Keep the Whole World Cancer Free
Saturday, February 6th, 2010Happy World Cancer Day!
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Photo: istock.com
It might not seem very happy that there must be a World Cancer Day, but if we use the day for good, well, then, it can be a happy February 4. Set the dismal stats aside (without intervention, an estimated 84 million people will die of cancer between 2005 and 2015, uugh!), and instead, do something that ensures the disease will one day fade into the shadows. Some ideas: stop smoking, limit alcohol consumption (yea, that too), eat right and exercise well, get your recommended screenings (like mammograms and skin check-ups) and ditch the stress.
Another idea: honor those in your life who have done battle with cancer, because you know what? They are the ones who pave the way for the progress we do see in the fight against such a crappy disease.
Today, I thank all the women who went before me and volunteered their bodies to test the wonder drug Herceptin, which happened to become available just when I needed it. It might just reduce my chance of recurrence by something like 50 percent, and that, well, that makes me very happy.
Happy World Cancer Day!
Skin Cancer Scares Me, Too
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010I don’t worry only about breast cancer. I’m a little freaked about skin cancer, too. It’s because I spent far to many hours seeking sun in my younger years, and I am painfully aware of the side effects of such behavior. I’ve had several pre-cancerous lesions cut and frozen off my fair skin, I have a one-and-a-half-inch scar where a basal cell cancer was removed a year ago, and just today, my dermatologist shaved off a bit of a mole she didn’t like — it was an odd color, different from the others on my body, she said.
A piece of my mole is on its way to a lab somewhere, and in about a week, I’ll know if it’s cancer or not. If it is, it’s likely one that is common and can be cut out without any serious health consequences. But in the back of my mind, there’s this little twinge of fear that melanoma is in my future. Melanoma is the deadly kind of skin cancer, and it’s real, folks. Just ask Miss Melanoma — she lost a toe, part of her foot, and all 16 lymph nodes from her groin to the disease. And if you don’t think it’s serious stuff, listen to Claire Oliver in the video below.
See why I’m scared? If you are, too, the best thing you can do is cease all tanning, and get yourself to a dermatologist every year for a thorough once-over. That’s how my funky mole was discovered. It wasn’t even on my radar. Ah, and don’t forget your sunscreen.
For more skin cancer facts and figures, head over to The Skin Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society. To check out The Skin Cancer Council Australia (referenced in the video), visit here.
Digging Deep for a Body Beautiful
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Photo: istock.com
Breast cancer made me fat. Well, not fat like being pregnant made me fat (yikes!), but it definitely left me puffy, bloated, soft and about 10 pounds heavier than I like. It’s why I took full advantage of a trip to Canyon Ranch a few years ago — I soaked up a bunch of tips and tricks for eating clean and exercising enough, made lots of lifestyle changes when I got home, and by golly, it worked. I dropped 15 pounds and found a number on the scale that made me happy.
And now, in an ironic turn of events, the very fitness that I’ve worked so hard for is making me fat. Well, not fat, but this 1/2 marathon training is making me thicker, bulkier and about 4 or 5 pounds heavier than I like. I know, I know, it might be muscle, but still, I don’t like it. I mean, I’m burning something like a thousand calories on my long runs, and, well, isn’t that supposed to help me maintain my weight? I know, I know, it might be muscle.
I think the point here is that I’m never entirely content with my body. Why is that? Well, I know partly why — OMG, all those impossible-to-attain media images. All skinny models and actresses aside, though, I’ve got to start loving what I’ve got. Like Danny loves what he’s got.
Six-year-old Danny is a lollygagger. He takes his own sweet time to accomplish anything. It seems like a pretty nice existence (low stress!), but when matters are urgent, his approach is a problem. Take school mornings: rolling around on the floor before he gets dressed and savoring each bit of breakfast just doesn’t work when we’re racing against the clock to get out the door. And today, the guy was in no hurry to brush his teeth and hair. He just stood, staring in the bathroom mirror, completely still.
“Danny, come on!” I urged him. “We need to get in the car!” And then he shared what I’ve been thinking about all day:
“Mom, I’m just checking out my beauty.”
Sigh.
“You are a beauty,” I told Danny, and I let him admire his image for a minute longer (but just a minute, the clock was ticking).
Sometimes wisdom comes wrapped in first-grade packages. Danny looks in the mirror and sees nothing but beauty. He doesn’t see his big tooth growing in all crooked, his messy hair or his clothing that rarely matches. He just sees good. When I look in the mirror, I see gray hair, wrinkles starting to crawl across my face, and the dreaded thigh-ulite. When I really dig deep, I do love my body — gosh, it birthed two humongous babies and beat cancer — but I need to do better at appreciating the goodness on a daily basis. That’s why, starting today, I’m going to take a little more time to look for the beauty.
I think you should, too.
Fight Fat Now, Prevent Cancer Later
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
www.goodbooks.com/mayoclinicdiet/
The Mayo Clinic has a lot to say about breast cancer. Click over here, and you’ll land at some pretty good information about biopsies, breast cancer staging, treatment, coping and support. You’ll even learn a thing or two about obesity, because, well, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, you know that being overweight or obese increases your chances of developing the disease. I know, it’s a bummer you can’t eat whatever you want and lounge on the couch all day. But you just can’t — well, not if your wish is to keep cancer from invading your world.
“The good news is that even modest weight loss can improve or prevent the health problems associated with obesity,” says The Mayo Clinic website. And the book The Mayo Clinic Diet, written by Dr. Donald Hensrud and other weight-loss experts at the Clinic, is chock-full of tips for eating well, enjoying life, and, yes, losing some weight.
Now, this is not a scheme to starve you skinny in no time (that’s just not healthy, or sustainable), but the book does feature a two-week quick-start plan, and then lots of material for helping you continue to lose and maintain (that’s key, after all). Think 1 to 2 pounds per week until you reach your healthy weight. Sound good? Good. Here’s more of what you’ll get in this book:
- How to determine your healthy weight
- How to break bad habits and create good ones
- How to control your portions
- How to best burn calories
- How to handle slip-ups
- How to make easy meals
This is a glossy, colorful and friendly book — I’m looking right now at the yummiest picture of a Blueberry and Lemon Cream Parfait — only 125 calories, 1 gram of fat and 9 grams of protein — and I can tell you for sure that the tips for overcoming barriers are really quite do-able: on days when you honestly don’t have time to cook a meal at home, for example, stop at the grocery store for a healthy deli sandwich instead of that fast food burger, fries and large Coke.
It’s still OK to eat out now and then (whew!), and this book offers the dirt on healthy dishes to order at ethnic stops, like Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese and Mexican restaurants. It’s also got the skinny on alcohol — best to avoid it, lots of calories (and linked to breast cancer, too) — and you’ll love all the charts and tables. Did you know that one serving of cashews = 4 whole nuts? Yea, that’s why I avoid them. Just can’t stop at 4. More on serving sizes in the book. Oh, and you might want to get yourself The Mayo Clinic Diet journal companion, because jotting down everything you do to fight the fat is a good idea.
Time for me to stop, and you to start — losing weight, that is (if you need to). For more book information, visit here. And for the scoop on the guy who wrote the book (and The Mayo Clinic, too), just read on.
About Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., is chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine and a consultant in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. He is also an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. A specialist in nutrition and weight management, Dr. Hensrud advises individuals on how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. He conducts research in weight management, and he writes and lectures widely on nutrition-related topics. He helped publish two award-winning Mayo Clinic cookbooks.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy that the needs of the patient come first. Over 3,600 physicians and scientists and 50,000 allied staff work at Mayo, which has sites in Rochester, Minn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, Mayo Clinic treats more than 500,000 patients a year.
For more than 100 years, millions of people from all walks of life have found answers at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic works with many insurance companies, does not require a physician referral in most cases and is an in-network provider for millions of people.
Bra Colors Take Over Facebook, Well, Kind of
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Photo: morgueFile
Wondering what the meaning of those “Black,” “Blue” and “Pink” Facebook status updates are? I was confused all morning, figured I’d sort it out sooner or later, and then I broke down and did some Google work. Found out the hues represent bra colors. So, like every good Facebooker, I played along by peeking in my shirt and updating my status: Beige.
What I turned up on the Internet is that the purpose of this color thing is to simply raise awareness of breast cancer. Not sure how it all got started, but here’s what you should do if you’re a girl (or boy who wears a bra): Look at your bra, note the color, type it in your FB status bar, then feel those boobies. Just re-updated my status after my “beige” remark and wrote this:
So, while you’re peeking inside your shirt to see what color bra you are wearing so you can post it in your status update, go ahead and feel around in there, make sure there are no lumps. And if there are, call your doc for a clinical exam!
Are you game? Hope so.
Pointers for Pampering the Princess
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
www.treatherlikeaprincess.com
If you have breast cancer, consider yourself a princess. Well, if you’re a girl, anyway. If you’re a boy and you have the disease (it happens), let’s go with “prince.”
For the purposes of this post, I’ll focus on the gals, because heaven knows they are the chosen group for this hated disease — the American Cancer Society estimates that 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women in 2009, compared to 1,910 men.
OK, so you’re a princess, and you deserve to be treated like one, and that’s why Denise Hazen is doing what she’s doing. She’s spreading the word for loved ones of breast cancer patients about how they can help. First, she’s got a book called “Treat Her Like a Princess,” where she spouts out wisdom on the following topics: planning for meals, scheduling help with kids and pets, hospital care, post-surgery support and celebrating friendships. She also lists helpful resources and a glossary of common terms used during breast cancer treatment.
That’s not all. Denise also has a rockin’ website, where survivors can tell their stories, you can order your own book, read rave reviews and more.
For additional information, feel free to contact Denise herself at denise@treatherlikeaprincess.com — I’m pretty sure she’ll do anything to help a princess out.
Extreme Makeover: Medicine Cabinet Edition
Monday, December 28th, 2009
plasticrevolver, Flickr
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got drugs stored away in a cupboard somewhere — not elicit drugs or anything, I mean prescription medications meant for you and only you. Stuff you’re saving, not because you want to use it later down the line, but because you’re too lazy to trash the stuff that is no longer necessary or even effective. Well, if you need a New Year’s resolution, and you’re not choosing the one most Americans make year after year (lose weight and get in shape!), then may I suggest you clean out your cabinets, ditch the drugs you no longer need and start 2010 with a medicine makeover.
I purged a bunch of my pills, syrups and such not long ago, because why in the world do I need the anti-nausea Zofran almost five years after I used it for my chemo tummy and numbing cream when my port is long gone? Years over-expired, I threw them away, along with all sorts of pills and potions I can barely remember taking. If you’re ready to do the same, here are four tips from Ladies’ Home Journal (December 09/January 10) and Dr. Angela Gardner, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, for getting rid of the old — which you should really do once per year, you know? Yea, I didn’t know either.
- Empty everything from your cabinet, cupboard, basket, wherever you’re stock piling, and place everything on a counter so you can start sorting.
- Toss anything that has expired. But don’t dump it down the toilet. Instead, crush your pills and dilute your liquids, then place them in a sealed plastic bag along with some coffee grounds or kitty litter so kids and pets won’t be tempted to eat them (well, we hope not, anyway). Put the plastic bag out with the trash.
- Don’t keep your meds in the bathroom — it’s the worst place, because the heat and humidity can cause drugs to lose their potency. Opt for a childproof box and hide away in a dark, dry place, like a closet.
- Replenish your essentials often — like bandages, gauze, tape, antibiotic ointment, antiseptic wipes and more.
Flashback: December 24, 2004
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Side effect of cancer treatment: limited range of motion in my left arm
I do have my breast. And I have a fairly good prognosis. My lump was removed and measured 1.1 cm, which is small. My lymph nodes were negative for cancer, although four were removed for biopsy purposes. My margins were clear, and there was no apparent spread of cancer. My cancer is considered stage 1. And that is good. I have two incisions, one in my armpit where lymph nodes were taken and one underneath it, on the side of my breast. They are both about 3.5 inches long. Besides a bad skin reaction to the tape I was bandaged with, everything went well. There are minor inconveniences right now. As my incisions heal and my skin tightens, it’s harder to lift my arm. So I have exercises I must do each day. Because of the missing lymph nodes, I may have trouble with swelling in my arm so I have to watch for that. I have not been able to shave my armpit since my surgery on December 3.
And now I await the next step in this battle. I will begin receiving chemotherapy in mid-January. This will last for three months. I will go for treatment four times, once every three weeks and will have a combination of drugs sent through my body via IV. The purpose of chemo is to kill rapidly growing cells, and cancer cells are rapidly growing. Unfortunately, all rapidly growing cells are killed, like hair cells and bone marrow cells. The chemo should kill any cancer cells that floated away from my breast, if any did. I don’t know how I will react to this process, as each person responds differently. At the very least, I hear I will be tired at times during each three-week time frame. I may also be tired from the radiation. This will begin three weeks after chemo ends.
NOTE: It didn’t happen exactly like that: Instead of receiving chemo every three weeks, I had it every two weeks — it’s called dose-dense chemo, and if the patient can tolerate it, it’s thought to be more effective. Did I tolerate it? Well, I survived, but I was hospitalized twice because it was so hard on my body.
I will receive radiation every day for 6 weeks. The purpose of radiation is to zap the actual area where the cancer was found to prevent it from recurring. Many women take a drug after chemo and radiation to prevent recurrences. The drug (usually tamoxifen) is taken for five years. My body will not respond to this type of drug due to negative estrogen receptors (if they are positive, the drug can be taken) so chemo and radiation will be my only two real treatments.
NOTE: Radiation went just fine. It was a breeze compared to chemo, and my skin didn’t burn too badly. The biggest hassle was the drive to and from the appointments. And while it’s not such a big deal, my left arm has limited range of motion due to the combo of surgery, scar tissue and radiation. See photo above — my right arm touches the ground, but my left arm won’t.
For now, I am trying to keep life simple. Joey and Danny help me do that. Joey knows I am frequently going to the doctor for a “boo-boo” I had in my “booby” and he has been very attentive. One day after a doctor appointment, he said, “Mommy, you need to go home and rest. I’ll bring you a banana.” He is almost four years old. Danny, at 19 months, does not seem to know anything is going on and it’s my hope that he never has any recollection of this path our lives are taking. I will never forget it, though, and that’s OK. I will take this experience and make it matter. A friend sent me a breast cancer bracelet inscribed with trust your journey. I do. I trust that I will be fine in the end. And I trust that I was given this fight so I can help others. That is why I have written this. I hope everyone who reads about my journey is affected in some way. Perhaps it will increase the amount of women who do self-exams. Maybe it will arm others with information to help loved ones who are affected by this common disease (about 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer at some time in their lives). Maybe it will spread hope. At the very least, writing helps me. And for now, that is enough.
NOTE: Writing still helps, five years later.
Prevent Cancer by Kicking Butts
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
isabel bloedwater, Flickr
As you may have noticed, it seems like just about everyone is getting breast cancer nowadays, which makes it critical that we do every itty, bitty thing we can in the spirit of prevention — like quitting smoking, even if it’s just an occasional habit.
According to the Breast Journal, women who smoke 100 or more cigarettes in a lifetime increase their odds of getting breast cancer by 25 percent. So, kick those butts, and make sure all the young women in your life know why it’s so important they never start puffing away.
Oh, and while you work at ditching the smokes, you might want to shed a few pounds and start working up a sweat, because getting fit and slimming down can cut your cancer risk, too. Hey, no one said being healthy was easy, right?
New Cancer Drug Shrinks Tumors
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
annnie, Flickr
Gotta love a new breast cancer breakthrough. This one just in: “A new targeted cancer drug has been shown to shrink tumors in women with metastatic breast cancer after an average of seven other drugs, including Herceptin, failed,” says Charlene Laino for WebMD.
The new drug is called T-DM1. The T stands for trastuzumab (that’s scientific for Herceptin), and the DM1 comes from an old chemotherapy drug called maytansine that was abandoned several decades ago after it was found to be too toxic for patients, according to Dr. Ian Krop of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Well, isn’t it still too toxic? Nope, because Herceptin only zeroes in on cancer cells that express HER2, says Krop, and DM1 is delivered only to those cells. “The cytotoxic drug goes right to the cancer cells, so it’s not floating around and causing other problems,” he says. “And Herceptin still does all the things that Herceptin does.”
Herceptin is a drug used to fight HER2-positive cancers — tumors that have too much of a type of protein called HER2. Herceptin, a man-made antibody, binds to and blocks the HER2 receptor that appears on the surface of some breast cancer cells. It was one of my drugs, and it seems to be working — I’m alive five years after my diagnosis. But metastatic breast cancer (the kind that has spread to other organs) can become resistant to Herceptin, which is why researchers have been searching for new drugs to attack HER2.
With this new drug, tumors shrank in one-third of women studied (they all had breast tumors for an average of three years). In another 12 percent, tumors stopped growing for at least six months. The women had previously been treated with therapies including Herceptin, Tykerb and Xeloda, and each had failed.
“This is the first study looking at women who have failed so many other treatments,” reports Krop. He thinks the results (presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium December 9-13) are as good as he’s ever seen in such a sick population. And researchers expect T-DM1 will perform even better in women with earlier-stage cancer.
When Pink is Just a Color Again
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009Famous People Fighting Cancer
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
Kathryn Joosten, Dana Delany and Heather Tom / En Vacances, Flickr
One quick spin through the online pages of PEOPLE magazine, and I turned up a whole bunch of celebrity cancer news. I guess I’ve been letting famous folks fall of my radar (I do love a little Hollywood gossip), because I had no idea that Bryant Gumbel is being treated for a malignant tumor in his lung or that Kareen Abdul-Jabbar has leukemia. Then there’s musical superstar Andrew Lloyd Webber — he’s got prostate cancer, “Desperate Housewives” actress Kathryn Joosten is fighting lung cancer, and Melissa Etheridge is in the news, too — she’s speaking up about the mammogram controversy. “Survivor” alum Ethan Zohn has good news about his cancer, and holy cow, where I have been that I didn’t catch that famous journalist Leroy Sievers died of cancer in August 2008? I followed Siever’s NPR blog posts faithfully when I myself was fighting cancer. But then I got better, and, well, I got busy with more than just following who had the disease and how each person was faring.
With every passing day, I’m losing track of cancer (and celebrities, too, apparently), which just fine by me. I mean, while I still plan to keep educated on the breaking cancer news of world, I tend to think my time is best spent on other things — like, braving boys!
The Pink Glove Dance
Friday, December 4th, 2009Employees at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon all sported pink gloves recently and danced their little hearts out for breast cancer awareness. Apparently, when this video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community. So, take a peek, then pass it on.
Flashback: December 2, 2004
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009On Thursday, December 2, I had a radioactive dye injected into my breast. The dye slowly collected in my main lymph node, the sentinel node. During surgery, this lymph node would be blue so the doctor could easily find it and biopsy it. The biopsy would give him clues about my other lymph nodes. For the rest of this day, I was very anxious about surgery. I didn’t know what kind of prognosis I would wake up to hear and whether or not I would still have my breast.
Flashback: November 29, 2004
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
SarahMcD ?, Flickr
On November 29, I met with a surgeon at Shands who prepared me for my first step: surgery. He said he would remove the lump and would determine whether or not my lymph nodes were cancerous. He would check all the margins around my breast to see if any surrounding tissue was affected and would identify all the defining factors of my cancer. If he found extensive cancer, he would have to remove my breast. I had to sign a form stating that my surgery was to be a lumpectomy but could turn into a mastectomy. My surgery was scheduled for Friday of this same week.
Flashback: November 24, 2004
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
alanclarkdesign, Flickr
My phone rang at 10:00 a.m., and the doctor who did the biopsy said the pathology report was back already. He said that unfortunately, cancer cells were found. He said I would need a lumpectomy (surgery to remove the lump), radiation, and possibly chemotherapy. He told me to buy a book called Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book. I got the book that day.
Somehow, I made it though the Thanksgiving weekend, with my thoughts jumping from the hope that this would turn out OK to the fear that I would not see my boys grow up. My mind wandered and worried about surgery and what treatments I would have. I wondered if I could have more kids and whether or not I would lose my hair. I cried and lost sleep and was hopeful, too.
I learned a lot from reading my new book. I learned that many women do go on to have kids after cancer, but I also learned that chemotherapy in young women could cause early menopause. I learned that I have an 85 percent survival rate, and also that I will get tiny little tattoos surrounding my breast to aid in the proper delivery of radiation. These permanent tattoos will also alert any future doctors that my breast has had radiation because I can never have it again in that same area. The book helped me feel positive about this journey, but it also helped me face reality.
Note: My survival rate turned out to be more like 93 percent for five years. And here I am — at five years.
Flashback: November 23, 2004
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Brittany G, Flickr
On November 23, I had a biopsy. A large needle was placed in my breast and a piece of the lump was pulled out. The surgeon had a hard time getting a piece, however, because it moved around so much. He said this was a good sign, the movement. He sent the tissue to pathology and told me to call his office the next afternoon for the results.
Turn on the Boob Tube This Thanksgiving
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
womens.cancerinformation.com
Got a Thanksgiving TV tip for you, because, admit it — you know you’ll be curled up on the couch or stretched out on the recliner after your Turkey Day feast! Might as well grab the remote and tune into a special called “Kaleidoscope: A Celebration of Survivorship through Sport and Song.”
Why?
One out of every three women in the United States will develop some form of cancer in her lifetime — yikes! — and this program should very well open your eyes to the female fight against the disease.
Sponsored by sanofi-aventis, this heartwarming show will feature ice skating, music and celebrity cancer survivors. It all happens on November 26, 2009 on the Fox-TV network. Check your local listings for time (looks like it’s on at 4 p.m. in Florida).
For more information, please visit womens.cancerinformation.com. And if you want a cool and inspiring something to send to a friend, check out these free kaleidoscope e-cards you can craft all on your own. That’s mine pictured above.