Because Of Your Medical History....
Once you get cancer or any other ' nasty ' medical ailment, this little phrase follows you for the rest of your life ' because of your medical history... ' . If you have this phrase following you around, you are lucky when you are not sent for more tests or additional follow appointments start filling your calendar.As a child I was not the one (sister) who had ear infections non-stop or the one (brother) that went running around into and over and under things resulting into many minor injuries requiring stitches, etc. I was the reasonably healthy one, except for a few colds here and there.Boom, at age 19, I was diagnosed w...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 5, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: aggravation being a patient medical history Source Type: blogs
More'Uplifting' News on Breast Cancer Recurrences
Sometimes I wish they would stop researching breast cancer so we stop getting such ' good ' news. New research was meant to look at whether some hormone receptor positive breast cancer patientscould stop taking tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors such as Femara, Aromasin, or Arimidex. However they found instead that ER/PR+ breast cancers can ' smolder ' (their word, not mine) for twenty years or more, before recurring.Aromatase inhibitors and tamoxifen inhibit the production of estrogen which feeds these ER/PR+ breast cancers. The longer you are on the medication, the longer you are protected from a recurrence. However, some...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 3, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment cancer research frustration Source Type: blogs
If Breast Cancer Doesn't Kill You, Heart Failure Might
File this in the category of the stuff we should have been told but weren ' t. Many women diagnosed with breast cancer, are given chemotherapy as part of their treatment. One of the drugs commonly used is calledDoxorubicin, also known Adriamycin or Rubex, or as us patients have been known to call it ' red devil ' , which carries a significant cardiac risk.When you are given it in chemo the nurses put on masks and special gowns to protect them. No thought of the patients. I was told it could cause some cardiac issues but now I am learning that the danger is very real and very concerning." “Both breast cancer and cardiovas...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 2, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment cardiac chemotherapy Source Type: blogs
A Useless'Perk' from My Health Insurance
I have found them most useless perk from any health insurance plan ever. When I was diagnosed with RA, my health insurance informed me that I was eligible for this perk called the Accordant Care in.What this plan includes is a quarterly conversation with a nurse on current medications and any recent heath issues I might have had as well as a monthly newsletter with health tips. The nurse is also available at other times if I have questions on any health issues.That all sounds good, right? Wrong.Every conversation with the nurse consisted of them reading me scripted questions that I had to answer: have I fallen in the last ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 1, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: caregiving idiots rheumatoid arthritis Source Type: blogs
A Carcinogen in My Coffee
I feel like this is another step in the plan for Big Brother to take over our lives and regulate us to death. Seriously. Or maybe its just another way for the lawyers to get rich over stupid lawsuits.There is a lawsuit making its way through the Los Angeles court system that wants companies who make or sell coffee to warn consumers that there is a potential carcinogen created in coffee brewing that could cause cancer. As part of Proposition 65 in 1986, California businesses need to warn customers that there could be a risk involved in consumption or use of a product. So the lawsuit claims that customers need to be warned a...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 31, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer cause cancer risk coffee consumers idiots laws Source Type: blogs
Giving Back
Or helping yourself while you help others. After going through cancer, or other nasty medical misadventure, you are traumatized, and, as in the words of Arlo Guthrie:" ...you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, ... "You do not have fun for many months as you watch your hair fall out, your blood counts go up and down. You also follow your tumor markers more than the stock market, try to figure out how to get rid of your ' chemo pallor ' , and lighten up any surgical scars. At the end you feel like you have been dragged through a swamp, up a mountain, and under the proverbial bus. You spend a lot of time trying...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 30, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer bonds cancer support coping giving back Source Type: blogs
End Of Life Stuff
No I am not dying. But in the middle of the night I couldn ' t sleep and my mind wandered off to thebest and funniest obituaries that you see shared around the internet. (I have no idea why my mind wandered that direction.) But I was snickering about some of the funniest ones I remember parts of.But it made me think. I want to write my own obituary. And it will have to be a funny one. Because I want people to laugh about me or at me after I ' m gone. And not mourn me sadly. But that should be in a couple of decades (I hope).So here are some thoughts on what I will include:She was so uncoordinated she could walk into a wall...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 29, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: death organization planning Source Type: blogs
I Need A Nap - Or Reasons I Don't Blog
I haven ' t been blogging (as I promised) because I have been too exhausted. I meant to blog today, yesterday, the day before, and probably the day before that. But when I finally have a chance to sit down and gather my thoughts to blog, I am exhausted and just can ' t formulate words.I do need to blog as it helps me destress. But I haven ' t been able. Maybe I just need a tropical vacation.... (Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog)
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 25, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: blogging fatigue Source Type: blogs
New Breast Cancer Research Found A Factor that Doubles Death Risk
Isn ' t that a warm fuzzy feeling? Now I want toask my oncologist if I have this factor. But first let me see if I can explain it. This is the precis:" Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that the risk of death from breast cancer is twice as high for patients with high heterogeneity of the estrogen receptor within the same tumour as compared to patients with low heterogeneity. The study, which is published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also shows that the higher risk of death over a span of 25 years is independent of other known tumour markers and also holds true for Luminal A ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 21, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment cancer research cancer risk hormone receptor status Source Type: blogs
Early Detection
We do regularly try to detect some cancers early through mammograms, colonoscopies, and PSA tests. I think most of us (meaning the general public) are comfortable with these tests as we age. But what if there was a genetic test available which you could have done regularly, every few years or whatever time frame, to test you for several different cancers before they had a chance to spread.A new test,CancerSEEK, has been tested on more than 1000 patients and seems very hopeful." The CancerSEEK test looks for mutations in 16 genes that regularly arise in cancer and eight proteins that are often released.It was trialled on 1,...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 20, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer detection cancer diagnosis medical tests Source Type: blogs
I Am Very Confused
I realize this must be part of the vast conspiracy to keep breast cancer patients confused. Nancy, over atNancy ' s Point, blogged about theAJCC ’s Updates to the Breast Cancer Staging System, asking if we are confused about it. Well, since I didn ' t know about the updates (or even who the AJCC is) I was and still am very confused.Let ' s start with theAJCC or the American Joint Committee on Cancer. Apparently they are the people who set up cancer staging criteria. They set the original TNM staging system in 1959. TNM means Tumor size, Nodes positive, and Metastases. " The panel recognized the need to incorporate b...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 18, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer breast cancer treatment confusion staging Source Type: blogs
Some Days Are Better Than Others
Yesterday was not one of the good days. No, I did not have a health catastrophe. But I had a couple of emotional/stress related catastrophes. To recover I went to the gym and destress by abusing my body on the stationary bike for a while. (Until my phone started ringing and I had to take the call because of other stress issues.)And other stress happened. But I took a deep breath, had a glass of wine with dinner (a very yummy meal as we got some acorn fed pork from a friend). With dinner I made an apple chutney with cloves and a sweet potato hash. Cooking helps destress me. The fancier the meal the more stressed I am.I hope...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 17, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: stress Source Type: blogs
Okay I lied
I did say I would blog more often and get back on regular blogging as part of destressing. But it looks like I lied. But I have a good reason.My husband and I went away for a few days to take a real break. Luckily (if you want to look at it that way) the cell phone coverage was awful so we couldn ' t get any calls or texts from home.We needed a break. I got to walk on the beach (okay it was in Maine and was a bit chilly) three times. We did some shopping. We explored. We ate out. We were lazy. We were on the ocean.It was very nice. Now I can get back to blogging regularly. (Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog)
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 15, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
Your Brain On Cancer
Once you enter cancerland, your brain takes detours all the time. Where do these detours go? BAD PLACES!" Is that a zit? No, of course not. Its a tumor. Must be skin cancer. "" A headache? No, a brain tumor. Dead in 3 months. "" Is that a swollen lymph node? Quick, leukemia or lymphoma, which one? "As you can easily see you brain with cancer goes down the wrong roads. Usually in the middle of the night. Or when your are stuck in traffic by yourself.You start making little deals with yourself. " I ' ll wait a month and see if its still a problem. No, a month? No three weeks. Wait, two weeks. Maybe ten days. Do I have any bl...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 11, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer detection fear of cancer living with cancer stress Source Type: blogs
Running On Empty
Today I am running on empty. If I had any energy, I would be on my way to the gym. I am not moving yet. Well I had some breakfast but am back in bed. I will meet a friend for lunch later today and then possibly drag myself off to the gym after.I am exhausted.Maybe I should go to the doctor or something. No wait, I had three appointments on Monday. And I see my rheumatologist next week. I can nap every day between now and then.These days I am good for about 10 hours a day total. If I lie down each afternoon for a couple of hours, I can then stay up for dinner and go to bed early.Talk about lack of quality of life.----------...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 10, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: fatigue rest sleep Source Type: blogs
