Anxiety and blood tests to check for recurrence of breast cancer

January 1, 1970 on 12:00 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

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Today might be the day. I think I finally am going to let my oncologist do tumor markers. I'm scared. I haven't had tumor markers done in about three years. After my treatment ended four years ago I let my doctor do the tumor markers for one year. I thought I was going to go crazy -- living my life in three month increments. I would say to myself, "Well, I can't plan that because what if my tumor markers show something in three months."

Testing and the anxiety that goes with it is something that all cancer survivors have to deal with. I just decided not to deal with it at the time because I didn't feel like I was living and it was ruining my quality of life. When I first started writing for The Cancer Blog one of my first posts was about how I felt about tumor markers. It's not that I don't feel that way anymore but I do feel a new strength that I can deal with whatever happens.

I still have my port in. It will be five years in December since I have been diagnosed with breast cancer. I need to get this port out and move on with my life. I feel stuck. I need to know if I really am okay and if not I need to fight what is going on inside of me. I can't hide from it. I haven't told anyone I was going to do this but woke up this morning and I felt it was something I needed to do -- today.

I wonder if I will chicken out! I hope not.

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Photo essay paves visual path for women who follow

January 1, 1970 on 12:00 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

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Photographs tell powerful stories. They depict people and objects and landscapes and emotions in deep, meaningful ways. They capture permanent visual representations of moments in life. They paint pictures that even the most well-crafted words could not reproduce.

When Mary Ann Nilan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 at the age of 40, she knew her story must be told -- through pictures. So she asked a photographer to record it all, stating, "I hope the pictures make the road easier for other women." The rest is history.

She calls it a photo essay and titles it The Diary of Healing. For 17 frames -- with photographs dominating each space and text kept to a minimum -- Nilan shares her journey that began with the discovery of breast cancer in both breasts and several lymph nodes, the journey that took her through chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and reconstruction with implants.

Her photographs document significant stops on her physical and emotional trek. They show her bald head, the wig she wore only once and then let hang on a hook, the scars that crossed her flat chest after surgery, an injection of saline that painfully pierced the skin of her new breasts, her children measuring her hair as it grows in after chemotherapy. The photographs are both hopeful and chilling. They are breast cancer. They are more than words could ever capture.
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Cancer help delivered to mailbox, for free

January 1, 1970 on 12:00 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

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Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) -- a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life -- recently began offering a new resource for breast cancer survivors, for both the newly diagnosed and those with metastatic disease.

"The first few weeks after diagnosis can be extremely difficult emotionally, and women with advanced disease often do not get the support and resources they need," said Jean Sachs, LBBC executive director. "We want to give them an understanding of their choices to help them make informed decisions regarding their physical and emotional health."

This understanding comes in the form of a 28-page brochure -- What to expect . . . today, tomorrow and beyond: Steps for coping with the medical, emotional and practical concerns of breast cancer -- available free on the Internet or by request. This guide, a road map, addresses topics such as coping with the news of a new diagnosis, telling family and friends, understanding pathology reports, choosing a medical team, asking for help, and finding support.

LBBC offers multiple addidtional resources -- including specialized navigation tools on its website that lead to a wealth of information. Visitors can Learn More about LBBC. They can Stay Informed through news, message boards, and other resources. They can Participate in events and programs. And they can Support LBBC through volunteer efforts and financial donations.

LBBC was founded in 1991 by a radiation oncologist who focused exclusively on meeting the needs of women post-treatment. She ran the organization out of the third floor of her home using volunteers. Few resources existed for women affected by breast cancer at the time, and so she tried to fill the void. In 1986, an executive director came on board, increased the LBBC budget from $100,000 to $1.8 million per year, expanded all programs and services, and worked to secure LBBC as a solid, dependable resource for all women, of all stages of breast cancer and in all phases of treatment and recovery. And now, in 2006, that is exactly what it is.
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The three finest words ever spoken to a cancer survivor

January 1, 1970 on 12:00 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

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The day before I was diagnosed with cancer, I thought I knew where I was going in life. All the pieces of my life seemed to be falling nicely into place. It was not a perfect life, but time was on my side. I had all the time in the world. What I had not yet done, I would still do. What I had not seen, I would still see. All that I had not yet become or accomplished I would one day claim as mine -- all in good time. In contemporary vernacular, I was living in the perspective attitude of "it's all good."

Then I found the lump. All had not been as good as I thought. Something in my body had been going quietly wrong for some time -- perhaps for years. How had I not known? One cancer cell becoming two cancer cells. Two cancer cells becoming four cancer cells, silently and exponentially growing into a malignancy that would stop time. That would shake my faith. My body had betrayed me. How would I be able to trust in it again?

For the last four-and-a-half years, I have been living under the shadow of cancer. Even when I willed myself not to focus on cancer, when I forced myself into attempting to live the normal every day life I had known before the cancer diagnosis, I failed. For every office visit when the blood work and checkup indicated the lack of new cancer, I merely took the news with the thought, "yes, but what about next time. Will next time be the time they find more cancer?"

Cancer was always there defining my life. Cancer was my every waking moment companion. Headaches. Sore muscles. Achy joints. Might be cancer. Each time one of my children celebrated another birthday, I celebrated that I had made it to one more of their birthdays because cancer had not taken that time away. Each Thanksgiving, I was thankful to have made it to one more Thanksgiving because I had not died from cancer before that Thanksgiving.

Universally, "I love you" are the three finest words that will ever be spoken. But today, the three finest words ever spoken were spoken when the doctor said, "Everything looks good." And for the first time, I did not think, "Sure, but what about the next time. Will next time be the time they find more cancer?" No, the news felt stand alone complete. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I might indeed have more time to live the life I imagined the day before I was told I had cancer. When I left the office, all I wanted to do was buy a new pair of shoes. I have places to go. Cancer is losing its hold.
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Bladder cancer: Extracapsular extension of lymph nodes

January 1, 1970 on 12:00 am | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

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A recent study has shown that extracapsular extension (ECE) of the lymph nodes in patients with bladder cancer is no longer a bad prognostic finding. ECE is caused when cancer cells break through the capsule of the lymph node and can spread to nearby tissues.

The study suggests that, with the new adoption of combined therapies instead of single treatment modalities, extracapsular extension is not considered a poor prognostic factor. At this time in the treatment for bladder cancer ECE does not carry as much weight as was previously believed. The researchers evaluated 108 patients with bladder cancer who underwent radical cystectomy. ECE involved lymph nodes was present in 41 percent of patients but the findings concluded that it was not significantly associated with overall survival or relapse free survival.

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