October 18, 2003

• Every 12 minutes, a woman dies from breast cancer!*

  
  

  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I know many of you may be tired of hearing about breast cancer, but as a breast cancer survivor of 2 years (& counting!), I feel that the media & your friends & family CANNOT stress this enough… GET YOUR MAMMOGRAM! To the males out there, be sure your significant other & women in your family & your female friends do so!

  
  

   

  
  

  I’ve been spending time while online, following links within several health emails I receive daily; especially those related to cancers… breast cancer at the foremost. I have been inundated with information… some very helpful & some I tend to take with a grain of salt, due to earlier research & my own breast cancer experience. Remember this… they don’t call it the ‘practice’ of medicine for nothing.

  
  

   

  
  

  The statistics say that overall, one of every eight women will get breast cancer by their mid-eighties. The numbers for those getting breast cancer in their forties is one in sixty-six. I am one of those. I was originally diagnosed at age 45. I can testify to how valuable mammograms can be in finding breast cancer; especially in its early stages, when the survivability is much greater. My cancer was listed as DCIS, Stage I, meaning that it was completely encapsulated within the milk duct, without encompassing the walls of the milk duct in any aspect. The size of my tumor was 2mm. It was not able to be felt, even by my highly experienced surgeon. Had I waited any longer, or the radiologist not been able to see the suspicious calcifications amongst my dense breast tissue, I would definitely be one of those who would end up with a much more dangerous stage of the disease, lowering my survivability immensely.

  
  

   

  
  

  I must also give credit to my radiological technician, Suzi, who has to be one of the best in the nation at spotting the abnormalities herself, resulting in further films when I had my first set done then. The look on her face when she came back after the original films were taken spoke volumes… even before she said the radiologist wanted more specific images. Later, when I had the follow-up mammograms after my simple mastectomy with findings of a fibroid & additional calcifications (both non-cancerous, although the calcs were hyperplasia or pre-cancer), she assisted the clinic director in the double biopsies of my bi-lateral ( opposite) breast. She is one very special lady.

  
  

   

  
  

  Sure, there are women who are afraid of going in to have a mammogram done. It can be extremely uncomfortable to have one’s breasts compressed to a mere 1/4th to 1/2 inch thick… especially those of us with dense breasts! A rule of thumb is to be sure to schedule your mammogram about the middle of the menstrual cycle, when the breasts are less tender or swollen (9-14 days after the start of your period). But the time spent with the breasts compressed is so minimal, when you compare that with the possibility of allowing a tumor to grow to the point where it metastasizes into other parts of the body, making survivability almost hopeless. Our dear friend, Jane, (Windsong87) was one of those whose cancer, when diagnosed, had already metastasized into her lymphatic system. Within the year, she was gone, even though she was staying so positive & doing all the things the doctors said to make herself well again.

  
  

   

  
  

  In my links tracking, I have found some wonderful articles on WebMD related to breast cancer. I’m still clicking & reading, following article after article, learning as much as I can to arm myself in my ongoing battle against the return of a horribly scary disease… one that takes thousands of women each year & is second only to, depending on what source you are reading, skin cancer (or lung cancer) in women. Cancer in general is the 2nd most prevalent cause of death in women, following heart diseases.

  
  

   

  
  

  In some of what I read, I learned that breast cancer rates in women has DOUBLED since the 1940s. Some believe this can be accounted for by the presence of better medical screening, especially in the case of mammograms. Personally, I believe it has alot to do with our lifestyles, dietary habits & environment… more specifically the use of chemicals in our foods & the environment. There were no long-term exposure tests done on any of the chemicals that have been labeled ‘harmless’ by the FDA. Even now, with many chemicals used as pesticides or herbicides that are KNOWN to the FDA to cause cancers & other catastrophic illness, their use continues.

  
  

   

  
  

  There are even drugs promoted continually that are known to have serious ‘side-effects’ including cancer which still find their way into our bodies at our physicians’ recommendations. One of these is one my own oncologist (cancer specialist) recommended that I take to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer, because mine was the estrogen-receptive type… Tamoxifen (Novaldex). In my research at the manufacturer’s website, I found THEIR research study findings. Reading it with a trained eye & a good background in the English language, I learned that it was written in such a way as to make the drug APPEAR to have the results that would make it a viable breast cancer preventative measure.

  
  

   

  
  

  However, in reality, it CAUSES endometrial cancers in one in four women who take the drug in as little as 2 years & almost assuredly after 5 years! Also part of their findings was that the recurrence rate of breast cancer was actually NO LESS in women who took the drug than those who took the placebo! But the way they stated the findings was very misleading. The statistics were presented in a way that would cause confusion to those who weren’t experts in understanding statistics & comparable values, giving the false premise that the drug is good. This is a typical ploy by researchers to prevent the loss of funding for their projects & drug companies in general so they can sell a drug they are manufacturing… at a HUGE profit.

  
  

   

  
  

  It saddens me greatly that the American Cancer Society, in one of their popular online publications, clearly is pushing the use of that drug. I can only presume that they are receiving a great amount of funding from the drug manufacturer, at the cost of promoting that drug for the money they are providing. Above all, remember this… God has given us everything we need to keep us healthy & to make us well when we are ill. The sources are all around us in the herbs He has graciously given us, no matter where we are! We don’t need man-made chemicals to cure ourselves, especially when most have proven to do as much harm, if not more harm than good.

  
  

   

  
  

  Here is a breast cancer risk assessment questionaire that is very helpful in determining how much at risk you might be:  http://bcra.nci.nih.gov/brc/q1.htm  My personal result is 7, because of several factors including already having had DCIS.

  
  

   

  
  

  This is the Susan G Komen breast cancer site:  http://www.komen.org/

  
  

  The American Cancer Society’s statistics for breast cancer in 2003:  http://www.cancer.org/docroot/stt/stt_0.asp

  
  

  Various breast cancer websites:  http://www.breastcancer.org/qanda_intro.html

  
  

  http://www.nabco.org/

  
  

  http://www.nbcam.org/

  
  

  *http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/

  
  

  For some good information with loads of links to other resources of information on breast cancer, start here:  http://my.webmd.com/medical_information/condition_centers/breast_cancer/default.htm

  
  

  Or here:  http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/45/1662_52434.htm

  
  

   

  
  

  There are oodles of articles at WebMD’s website. Each page I’ve gone to has links to many more. It is well worth the time & effort to follow those links to read the information that just might save your life or that of a friend or family member. Please, guys… urge your loved ones to read about breast cancer & go get a mammogram! Read the information yourself. After all, this disease is not limited to women, because men do get it too, although with much less frequency. Also, you men being aware of what breast cancer is… what effect it has on us women… might be the little push we need as well as support for those of us with positive diagnoses.

  
  

  BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!

  • 10:17 pm
  • 5 Comments