Everyone wants a cure.  A television commercial uses this line, while promoting the sale of something pink during the current breast cancer awareness month sham.

Who does everyone include? 

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer nine years ago, I chose the standard-of-care treatment in the form of a modified radical mastectomy.  Then I went further and chose a “simple mastectomy” for the other breast (that is the name of the operation; but these things are not simple). 

Actually, I chose as adjuvant therapy (to prevent the return of the cancer), a medical treatment as well, an oophorectomy.  This was an old treatment backed up with medical studies, but not the standard-of-care.  What was recommended by two oncologists, was chemotherapy.

Back in 1996, about six months after my diagnosis and medical treatment for breast cancer, I started communicating with Bonnie Bedford, another survivor of breast cancer who lived in California. Bonnie had started a website about alternative medicine and breast cancer, called “Amazon.”  (A little history: the Amazons were warrior women in Greek mythology.)

When I first visited Bonnie’s website, it was like finding an oasis in a desert. I remember tears coming down my face. You see, I had gone to two oncologists and one radiation oncologist. And I went through agony for three weeks until I finally decided to opt for no chemotherapy and no radiation. Then I turned to an alternative medicine practitioner who also was a disappointment. It was about this time that I found Bonnie Bedford’s site. And I felt a great relief.

"Full of cancer, full of cancer." These were the first words my friend heard from her surgeon as she awakened from breast cancer surgery. He later informed her that "nothing can cure cancer except me." The term for this type of comment is "medical hexing."

My friend is still alive eight years later. In her case, the doctor’s insensitive words became part of her motivation to survive. Also, she had just retired with her husband to her lake retreat, and she wasn’t about to leave this world to let another women enjoy that house!

The most devastating loss of life from breast cancer impacts women between the ages of 30 and 50. For women between the ages of 40 and 44, breast cancer is the leading cause of death, according to the American Cancer Society. Yet the November 10, 2003 issue of the AMA journal, American Medical News, reports little evidence documenting that mammography saves lives from breast cancer for premenopausal women, which are many of the women who fall into these age ranges.

I’ve often thought that whoever invented the bra had to be a man, because he didn’t have to wear one. As a woman who was never able to feel completely comfortable in a bra, and not shy about bringing up the subject in conversation, I’ve asked dozens of friends and colleagues how they managed to keep their bras on for a full day. I’ve been asking this of women for years hoping to master this trick, but I haven’t yet been let in on the secret.    

Radiation treatment is considered the standard of care after lumpectomy in breast cancer.  And lumpectomies are recommended most of the time in breast cancer when the tumor is not too large or diffuse.

Fear of radiation is one of the reasons I chose mastectomy for my early-stage breast cancer.  Why was I so afraid?  It came from my experiences in nursing school.  Many  cancer patients with the purple lines marking the radiation field died.  Of course, radiation treatments are more refined now, 35 years later, but I could never get over my fear of ionizing radiation.  What added to my fear was the belief that mammograms somehow changed my DNA and RNA  and caused my breast cancer.  I figure I had about at least 90 mammograms in 20 years, because they always took 2 to 3 views of each side of my dense pre-menopausal breasts.

What happens when the caretaker in the family becomes incapacitated? This type of situation is loaded with stress for everyone.

It was quite apparent that I was in big trouble when I was booted out of the hospital in 48 hours with 4 chest drains and both arms affected from a double mastectomy. I couldn’t even dress myself. All I can say is thank heaven for a daughter. The tables turn very quickly when the daughter is helping the mother with the most basic tasks in life like getting dressed and going to the bathroom. My daughter was only 19 years old at a time, just finishing her first year of college. She was never interested in medical things, and certainly didn’t know how to irrigate a chest drain. My husband taught her though, and then he had to go to work. I have to give my daughter a lot of credit. She jumped right in and agreed that her summer job was rehabilitating mom. And her job wasn’t easy.

On Mother’s Day, I have often looked down at a grave stone and placed flowers on my mother’s grave. On the top of her gravestone, it is simply written written Mother., Surrounding it is the Eastern Star symbol and her name, Mildred A. Holasek, 1913-1946. The only thing I could give my mother when I was young was flowers. A small gift for someone who gave me life and gave up her life so I could be born.

When fear kicks in after a disturbing medical diagnosis, you seem suspended in a world of your own. I think it’s a form of grief. The world goes on. People are laughing, participating, and suddenly you find yourself on the outside of the world, looking in. That fear is powerful. Sleep becomes impossible. Concentration becomes difficult. And you feel so out of control.

When my breast cancer journey began, I was full of fear. A lot of this fear came from my experiences in nursing and observing suffering cancer patients. And some of my fear came from having family members die from various types of cancer. I think my biggest fears stemmed from my own personal losses, such as the death of my mother when I was so very young. The thought of leaving my own children and family was unbearable. I must say that when I came home from the hospital after my mastectomies, I had to sleep with the television on I was so afraid. I thought I was going to die right there in the bedroom.

Back in 1996, I had to make some of the biggest medical decisions of my life. Most women with breast cancer have to make decisions in stages. First come the surgical decisions and those are followed by even bigger post-surgical treatment decisions, including radiation and chemotherapy.

I had already made my decisions in regard to surgery and was recovering from a double mastectomy. I knew soon after leaving the hospital that I would have to deal with the so-called "adjuvant" treatment of breast cancer. So when my daughter dropped me off at the hospital for physical therapy three times a week, I dragged myself to the hospital library and did my research.

I was on my way to visit my doctor in Connecticut, and stopped in New York to spend the night. I had a small window of opportunity to meet some women I had never met. A breast cancer list serve, called Amazon, had brought us together, and I had been writing to them since 1998. This list serve is dedicated to the alternative/complementary treatment of breast cancer. We are a unique bunch of women who are all struggling with the journey of a disease with no known cause, and treatments that sometimes work. I was so excited because we have helped each other through some rough times. I love these women.

Free Car Oil Changes For Women Who Get Tested

Madness. What else can you say about a radio ad offering free oil changes for women who would get a mammogram. The ad from the oil-change franchise said that the American Cancer Society recommended that women should have a base mammogram at age 35. This made my blood boil.

When I was 33-years old, I discovered a breast lump. It was very hard, and the surgeon thought it would be benign, but I had a biopsy just to be sure. Now I greatly feared cancer because of my nursing school experiences and my children were young, just 2 and 3-years-old.

A Big Fat "D" Grade For Research - Where Is All The Money Going

Each year, those of us who are survivors of breast cancer have to endure Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. I say endure, because it really is a sham. Survivors are about as aware as we can get, and those without the disease are frightened to no end. Besides, it’s old news that the month is financed by a drug company, which is one of the major pesticide manufacturers.

MY STORY

Breast cancer diagnosis and surgical treatment follow certain protocols. Patients sometimes have to make several decisions based on their doctor’s recommendations. The doctor, on the other hand, depends on radiology to give him or her a total picture of the extent of the disease. If there is a breakdown in radiology, the doctor’s surgical work could be compromised. Usually the entire process goes without incident, unless you are someone like me.

Learning About Medical Standards Of Care

Medicine has what is called "Standards of Care." These guidelines are very important when it comes to lawsuits. If a physician does not follow a standard of care, he/she is open to attack. Each specialty in medicine has a set of standards, and they involve the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of conditions.

These standards do not necessarily mean, for example, that the therapies are the correct ones for patients; only that the medical profession has agreed that they are the best going at any given time. One expects every physician to at least be up-to-date on the standards. This is why medical continuing education is so readily available to doctors. Lawyers specializing in medical issues are certainly likely to be very familiar with these standards. According to my husband, a physician, who was a reviewer on medical practice panels, some doctors have a peculiar sense of what standards of care are all about. In one extreme case, he remembers, an obstetrician went to a hockey game with a patient who was in active labor.