From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have
received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than
mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started
this blog…
“It appears that the next event is breast
reconstruction!”
While it may seem an obvious choice to some who are outside
of the breast cancer community (is there ANYONE who is?) breast reconstruction
is not an easy choice.
After months that include radical mastectomy, chemotherapy,
hair loss, and recovery, the decision to “go under the knife” again is not one
that women take lightly.
Even so, new research shows that more and more women are
undergoing the procedure to rebuild what was once there. “Researchers found that 46 percent of patients
received reconstruction in 1998 but that figure rose to 63 percent by 2007.”
While this article was informative, from a layperson’s point
of view, I find the authors somewhat narrow-minded – perhaps even “ignorant” –
about certain things, and that bothers me.
For example, “The
study also revealed dramatic variation in reconstruction based on geographic
region, from a low of 18 percent in North Dakota, to a high of 80 percent in
Washington, D.C. This was largely associated with the number of plastic surgeons working
in each state…Any time we see geographic variations in practice
patterns, we worry that care is not being appropriately individualized and that
patients are not being offered all their options. It’s important to make sure
women have all the information they need about breast reconstruction and are
aware that it is an option...” (emphasis mine)
REALLY? REALLY?
Have any of the authors even visited North Dakota? Clearly not! I actually have
friends from ND – and some from DC. As a whole, ND is a very conservative state
with a preponderance of farmers and has a frontier attitude. A “I can take it”
sort of way of looking at the world. I would say THIS has a larger effect on
the number of women getting reconstruction after mastectomies than “the number
of plastic surgeons”. Did the authors consider that the attitude of your
average NoDak would drive out plastic surgeons; they’d be seen as superfluous
parasites. And DC’s plastic surgeons? REALLY? REALLY? In a city where the
highest rollers are broadcast nationally and internationally with close-ups and
in press conferences on a minute-by-minute basis, plastic surgeons would FLOCK
there to make sure our politicians look pretty on TV and in webcasts!
That seems such a
no-brainer, it makes me wonder about the rest of the study.
This seeming
blindness brings into question another statement: “The researchers
also note that more women are receiving implants rather than recreating breasts
using tissue from other parts of their body, called autologous reconstruction.
Autologous techniques tend to deliver better cosmetic results and higher
satisfaction, but it’s a time-consuming, demanding operation that requires a
longer hospital stay and recovery time. The researchers raise concern that current
medical reimbursement discourages surgeons from offering autologous
reconstruction.”
REALLY? Choosing
a long, difficult surgery with a lengthy recovery time after…a long difficult
surgery with a lengthy recovery time doesn’t seem a natural aversion-reaction
by breast cancer survivors and can be more sensibly ascribed to INSURANCE
COMPANY PRESSURE????
Hmmm. My further
comment here would be that perhaps the authors – maybe even more breast
reconstruction plastic surgeons – should cast more widely when interpreting
their research data. Even so, the update on the subject was reasonable and even
though the interpretation was narrow-minded, the DATA was sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment