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…
Over the next
few “Breast Cancer Research” posts, I’m going to be looking at a completely
different issue – how did the chemo drugs (heterodyning with diabetes) damage
the peripheral nervous system (the PNS) in my wife?
In her, the
nerve damage manifests itself as restless limb syndrome (I wrote about it here:
http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2015/01/breast-cancer-research-right-now-29.html)
as well as having dead spots on the limbs and in fingers and toes as well. This
is above and beyond the nerve damage that came from the actual double
mastectomy.
Also going to be
looking at the issue of breast reconstruction and “what happens next”. They’ve
been in for two years – and they’ve been uncomfortable for her from day 1. As
we grow old together, what does that mean for the implants. She pointed out, “I’m
not going to get new boobs when I’m 65, 75, and 85!” So what happens? Keep
replacing them? Forget it? And what about the other issues surrounding them? We’re
planning a long, far trip a few years from now – what does flying time do for
the implants? What about lymphedema and flight time?
It’s “funny”,
four years ago, I’d have said that the most important thing; the thing that was
most on my mind; was my wife surviving
breast cancer. Today, the issue that makes me think the most is her living with surviving breast cancer…
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