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…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for
answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The
following entry appeared in April of 2014.
While it may seem
an obvious choice to some who are outside of the breast cancer community (are
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.
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