ENCORE #170! – David Breasterfield!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer in March of 2011, there was a deafening silence from the men I knew. 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 first appeared in June of 2011…

I don’t know what it’s like, exactly for my wife, but there are long times now where the idea of breast cancer (and the accompanying metastasis possibility) disappears from my life as if by magic.

Between treatments, which she undergoes every three weeks, life returns to normal. Well, not “old normal”, rather the new normal (see “The World Didn’t Fall Off Its Axis”)…

But during this time, nothing seems to be “different” – we still chat, watch TV, go for walks with the dog, pay bills, see the grandchild, talk to people. Nothing seems to have changed. It’s almost like that magician – David Copperfield – worked his magic on breast cancer and made the whole thing disappear.

And maybe there’s something to be said for that – we’re NOT pretending. I don’t think I could ever do that. But we’re living in the promises of the doctors and the profound hopes of our friends and other women we know who are breast cancer survivors.

 David Copperfield isn’t really a magician, he’s an illusionist, and while we harbor no mistaken belief that the cancer has “disappeared”, it’s sometimes helpful to live in the illusion that the cure is NOW. It’s something that allows us to go on day-by-day. I cannot imagine how terrifying these days just before a chemo session are. But I can help my wife entertain the illusion that she is done with chemo and she has been declared cancer-free.

 Besides – that’s only going to be an illusion for a few more months. By Christmas, Liz will be a breast cancer survivor and THAT will be the real magic!

[UPDATE: And it’s STILL the real magic!]

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg

Encouragement (In Suffering, Pain, and Witnessing Both…) #18: Dealing With ANGER…

The older I get, the more suffering and pain I’ve experienced; and the more of both I stand witness to. From my wife’s (and many, many of our friends and coworkers) battle against breast cancer; to my dad’s (and the parents of many of our friends and coworkers) process as he fades away as this complex disease breaks the connections between more and more memories, I have become not only frustrated with suffering, pain, and having to watch both, I have been witness to the suffering and pain among the students I serve as a school counselor. I have become angry and sometimes paralyzed. This is my attempt to lift myself from the occasional stifling grief that darkens my days…

Anger.

Angry.

We are NOT supposed to be angry because our beloved has “The Big C” and it’s unconscionable to add more stress to their already shattered lives.

We CAN’T be mad because it’s unproductive. We need to be focused on their recovery!

Anger does absolutely nothing but tie our guts up in knots; blinds us to needs our loved one has; is incredibly selfish!

I was angry. My daughter was angry. My son – no obvious effect except supportive…which of course shames me.

But what if we ARE mad? At God…at society…at chemical companies…at biology…How much more complex can cancer get?

Is there any kind of hope?

I was always told that God is big enough to handle my anger.

King David shouted at God, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?” (Psalm 13:1)

“And the nations were enraged…” (Revelation 11:18)

King David served God for a long time; Jesus will return to save His people. He can handle our anger. In their book, ANGRY WITH GOD, the authors quote Pierre Wolff: “When people can express harsh feelings to the One who [who is] the object [of that anger], love is already stronger in them than their feelings. Love is already transforming, transfiguring, this feeling into something else, something closer to love than to hatred.”

On the blog, “PS, I Love You”, author Khadejah wrote, “I was frustrated, scared, and sad that they couldn’t tell me sooner. I wasn’t mad at my mom for being diagnosed with breast cancer, I was mad that she always has to downplay her health to protect me. Well, I’m not doing that anymore. It’s time for me to protect her. I’m strong enough to handle it.”

At the Stanford Medicine website, I found, “Although your spouse has cancer, the illness is really happening to both of you. Your life is being disrupted in many of the same ways. You are sharing many of the same emotions and concerns…It can be tremendously reassuring and comforting to your loved one to know that the two of you are facing the illness together and that your support and involvement will be steadfast and unwavering regardless of what happens.”

A book from the National Cancer Institute, aimed at teenagers, concludes: “No booklet or person can tell you exactly how everything is going to work out. Cancer is tough, and your life may never be quite the same. But in the end, you will get through it. Why? You’re strong. And you are capable—even if you don’t always feel that way.”

Finally, from the 2010 article, “Coping with cancer: The perspective of patients’ relatives”, by Mariët Hagedoorn, Ulrika Kreicbergs & Charlotte Appel, the conclusion, “…cancer has an effect on the whole family. Remarkably though most relatives adapt well to the cancer of a loved one. That is only a minority appears to be at risk for psychological morbidity. Bereavement has been found to impact psychological well-being in the short-term, but it does also not appear to be a major risk factor for severe psychopathology…Future studies that focus on the interactions between patients and family members are of great importance to further the field by providing more insight into the family dynamics of dealing with cancer.”

Resources: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/0284186X.2010.536165, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/when-your-parent-has-cancer.pdf, https://med.stanford.edu/survivingcancer/cancer-and-stress/when-your-spouse-has-cancer.html, https://psiloveyou.xyz/my-mom-told-me-she-has-cancer-and-i-got-mad-at-her-ba3c88b5b9a0, https://www.amazon.com/Angry-God-Michele-Novotni/dp/1576832228
Image: http://www.quoteambition.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/encourage-quotes-destiny.jpg

ENCORE #169! – The World Didn’t Fall Off Its Axis

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer in March of 2011, there was a deafening silence from the men I knew. 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 first appeared in May of 2011…

Nine Thursdays ago, Liz had the biopsy that confirmed that she had breast cancer.

I will never forget that day: the blood dripping down the breast; holding Liz’s hand as the dark shadows formed on the ultrasound screen; the needle withdrawing the cells and depositing them in small vials of liquid preservative; the dim light of the procedure room; Liz’s hand squeezing mine; the doctor in gown and mask and goggles; soft words of deep regret…

Everything changed as I walked into the foyer to call my parents; my best friend; my brothers and sister…

Then came the cold rush toward a double mastectomy – nothing would ever be the same again. Nothing COULD ever be the same again.

Outside, it was spring. At work, graduation was weeks away and seniors had to be shepherded; at Liz’s work, kids came down with colds and teachers wondered what was going on for a few brief moments. And then, the surgery was over and we had to wait for the healing until chemotherapy could begin.

Now there are tornadoes everywhere; disasters are being declared; spring has sprung/the grass is ris/there’s no more wondering where the flowers is/they is HERE!

Liz’s breast cancer, for all it knocked our world askew changed nothing else outside of us. The garbage still accumulates, the checkbook still needs balancing and aside from a couple of simple scores we experienced by throwing the “C” word around (speedy delivery of a new washer when Liz shared that we needed it to wash clothing poisoned by chemo leaking out of Liz’s pores – and the scheduler had an aunt who was a breast cancer survivor; and the possibility of Mary using it on an essay for a scholarship for her third year of college).

Our lives are still upside down, but the rest of the world goes on as always.

I’m not sure what I’m learning from that, but I’m going to try and take my lessons from the BEST it has to offer: I need to remain sympathetic to those who suffer disaster, even after it leaves the headlines and falls to the back page; I need to consider those who CANNOT afford chemotherapy; I need to be thankful that we live at the dawn of the second decade of the 21st Century and not the dawn of the second decade of the 20th Century.

Our world is upside down; the rest of the planet is not.

Thanks be to God for that!

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #79: New Study Shows New Drug Eliminates Breast Cancer in Mice!!!!

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…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: ErSO trials show 95-100% elimination of breast cancer cells!

“A new approach to treating breast cancer kills 95-100% of cancer cells in mouse models of human estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancers and their metastases in bone, brain, liver and lungs. The newly developed drug, called ErSO, quickly shrinks even large tumors to undetectable levels.”

First of all, I need to put my hand over my heart and say, “All is well…” (from my daughter-in-law’s favorite movie, “Three Idiots” (watch it if you don’t mind subtitles, but it is funny, warm, and everything a Bollywood movie should be!) I was so excited, but I had to remind myself that the end is not nigh!

Why? Because right now ALL that they’re reporting is mouse trials, which is a long, long way away from you being able to go to your nearest Breast Cancer care center and demand the new drug! Most typically, the drug goes through three stages. First is preclinical research, when the drug is found and first tested in a test tube and in animals. Next, there are clinical studies when the drug is tested in people (many large cities have research institutes where you can sign on to be part of such a study). [I was involved with a family heart disease study called ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) as well as a study looking at the efficacy of mega doses of Vitamin D3 in preventing Diabetes…I was dismissed from the study when I developed a kidney stone…which, apparently, they expected would happen to some participants…]. The last stage is Post-clinical research, which takes place after the drug is approved and studies continue looking at long-term effects of the drug being studied.

ErSO researchers are still in the preclinical stage and likely will be for some time.

HOWEVER, the drug has an amazing performance, and the mice in the study didn’t develop any resistance to the drug, either. If it looked like some of the cancer escaped the first round of therapy and began to metastasize, a second round took care of the cancer cells as it had the first group of cells. “It is striking that ErSO caused the rapid destruction of most lung, bone and liver metastases and dramatic shrinkage of brain metastases, since tumors that have spread to other sites in the body are responsible for most breast cancer deaths.”

HOW does it work? First of all the technical explanation: “The activity of ErSO depends on a protein called the estrogen receptor, which is present in a high percentage of breast tumors. When ErSO binds to the estrogen receptor, it upregulates a cellular pathway that prepares cancer cells for rapid growth and protects them from stress. This pathway, called the anticipatory Unfolded Protein Response, or a-UPR, spurs the production of proteins that protect the cell from harm.”

Explaining estrogen receptors in a cells is best shown with a picture:

In a breast cancer cell, there are LOTS of these estrogen receptors. When the cells become cancerous, a “cellular pathway [opens up] that prepares cancer cells for rapid growth and protects them from stress – in other words, it spurs the production of proteins that protect the cell from harm.”

ErSO latches onto the estrogen receptor site and kicks it into overdrive, so instead of gently protecting the cancer cell from the body and any kinds of cancer drugs used, the cell starts to eat itself. It ONLY works on cells that have this estrogen receptor site…which is most cancer cells. It leaves the rest of the body’s cells alone – including hair cells…(many chemotherapy drugs kill hair cells, which is why hair loss during chemo is common…)

From a recent article in INTERESTING ENGINEERING, “Human clinical trials will go forward with a Bayer AG license of the new drug, with an eye toward testing ErSO's effectiveness against a broader spectrum of cancers that carry estrogen receptors.”

At any rate, this isn’t something we can use TODAY, but in the future? Who knows. Sounds like a cure to me!

Resources: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210722113058.htm, https://www.cancer.net/research-and-advocacy/introduction-cancer-research/how-are-cancer-drugs-discovered-and-developed, https://www.cancer.gov/sites/g/files/xnrzdm211/files/styles/cgov_article/public/cgov_image/media_image/2021-03/Functioning-ER_0.jpg?h=42b4009f&itok=RdBp3vn3, https://interestingengineering.com/kill-breast-cancer-cells

Image: https://inteng-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/img/iea/QjOd44kWOd/sizes/kill-breast-cancer-cells_md.jpg

ENCORE #168! – Bust Drug!

From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer in March of 2011, there was a deafening silence from the men I knew. 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 first appeared in 2011, not long after my wife’s diagnosis…

Last week we spoke with the oncologist. What the heck is that and why is it called that?

If you’re like me, you’ve been snowed under the uncounted number of fancy terms: mastectomy, oncology, lumpectomy, pathology, chemotherapy, lymphedema and a zillion others.

Now we come to the big O…Why don’t they call it what this person is: a cancerologist? At least I’d understand that! So what’s an “onco”? What’s a “logist”?

My dictionary says this: “1857, coined in English from Modern Latin onco = ‘tumor’, from the original Greek word, onkos = ‘mass, bulk’ + logy = ‘science or study of’”. So an oncologist is someone who studies tumors, masses and bulks.

So I get that, now. What about the other terms? After spending time internet searching every word I didn’t understand, I thought I had things pretty well under control. Then the oncologist tossed out some really, really weird terms: Taxotere + Adriamycin + Cytoxan and the next day, something called neulasta. These are what I’m coming to think of as “bust drugs” – at least as far as I can tell, they’re used to combat any possible cancer that has found its way from the breast and axillary lymph nodes (there are those fancy terms again!) into the rest of the body. A friend of ours had a scare that the cancer cells had broken free of the breast and caused a brain tumor. That wasn’t the case, but she does have lesions on her bones. So I did a little reading on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer_chemotherapy , then I went to GOOGLE and in the main page, typed “define: xxxxx” and hit enter. You should be able to do this for any of the drugs you’re going to run into during your wife’s breast cancer battle. In Liz’ case:

Taxotere: anti-mitotic chemotherapy medication (that is, it interferes with cell division)

Adriamycin: an anthracycline (a kind of substance that messes up cancer cell DNA) antibiotic…and like all anthracyclines, it works by inserting itself into the cancer cell’s DNA so the cells can’t make new cancer cells

Cytoxan: a cyclophosphamide that has been converted into a non-toxic "transport form". This transport form is a “pro-drug”, subsequently actively transported into the cancer cells. Once in the cells, enzymes convert the drug into the active, toxic form that kills the cancer cell

Neulasta: recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) analog used to stimulate the bone marrow to produce more neutrophils (white blood cells) to fight infection in patients undergoing chemotherapy

OK – I get some of it now! Sorta wish doctors and clinics would speak in plain English, but then, they wouldn’t sound so…doctoral if they did. Anyway, this made me feel better. Hope it helps you, too!

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg