BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! 4: Friends, family and support

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: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121109091158.htm

While it doesn’t seem shocking on the surface and our response might be, “Well, DUH!” this research does bear looking at.

Mostly because it’s the first time anyone has tried to find evidence that supports something that we often take for granted.

My wife has had a very, very strong network of friends and family since her diagnosis in March of 2011. (Not just saying that because I worked really hard at being there for her! ;-)) But it seemed like from that day on, people seemed to pop out of the woodwork. Her Caring Bridge posts drew comments from friends and family, but surprisingly from strangers. Others sat with us during surgeries and treatments – even friends of our daughter lent their support during the initial crisis.

Support has continued. Going to a new clinic, and even to the old, people that worked with her were caring and thoughtful and feeling like a cypher was an unusual occurrence.

But what the article talked about was finally QUANTIFYING what has remained a vague, anecdotal feeling. By quantifying, I mean putting numbers to the feelings. The results are startling. If a woman has a small, unsupportive community of people around her when she discovers she has breast cancer, she is 30-60 percent more likely to DIE result of the diagnosis!

What should that say to us? It would be easy to brush it off and suggest that women with small communities of supporters either want it that way or a disagreeable people who (somehow) “deserve” what they get. It would be easiest to simply ignore something that many people know in their hearts and now has the numbers to support it.

It could ALSO be a loud call to those of us who are either survivors (like my wife) or part of support communities (like me) to reach out to others who don’t have communities.

The next time you meet someone with a new diagnosis – or someone who is anywhere along the way in her breast cancer struggle – offer to become a member of her community of support.

The numbers are in – if you support someone, her chances of survival GO UP!

Image: http://www.makebeautysimple.com/files/blog/pic-sp-raceInformation-1.png

Lymphedema Treatment: Past, Present…is there a FUTURE?

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…

While I talked about the lymphatic system earlier (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2012/02/lymphedema-another-for-rest-of-your.html), as well as lymphedema (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2012/09/and-onward-against-lymphedema.html), I recently started to feel that my education was LESS than complete for me as a layperson. So, here’s MORE on lymph and lymphedema.

As to the FIRST article, I wasn’t clear on that until today. According to my current research, the lymph vessels PRIMARILY move lymph around the body due to something called “peristaltic action”. What that means is that the fluid is moved around in a way similar to the way food gets moved through your intestines – muscles slowly tighten up and push the food along while acids and enzymes act on it to break it down.

Lymph is pushed along through the body by tiny muscles in the lymph ducts that slowly contract and move the fluid from the smallest vessels to the nodes and from there into the bloodstream.

OK – we’re clear on that.

What I was REALLY unclear on and what caused a major problem for us recently, is that the history of lymphedema treatment begins a mere three decades ago. Before the RECOGNITION that lymphedema was a treatable condition, doctors just laughed at it, shrugged their shoulders and said, “Oh, well.”

That was mostly because the doctors were males and the victims of secondary lymphedema caused by node excision in the treatment of breast cancer was a “woman’s problem”. I imagine it would have received a bit more attention from the medical community if cancer node excision had caused the shrinkage of another extremity near and dear to the heart of every man...

At any rate, with the founding of the National Lymphedema Network and their pioneering work in the treatment of lymphedema, more and more doctors are recognizing that not only is lymphedema treatable – it NEEDS to be treated rather than ignored.

What IS lymphedema you ask?

“Lymph is formed from the fluid that filters out of the blood circulation to nourish cells…and maintain tissue fluid balance. [T]his fluid [is] pumped by a rhythmic peristaltic-like action by smooth muscle cells within the lymphatic vessel walls…The fluids collected are pumped into continually larger vessels and through lymph nodes, which clean out debris and police the fluid for potential threats from dangerous microbes. The lymph ends its journey in the thoracic duct, where it re-enters the blood circulation.”

When the nodes are removed, “...a condition of localized fluid retention and tissue swelling caused by a compromised lymphatic system..” occurs when lymph leaks out through the vessel walls and accumulates in the areas between cells (interstitial areas).

Extremely common in patients treated for breast cancer, it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that the medical establishment began to both study the problem and establish treatment criteria. “My first encounter with the relatively unknown syndrome, “lymphedema,” was in 1985.I ran Aurora Manor, a post-operative care facility opened in 1980 in San Francisco, where I saw a patient with an extremely enlarged swollen arm. She had undergone breast reconstruction after a mastectomy and it appeared that she had an allergic reaction from the intravenous. As a Registered Nurse/Caregiver, I immediately called her surgeon and expressed my concern. He laughed and told me she had the swelling in her arm for nine years, and there was nothing that could be done to improve it. I was puzzled—and inquisitive—as to the underlying cause/s and possible treatment. I reached out to local colleagues; they each told me that it was lymphedema as a result of her breast cancer surgery, and no effective treatment was available.” (emphasis mine)

Lest you think that doctors in the early 21st Century are more educated and better equipped than that, I’ll disabuse you of the notion. Within twenty miles of each other are two hospitals. They belong to THE SAME HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. Yet the physicians in one, renowned for its treatment of breast cancer loudly professed that “nothing is wrong”. The physicians at the other nodded and got to work treating it.

After a week of treatment that MY WIFE HAD TO REQUEST and for which she had to SEEK OUT HER OWN PROGRAM, the swelling has been reduced! A week!

If you are reading this and lymphedema has entered your life – either as a patient or in your spouse, mother, girlfriend or sister – then YOU NEED TO FIND SOMEONE WHO BELIEVES IT IS A PROBLEM.

The longer you wait, the worse it will get...and I’m not even exaggerating.

Resource: http://www.lymphnet.org/
Image: http://www.lymphedemapeople.com/images/LymphedemaArm.jpg

BRAVEST Move In The Life After Diagnosis EVER

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…

In a move that towers in the annals of the history of our marriage, my wife made the boldest move yet in her Life After Diagnosis: she changed hospitals, doctors and therapists for continued cancer treatment.

This is bravery beyond my own comprehension.

Leaving the confines of Regions Hospital, where she has received treatment since the traumatic diagnosis in March of 2011, we met first in the Physical Therapy Department of North Memorial Medical Center.

This institution has been a part of my own life for nearly half a century as it is the place where I got my tonsils out when I was six. It’s the place where my sister was born. It’s the place where…no matter, this place holds a large chunk of the memories I have of hospitals and has even played a role in a novel I’m writing. This sprawling institution not only added wings and parking ramps, programs and a Level I Trauma Treatment Center with helicopter ambulances and training programs for paramedics (my son trained there on several occasions); it also spilled over into an abandoned shopping mall and now generates more business than the mall itself – possibly more than the entire STRIP of malls extending west for over a mile!

The PT was an eye-opening experience as the therapist, appalled at the lack of treatment my wife received at the “other hospital”, decided to start all over again and treat her RIGHT. This hour-and-a-half appointment is everything it SHOULD have been and while the therapist is not promising miracles, she IS promising commitment.

In fact, some of the things she told my wife are disheartening: the body pain will not likely go away: she was injected with toxic poisons that absolutely killed the CANCER cells, but created an immense amount of collateral damage (more on that next week). She will likely have to learn to live with some level of pain forever.

BUT, the therapist has a positive prognosis for reducing the lymphedema swelling and increasing the strength of my wife’s grip. She also had warnings that were never passed on at the Other Hospital: never, never, never expose the arm to cold. Never, never, never get a cortisone shot again. As well, she had positive news, too: “I can get rid of the trigger finger symptom in PT! We WILL work on that!”

All-in-all a great beginning to the first hospital-change-visit!

Then to the actual cancer clinic. After cataloguing pain and desires, the new doctor ordered blood work to check for any cancer markers. As well, she answered a burning question my wife had: “Why didn’t they order a CAT scan or an MRI or any other kind of scan? Shouldn’t they be checking to see if there’s any cancer?”

The new doctor FIRST informed us that a typical CAT scan exposes a patient to the amount of radiation equivalent to 100 X-rays!!!! (More on that later!) MRI wasn’t even considered. Secondly, she said that the only time they order them is when the patient is having pain – of if they were in Stage IV (“Stage IV describes invasive breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other organs of the body, such as the lungs, distant lymph nodes, skin, bones, liver, or brain.”) My wife was NOT at that stage.

To summarize: in an act of incredible bravery, my wife changed hospitals, doctors and clinics. The change appears at this point to have been for the better and she is getting the care that she should have been getting all along. The added bonus (and the simple explanation we give to people who ask and don’t really have time to hear the complete answer) is that North is CLOSER. A fifteen minute, local road drive from both of our jobs compared to a 45 minute interstate drive to Regions.

This is a good thing – and not only will I keep you posted, I’ll be talking more about collateral damage in chemotherapy and CAT scans in later posts!

Resources: http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/staging#stage4
Image: https://www.itriagehealth.com/https_image_proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthagen.com%2Fassets%2FNorthmemorial%2Fupdated%2Fnorth-memorial-MC-EC.png

A Fantastic Cancer Voyage Chapter 1 I

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…

One of my fondest memories as a kid is watching the movie FANTASTIC VOYAGE with my dad while eating peanut butter toast and drinking hot chocolate.

In the movie, a group of scientists and their ultra-futuristic laser-packing “submarine” are reduced to cell size and injected into the blood vessels of a world diplomat in order to destroy a blood clot in his brain. Of course, they succeed in the nick of time JUST before the shrink ray effect wears off and the ship (and the people) grow back to normal size – having a slightly detrimental effect on the world leader into whose head they were injected.

What would a FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Breast Cancer look like?

Well, seeing that I’m a writer and this is my blog, I’m going to try something new (like the BREAST CANCER RESEARCH NOW! feature). I’m going to write a novel here, short chapter by short chapter and I’m going to include the latest research and I’m going to imagine the entire story here for your delectation. Likely it WON’T be once a month – that will all depend on how my wife’s continuing cancer progress moves. She has changed hospitals (more on that next week after the first visit) due to continuing issues with travel time and…services that seem to be lacking there, as well as doctors who say, “You don’t have any symptoms, so you must be fine.” At any rate, more on The Move next Saturday.

For now:

Chapter 1

“Why would we risk all-out war with the SinoIndian Arc just for one person?” Alex Benton asked.

Dr. Olubunmi Nwagbara shook her head and said, “She’s more than a single person. And she has aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. We’ve tried the usual treatments, but it’s a rare form and it’s going to kill her unless we do something drastic.”

Benton sat down in his swivel chair and leaned back, looking out the window. The last stages of a Minnesota winter gusted sleety snow against it, streaking the smoky glass. A steady stream of ground traffic far below moved in the afternoon crush of rush hour. His office on the recently completed Thirty-First Floor was not only a mark of his meteoric rise – it was currently a pain in his backside. “What’s so special about this woman that we have to risk world war to treat her?”

Olubunmi – Ohloo to her close friends – opened her mouth to reply.

Benton waved her reply away as if he were swatting at carrion flies as he said, “I know she’s supposed to be ‘The Last Best Hope For Peace In The World’ but why her?” This time he looked at Ohloo.

She pursed her lips then looked out into the grayness of the late winter storm. Finally she said, “Have you ever heard her speak?”

His lips thinned then he shook his head. “I don’t have time to waste on fluffy New-Age nonsense.”

Ohloo checked her irritation. She’d worked Benton for nearly a decade – not worked “with” as he’d never been a team player – but she’d learned how to direct his considerable energy and determination. She took a deep breath and said, “What she says is more than fluffy, Lex.”

He shot her a look. They rarely engaged in simple nicknames. He said, “She says she’s a Catholic-Buddhist-Hindu-Daoist! As a long-time Catholic, I find that offensive!”

Ohloo smiled and said, “As a life-long evangelical Christian, there are parts of me that cringe at that designation, too. But...”

“There’s no ‘but’ in Catholicism!” His glare narrowed, “I didn’t think there was much wiggle room in evangelicalism, either.”

“As far as belief goes, there isn’t. But what Master An has done...”

He waved her away again. “I know what she’s done. I can skim the websites as easily as you can.”

“Then you know why we have to try this.”

“I also know what Beijing and New Delhi are saying and right now it’s their opinion – and their covert operations people – who have my attention. What are we supposed to do about that? I can’t risk turning Rochester into a war zone! We have sick people here!”

Ohloo said quietly, “Master An is also sick. Her cancer is inoperable right now and she has, at last report, possibly four weeks or a bit more left before she dies.”

“So? One more wacko mystic dying shouldn’t be our concern!”

“As far as I can tell, she’s not a ‘wacko mystic’. She’s a good woman – and our treatment may very well work.”

He snorted, glaring out the window. Finally he said, “I don’t see how uploading your brain into a microscopic submarine in her bloodstream is going to help destroy the cancer.” Ohloo opened her mouth to respond, but he cut her off with a gesture again. “I know. I’ve watched FANTASTIC VOYAGE, also. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid. But this isn’t a movie and it’s not a science fiction story. It’s real, and we’re talking about real medicine here.”

“I am too, Lex. I think I can do this.”

He grunted and without looking at her, he said, “I think you can, too.” He spun in his chair and stood abruptly and walked past her, “But if you die, Ohloo, I’ll never speak to you again.”

The doors opened with a STAR TREK whoosh! and he was gone. Dr. Ohloo watched the slush slap the windows of the Gonda building. Smiling faintly, she said, “Why Lex, I didn’t know you cared.”

Image: http://medgadget.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/Fantastic-Voyage-200x290.jpg

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! 3: Smallpox?!?!?!?!?!?!?

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: http://www.cancercompass.com/cancer-news/article/42235.htm

Use SMALLPOX TO STOP BREAST CANCER????

OMG! OMG! OMG! When will it stop????? Won’t we all get smallpox now????

*sigh*

I can just hear the reactionary right and the ludicrous left going ballistic if this were to ever get beyond the mouse-testing phase.

Of course, it’s perfectly all right to use a deadly neurotoxin producing bacterium, Clostridium botulinum to make sure my face don’t get all wrinkly as I age. (Oops – I can’t have an opinion on this because I’m a big, old, fat, white guy and I don’t know and cannot possibly understand how the culture and society that has been fostered by, used by and perpetuated by ME (personally) – could possibly understand why I would feel compelled to inject my face with a protein so deadly, “…that one-millionth of a gram of them can kill a man and one pint would be enough to kill everyone on earth.”) -- but SMALLPOX?

Smallpox is a disease that was certified in 1980 by the World Health Organization as eradicated from Human populations. A true scourge of Humanity, it has existed in one form or another since 10,000 years before the Common Era and caused the death of an estimated 300,000,000 people, most of them children. Its relatives abound in the world and while not all of them are lethal to Humans, all but the most common still exist.

Smallpox – Variola major and Variola minor are certifiably deadly, far more deadly than Clostridium botulinum – but with a potential to bring far more help and hope than botulism ever did!

One of the relatives of the smallpox viruses has the creative name, GLV-1h164 has been used to attack a particularly nasty form of breast cancer. “Triple-negative” breast cancer “...is an aggressive form of breast cancer that accounts for between 10 percent and 20 percent of all cases. Younger women (under 35) are the most vulnerable, as are black and Hispanic women.”

These kind of breast cancers, while they maintain a relatively low profile because of their relative rarity, have proven a difficult cluster of diseases to conquer. We can’t even control them.

Most breast cancers respond to hormonal therapy by allowing cancer toxins to attach directly to the cells and kill them. Triple-negative breast cancer cells are NOT sensitive to hormonal therapy, nor are they destroyed by immune therapy.

In the initial tests, “...roughly 60 percent of the triple-negative breast cancer tumors shrank...while the other 40 percent showed evidence of tumor cell death...”

The use of cousins of smallpox seems to be effective, at least in current trials. Is it wise to hold such a small hope that good could come from group of terrifying scourges?

Absolutely YES! Let’s hope the continued research leads to a powerful weapon against triple-negative breast cancers!

Image: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/featuremedia/feature103/Smallpox.jpg

Breast Cancer. Lung Cancer. Liver Cancer. Skin Cancer. Are All Cancers Created Equal?

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…

My wife and her sister are breast cancer survivors.

My wife’s mother died of lung cancer.

My wife’s brother has liver cancer.

My sister, sister-in-law, brother and dad have had skin cancer.

Are all cancers created equal? Are some “worse” than others? Are some more survivable? Are some “the worst kind of cancer to have”?

First order of business is to define cancer in a general way. Most people “know” that cancer happens when cells grow out of control.

But is this general wisdom correct? From the American Cancer Society: “Cancer is the general name for a group of more than 100 diseases. Although there are many kinds of cancer, all cancers start because abnormal cells grow out of control. Untreated cancers can cause serious illness and death.”

By way of comparison, from the Cancer Council of Australia: “Cancer is a disease of the body's cells. Normally cells grow and multiply in a controlled way, however, if something causes a mistake to occur in the cells' genetic blueprints, this control can be lost. Cancer is the term used to describe collections of these cells, growing and potentially spreading within the body. As cancerous cells can arise from almost any type of tissue cell, cancer actually refers to about 100 different diseases.”

And from the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association: “Jia Kun, a Chinese traditional medicine oncologist writing in 1980, says that whatever upsets normal body function can lead to tumor formation, causing cancer. Tumors are the end result of a prolonged process of accumulation and densification of tissue due to the persistent stagnation of qi and blood, which, if unrelieved, becomes toxic, critically damaging the healthy function of the organ systems.” [My half hour search of the website did not turn up a clear definition of what Chinese medicine considers a ‘tumor’.]

At any rate, it seems pretty clear that the world knows that there is SOMETHING going on no matter how you explain it.

As to the “worst” cancers, this article published two years ago on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39102353/ns/health-cancer/t/top-deadliest-cancers-why-theres-no-cure/) rates the cancers based on the number of deaths. Other factors that work into this are how common a cancer is determines if there are treatments and detectability of the cancer can also affect how deadly it is.

As I wrote two weeks ago, “…cancers of ALL TYPES need to be destroyed…”

Today’s oncologists can identify some 100 cancers. But how? And HOW does cancer start?

“Cancer…does not develop all at once as a massive shift in cellular functions that results from a mutation in one or two wayward genes. Instead, it develops step-by-step, across time, as an accumulation of many molecular changes, each contributing some of the characteristics that eventually produce the malignant state…the time frame involved also is very long— it normally takes decades to accumulate enough mutations to reach a malignant state...Cancer is, for the most part, a disease of people who have lived long enough to have experienced a complex and extended succession of events…each [cell] change is a rare accident requiring years to occur, the whole process takes a very long time, and most of us die from other causes before it is complete…[P]eople who experience unusual exposure to carcinogens... inherit predisposing mutations…increases the likelihood that certain harmful changes will occur…[and] developing cancer during a normal life span…[I]nheriting a cancer-susceptibility mutation means [it has happened in] all the body's cells. In other words, the process of tumor formation…may take place in one or two [decades]…[C]ancer as a multistep process also explains the lag time that often separates exposure to a cancer-causing agent and the development of cancer.”

The how and why and where are fairly well understood today. Doctors, molecular biologists, geneticists, biotechnology experts and oncologists are working constantly to meet the 100 different cancers head on, to understand the mechanisms that cause them – and finally to create a strategy that will not only slow the progress of cancer cell growth down, but stop every form of cancer in its tracks by discovering the key to shutting cancer down.

Resources: http://www.chinese-medicineworks.com/pdfs/cancercmbeinfieldkorngold.pdf, https://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih1/cancer/guide/understanding2.htm

Image: http://www.omnimedicalsearch.com/conditions-diseases/images/cancercells.jpg

When Are You Back Up To Full Speed? Pick e) All of the above

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…

Working full-time as a classroom aide for a kindergarten class is a draining experience even for the young and able-bodied! The classroom teacher is a young woman with loads of energy, enthusiasm and ideas – and SHE is often worn out at the end of the day! How could my wife possibly expect to keep up with her – as well as chasing after 25 five-going-on-six little kids, and closely monitoring and recording data on one child in the class who needs LOTS of supervision?

She works at the elementary school in the district with THE highest level of poverty. The neighborhood her school is in is primarily made up of apartments, has an airport, several vacant lots, one partially burned out gas station, suburban row houses all built within weeks of each other in 1956 and beginning to look their age. The environment is dilapidated, the school is dilapidated, the charter school next door to her school siphons off the best and the brightest leaving her school with more than its fair share of challenges.

She comes home exhausted every day and wonders when she’s going to feel better. Lymphedema is a concern still – nah, it’s downright worrisome. Yesterday she broke out in hives because she didn’t rinse out her compression sleeve well enough – because she was tired. Her feet are sore. Her knees and joints are sore (though that has gotten better since she’s gone gluten free) and she doesn’t remember feeling this crappy BEFORE the surgery, chemo and recovery.

So when WILL she feel like she used to? When will she feel normal?

In a transcript of a panel discussion on “Life After Breast Cancer” posted at http://secondopinion-tv.org/episode/life-after-breast-cancer, one of the panelists notes, “It's not possible to ‘flip a switch’ and immediately go back to a former life at full throttle. The body is in repair mode and women have to pace themselves. In fact, it may take a year or more to regain a sufficient level of energy and sense of well-being.”

Debbie Woodbury, commenting on a question at Talk About Health (http://talkabouthealth.com/how-long-did-it-take-for-you-to-feel-normal-again-after-breast-cancer-or-do-you-ever-feel-normal-again) points out: “Emotionally, it took even longer [than a year] to heal, but I will never be the same as I was before the cancer...no cancer survivor I've ever talked to...has ever told me that they were able to return to the normal life they had before they were diagnosed. It just doesn't happen. Cancer redefines normal.”

What exactly is a repair mode? Technically “recovery” has to do with the initial surgical recovery, but, “After your cancer treatment, as a cancer survivor you're eager to return to good health. But beyond your initial recovery, there are ways to improve your long-term health so that you can enjoy the years ahead as a cancer survivor. The recommendations for cancer survivors are no different from the recommendations for anyone who wants to improve his or her health: Exercise, eat a balanced diet, maintain a healthy weight, avoid tobacco and limit the amount of alcohol you drink. But for cancer survivors, these strategies have added benefits. These simple steps can improve your quality of life, smoothing your transition into survivorship.”

This is recovery.

“But doctor, will I ever be able to play the violin after I recover?”

“Of course!”

“That’s amazing! I never played it before the surgery!”

Ba dum bum. Everything people have blogged leads me to believe that the repair mode of post-cancer recovery is long and difficult. Of COURSE you feel better than you did immediately after surgery. It seems like things are getting better fast. But that’s different. Cancer is invasive and if you’ve undergone a prolonged chemo or radiation therapy, then your entire body has been weakened – from head to toe.

“You may have permanent scars on your body, or you may not be able to do some things you once did easily. Or you may even have emotional scars from going through so much. You may find that others think of you differently now - or you may view yourself in a different way…”, “...those who have gone through cancer treatment describe the first few months as a time of change...finding out what's normal for you now. People often say that life has new meaning or that they look at things differently now. You can also expect things to keep changing as you begin your recovery. Your new ‘normal may include making changes in the way you eat, the things you do, and your sources of support...follow-up care. Should I tell the doctor about symptoms that worry me? Which doctors should I see after treatment? How often should I see my doctor? What tests do I need? What can be done to relieve pain, fatigue, or other problems after treatment? How long will it take for me to recover and feel more like myself? Is there anything I can or should be doing to keep cancer from coming back?”

All of this – and MORE – are things to factor into recovery.

The answer to the ultimate question, “So when WILL she feel like she used to?” may not have a clear or solid answer. I suppose the best response might be, “e) All of the above”...

Resources: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/life-after-treatment/page1/AllPages
Image: http://rlv.zcache.com/define_normal_button_magnet-p147413810323095621envtl_400.jpg