BREAST CANCER WISDOM 2: From Others and From Life Here…

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…

I love to laugh.

Laughter has saved me from dark depression more times than I can count.

So this month’s BC Wisdom comes in the form of T-SHIRTS!

There’s not much to say except I picked a couple of my favorites and provided the link to the site.

Enjoy!

The site: http://www.breastcancert-shirts.com/categories/funny-breast-cancer-tshirts?p=7

My two favorites:

Images: see above!

A Fantastic Cancer Voyage Chapter 1 VII

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. In it, 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.

What would a FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Breast Cancer look like? 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…

Dr. Olubunmi Nwagbara – Ohloo to her close friends, Dr. O to those who wouldn’t try her last name for fear of offending her – nodded to Kim Lin Ghandi, world-renowned philosopher and The Last Hope For World Peace studied a renowned breast cancer researcher and physician. “Later, then.”

But Kim Lin – Lily – had turned her head away and it had relaxed in sleep. Ohloo whispered, “Sorry.”

Striding from the room, she quickly discovered that she had a following. Besides the guard the hospital had assigned, there were two others, one with reporter’s credentials on a tag, the other obviously another security guard.

Ohloo stopped and pointed at the hospital guard, “You, I have no choice but to accept because Lex Luthor sent you, right?”

The young man blinked in startlement. “Uh…Mr…”

Ohloo relented, “Mr. Benton assigned you to protect me. Do you have a name?”

He said, “Uh…Steven Mark.”

Ohloo nodded, then pointed to the second security guard and said, “Who do you represent and what’s your name?”

The young woman snapped to attention and stated, “Bai Zhen Xu, secondary security detachment for The People’s Republic of China assigned to the ambassador Kim Lin Anzan.”

Ohloo nodded, “No nonsense; atheist; probably trained in a thousand ways to kill and detain a human being?”

The young woman finally looked confused rather than stoic. Ohloo nodded and said, “Human, too. Good. You can stay. Coordinate your defense with Mr. Mark, here.” She pointed at the reporter, “What are you doing here?”

The young man sniffed and said, “I’m here to bring the truth to world – this is all a set up for some sort of publicity stunt for the Mayo. I’ll be the...”

Ohloo glanced at Steven and Bai Zhen and said, “You’re first duty will be to remove this reporter from my presence and make sure the scumbag never sets foot in this medical center again.”

The security guards glanced at each other, then turned on the reporter who backed away, saying, “I’m recording this for...”

“Make sure you scramble the recording device. But don’t scramble his brains. I’d like to see what he can do without the technology.”

Steven and Bai Zhen picked the reporter up under the arms and when he tried to squirm away, Bai Zhen did something to him that elicited a squeak as he dropped into unconsciousness. As they dragged the limp figure away, Ohloo heard Steven say, “That was really well done. Could you teach me how to do it?”

Bai Zhen replied, “It took many years of practice, but as we will be serving the doctor and the last hope for world peace together, I will endeavor to teach you the…” they disappeared around a corner.

Ohloo smiled. One down; a billion more details to go over. She tapped the wrist band she used instead of a cellphone and called Alex. He answered immediately. She said, “I’d like to start assembling the team for the procedure.”

“‘The procedure’? You make it sound like it’s an appendectomy rather than the most risky surgery undertaken since the first heart transplant!”

“It’s just possible that you’re right, old friend. But look where we are today.”

“I’m not even sure the Board is all together for this. There are a million questions people still have…”

“You’re the Chief Administrator – administrate them away.”

“I can’t make legitimate objections disappear!”

“No, but you can find someone who might be able to explain the process to the Board and the public as well.”

“Who exactly would that be?”

Ohloo sniffed, “You know as well as I do."

“Not The Crackpot!”

“He knows and understands the remote submarine process as well as anyone.”

“He’s a fundamentalist Christian! How’s that going to go over with our shareholders – and the rest of the planet?”

Ohloo shrugged, “He may be a wild-eyed fanatic in his heart, but his reporting has always been flawless and he’s brought more people in to the popularized science camp than he’s brought into the fanatic camp.”

“Thank Darwin for small wonders,” Alex said.

Ohloo smiled, “You’ll get him then?”

Soft snort followed by, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Steven and Bai Zhen joined her once she got out of the elevator she’d taken down to the Medical Center’s sub levels. She nodded to them and said, “I think the excrement is about to encounter the air circulation device.”

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

The Reconstruction Era – Part 2

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!”

That’s how I opened this new series a few weeks ago.

It appears that the next even is NOT breast reconstruction – it’s getting healthy enough to HAVE the breast reconstruction surgery!

So – changes in diet are in order.

NOT just for my wife, but for me as well.

In the past two years, I’ve pretty much let myself go as far as eating and exercising are concerned. Not that I was model-buff…actually EVER…but I am currently heavier than I have EVER been in my life (OK – I may have been heavier before, but that was only when I giving piggy-back rides to 100 pound Bible Camp kids…)

At 262, I am a jiggling mass of quivering flab. I’m out of breath walking up and down four flights of stairs. My legs are weak after biking 3 miles around the lake. I take comfort in graham crackers and butter…I am a wreck considering that in 1984, I returned from a mission trip to the West African countries of Nigeria, Cameroun, and Liberia weighing a wispy 150 pounds.

More recently, I had dropped to 225 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2009 (I think). For ME PERSONALLY AND I DO NOT ENDORSE ATKINS FOR ANYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET BUT ENDORSE IT FOR ME, MYSELF, AND I AND DO NOT SAY IT WORKS WONDERS FOR ALL PEOPLE BUT WHEN CONSIDERING MYSELF AND ONLY MYSELF AND NOT ANYONE BUT ME, this is the only time a change in diet took off weight.

So, I will be returning to the Atkins Diet. I just finished re-reading the introduction and will now commence the INduction.

What does that mean for my wife?

She’ll be joining me because as we prepare for breast reconstruction, the doctor has set up some goals and conditions. The reconstruction (as I noted in the first post of this series, my wife will be undergoing “Implant-based reconstruction”) has two phases, the first being the placement of expanders and the shelf-like scaffold. In order to have the surgery, which will lay her up for a week followed by another three weeks of not reaching over her head, she has to be in good condition and her numbers (in this case, diabetes numbers of triglycerides, A1c counts and others) have to be optimal.

After a visit to the doctor earlier this week, we found out that the numbers were not where they needed to be. So we will embark on an adventure to change our lifestyle a bit. Nothing drastic, actually, as we aren’t junk-food-aholics and we don’t often use “pre-prepared” foods (like microwaveable pancakes or pre-cooked bacon). We DO have to lower our carb intake, increase the number of times we walk the dog and exit the sugar from our lives.

Those of you familiar with Atkins, know the induction phase can be brutal. It is CERTAINLY not for a person with Type-2 diabetes. BUT, my wife will be modifying it while I follow it rigidly.

School ends in a few weeks, we head off for a camping trip to our far northland with some old and dear friends and then I start work at summer school – and my wife goes for surgery.

We will keep you apprised of our progress, but solicit your positive thoughts and prayers!

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqbm01ekF5ql7RBSN3uD8y8mRzEnLO20-z3gviFcXvOYC8VRAu68SLKuLNV7i3Xn1LpjKYVja9K5HUT9qImMLRskXQiBA-NgApqbe-mhg1wofrYLLROmXztpgibNK9yS3SmjOOnTnpLN6/s1600/No-matter-how-slow-you-go.jpg

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! 10: NOT Your Usual Use Of Microwaves!

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/2013/04/130423211830.htm

When I think of microwaving something, I usually think of popcorn or my lunch, NOT how microwaves might be used to track the progress of tumor shrinkage during chemotherapy.

But that’s exactly what doctors used it for in a recent study and unlike traditional methods like x-ray mammography and ultrasound, they’ve discovered that microwaves tuned to very particular frequencies seem to pass through surround tissue and only resonate with the tumor. This gives a much, much clearer image of the tumor and therefore allows doctors to measure more accurately what’s going on inside the breast without having to invade it with needles or biopsies.

Why is this significant?

“1) its low cost and portability, especially relative to MRI and X-ray computed tomography (CT);

2) its use of safe nonionizing radiation;

3) its ability to image bulk electrical properties as a feature of tissue that is not imaged by most other modalities;

4) its ability, without the use of contrast agents, to quantitatively reconstruct frequency-dependent permittivity and conductivity profiles of living tissue as a way of identifying physiological conditions of those tissues.

“One possible application of MWT is in the frequent monitoring of tissue for the early detection of disease. For example, there is evidence to suggest that up to 22% of breast cancers detected by repeated mammographic screening naturally regress [1], and the ability to monitor these cancers with nonionizing radiation would be very useful. Significant progress in microwave imaging has been made in the last decade, with experimental prototypes having been used for the imaging of...breast tumors [4]. In addition, promising pilot studies for human breast imaging have been completed [5], [6].”

When the tumor is struck by microwaves at a certain frequency, it conducts electricity in a particular way. When the microwaves are captured on the other side, a computer looks at the differences in electrical conductivity AND CREATES AN IMAGE THAT IS CLEARER THAN USING OTHER METHODS!

The real plus here is that there is no danger of radiation. It doesn’t cost as much. It’s easier to carry this type of microwave unit around than it is to carry x-ray equipment or a an MRI machine (possibly making regular breast cancer screening MUCH MORE ACCESSIBLE to the rest of the women in the world!), and last of all, there’s no need to inject chemicals in order to see the tumor better in other imaging systems.

Promising, eh?

Resources: http://www.ece.umanitoba.ca/~lovetri/Research/PDFs/Journals/JP38.pdf
Image: http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/04/130423211830.jpg

TALKING About Breast Cancer

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…







“Is it OK if I don’t ever want to talk or think about breast cancer for the rest of my life?” my wife asked a few months ago.

“You’ve talked about breast cancer more in the past 20 months that than any dozen people have talked about it in the entire lives!” I said.

“Does that mean, ‘yes’?”

“Uh,” I replied sheepishly, “Yes, it IS OK for you to never talk about or think about breast cancer again for the rest of your life.”

“Good.”

And yet...and yet.

How do you stop talking about and thinking about something that changed everything? I cannot imagine in any real or relevant way, how the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer changed my wife’s life. My imagination, though fantastic (I write science fiction and fantasy, after all!) can’t begin to get itself wrapped around what that actually MEANS.

When I can’t imagine something, I have to TALK about it. The men around me refused to talk about my wife’s breast cancer diagnosis. I think I lost a few friends to their fears of talking about breast cancer – like talking about it would infect their wives. Worse, that talking about it might expose their terror of the possibility of their own wives being diagnosed.

“The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer some time during her life is about 1 in 8. The chance of dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 36. Breast cancer death rates have been going down. This is probably the result of finding the cancer earlier and better treatment. Right now there are more than 2.9 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.”
(http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/overviewguide/breast-cancer-overview-key-statistics)

The truth is that I never thought about it in terms of “what if my wife is diagnosed with breast cancer?”; even though her sister was diagnosed first. I didn’t let it enter my thoughts. So I suppose the fact that guys don’t talk about breast cancer – even AFTER the diagnosis – is just a continuation of the silence we experienced and encouraged BEFORE the diagnosis.

Even today, if you scroll through the 17 comments, three are from men besides me. The others are from women. Of course, it’s impossible to know how many of the 8400 page views are from men and how many are from women. It may be that lots of guys READ about breast cancer but few TALK about it. That’s OK, but the bile and fear that can build up with regards to breast cancer can be debilitating. I know that one thing that has eroded significantly is my faith – I’ll talk about that someday when I’m brave enough. At any rate, this place is still here and as far as I can tell, people still read it, and so I’ll keep talking.

It’s just that sometimes I think it would be good to either talk to someone over coffee or online.

G’day, folks!

Image: http://www.askdrmanny.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Men%20Coffee.jpg

BREAST CANCER WISDOM 1: From Others and From Life Here…

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…

There’s a lot of wisdom out there about breast cancer and from breast cancer victims. I’m not talking about doctoral wisdom – I’ve got a space for that in this blog – I’m talking here about things people tell people when they find out that they MIGHT have breast cancer; things they tell people when they get the FIRST confirmation; things they tell people just before radiation, chemo, lumpectomies, or radical mastectomies; things they tell people about nutrition, exercise, lymphedema – a hundred other subjects.

Then there’s the plain wisdom, words that come down about living with breast cancer every day.

I’ve decided to post regular, plain wisdom – be it from the web or from my wife’s or my personal experience.

I’m starting with a wonderful writer who is both entertaining and profound – and she was also a breast cancer survivor. Erma Bombeck made my wife and I laugh many times. She made lots of people laugh, but never really stopped there. She said things that were deeply profound. I’ll start with her – and because I have a sensitive funny bone – and I’ll probably side with humor more often than not.

“I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

“I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

“I would have talked less and listened more.

“I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

“I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

“I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

“I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

“I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

“I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

“I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

“I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

“Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

“When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, 'Later. Now go get washed up for dinner.' There would have been more 'I love you' More 'I'm sorry's.'

“But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute, look at it, and really see it . . live it and never give it back.”

(PS – I am a “fact geek” (Duh, right?) and I wanted to find out exactly where this came from. That brought me to Snopes.com – THE place to check if something you get online seems fishy. The FACT is that while Erma Bombeck did write the above, it WASN’T because she’d just discovered she had breast cancer. Go to Snopes.com for the full explanation here: http://www.snopes.com/glurge/bombeck.asp ) Great stuff – no matter what.

Image: http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/appalachian-smoky-mountain-fog-panoramic-misty-dawn-sunrise-sunset-scene-picture-decor-john-samsen.jpg

A Fantastic Cancer Voyage Chapter 1 VI

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. In it, 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.

What would a FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Breast Cancer look like? 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…

Kim Lin Ghandi, world-renowned philosopher and The Last Hope For World Peace studied Dr. Olubunmi Nwagbara – Ohloo to her close friends, Dr. O to those who wouldn’t try her last name for fear of offending her – a renowned breast cancer researcher and physician, working with the best hospital on the planet.

The massed military might of the Revived Super Powers of India and China threatened each other over the highest mountains on Earth from one end of their 3500 kilometer shared border to the other. Hostility between Beijing and New Delhi had risen since the fall of Communism in the West and the shift of the planetary economy to the Far East. They stood on the brink of nuclear war.

These forces had collided in the once-small city of Rochester, Minnesota at the once- local Mayo Clinic.

Kim Lin Ghandi nodded as she looked up at Olubunmi Nwagbara and said, “Da yawa masu saisaita tsininnukansu a ƙyalasr ɗaki.”

Ohloo blinked at her in startlement and said, “‘So many spears rest their points in the tiny room.’ Where did you learn that?”

“Among the Hausa women in northern Nigeria.”

“When were you there?”

“Many years ago when I first started touring.”

“You toured in developing countries?”

Kim Lin laughed. “At first, those were the only places capable of talking about spiritual matters without sneering.” Ohloo blocked disbelief on her own face before it blossomed into a sneer. But Kim Lin wasn’t fooled and sniffed.

Ohloo said, “Point taken.” She sighed and said, “I need to get going. I’ll check back with you in a few hours.”

“Will you be going home?”

Ohloo laughed outright. “This is my home, Lily."

“You sleep here?”

She glanced out the window at the slashing sleet, lowering her voice, “More often than I’d like.”

“You have a husband? Boyfriend?”

“I’ve had both and currently have neither.” She turned back, “You?”

“My husband left me when I got the first breast cancer diagnosis.”

“Asshole,” Ohloo blurted before she could clamp her mouth shut. “Sorry. I’m sure he was a good man.”

“He was at one time. He supported my work. Traveled with me all the time. But as more people recognized me, the more he felt like part of my luggage.” She touched her chest. “This was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“You know that that’s an urban myth, right? Breast cancer patients are not more susceptible to divorce.”

Kim Lin smiled faintly, “As I said, we’d drifted apart. The divorce was a legal formality.”

Ohloo stepped to the door. “I guess we make a good team, then. Hopelessly devoted to our work.”

“I used to love Olivia Newton John in Grease.”

“There you go. We were destined to be in the same place at the same time.”

Kim Lin nodded slowly then said, “I’m tired.”

Ohloo nodded, “And I have work to do. We’ll talk later.”

Resource: http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/intimacy/partner
Image: http://medgadget.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/Fantastic-Voyage-200x290.jpg