Responding to Questions and Comments About Breast Cancer

Your own head is spinning with a breast cancer diagnosis and you have doctors to see, procedures to endure, and decisions to make about your treatment. You may have worries about how you’ll manage your family, your career, and all the responsibilities of your life. You need to find ways to tell your family, your loved ones, possibly children, and close friends. The last thing …

What My Patients Are Asking: Can the Type of Anesthesia I Get Affect My Risk of Recurrence?

Surgery is almost always part of the treatment plan for early-stage breast cancer. Whether the surgery is mastectomy or lumpectomy depends on a number of factors, including the characteristics of the cancer, a woman’s medical history, and her personal preferences.

Patients have asked me about any links between the type of anesthesia used during breast cancer surgery.

I searched the National Library of Medicine database…

Absolutely Sweet Marie

I wore red cowboy boots and a Pabst Blue Ribbon bowling shirt to my friend Marie’s memorial service. Another friend wore a thrift store skirt with cat faces printed all over it. Another wore a Twangfest music festival t-shirt.

It was fitting, not flip. Marie had given me the PBR shirt. At one point we had bonded over our hatred of beers “with too much …