Calling all triple negative breast cancer patients in the UK
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Hi Sylvia, Mary and all
Sylvia, we have two weeks new year vacation. After that my classes start again. My daughter is also learning English and she is really eager to speak English. My daughter and I share the same interests. I hope she has much happier life head with lifelong health.
I m also in favor of being tidy and organized all the year long. I can never tolerate messy house.Yet, the spring cleaning is what is done once a year like cleaning the walls, cleaning the parts that are not easy to clean every day and getting rid of all the unnecessary things and furniture.
Here, there are also a lot of women diagnosed with breast cancer. The number is increasing every year and nobody is able to answer why so many lives are being threatened by this disease. The tragic part this is that more and more younger women are being diagnosed.
My doctor ordered Brca tests to be done after the vacation and it will take more than one month to get the results. If the results are positive, I should have my ovaries and the other breast removed. I was concerned about the early menopause and possible osteoporosis. My oncologist said I will have some shots every six months to avoid it. I hope they will not have any side effects. He also prescribed some pills to help me with hot flashes but I'm reluctant to take them so I have not bought them yet. I think my body may not be able to take so many chemicals.
Tomorrow night is the beginning of the new year and spring. I should confess I'm trying my best to be as happy as others but it's hard as I can not stand my wigs and I should wear scarves all the time even at home. I do not like my parents and my siblings see me bald. This makes me feel down. Also, it's the first year that my brother is not with his family and seeing him depressed is really bothering.
Still, I hope God brings us better days.
Love
Hanieh
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Sylvia,
I have a quick comment, I woke up the other morning thinking about this. Is it possible the great increase in breast cancer cases is partially because of mammogram and other early testing?
I can think of 3 women quickly that I know, my daughter-in-law, the wife of a business associate, and a neighbor. Within the last 2 years all 3 had small tumors, DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) non-invasive, found on testing. My DIL had both breasts removed and reconstruction, as did the wife of the business associate. The neighbor had only a lumpectomy. None of these women had chemo or radiation. My DIL takes no AIs, I think the wife of associate does take an AI because she has been exercising like crazy so as not to gain weight from them. Not sure about my neighbor. All 3 women were ER+/PR-HER2-. Is it possible that before all the early testing these women would never have been found to have these tumors, and is it possible that the tumors would never have progressed to a dangerous level? And it could also be possible that the tumors would grow and in their lifetimes would become very dangerous. Unknown, but early testing could be a big reason there is so much more BC that we know about.
Mary
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Hello Everyone,
There have been some intriguing posts since I last checked in. I wish I could comment on all of them.
Sylvia, you must be very disappointed about the snow and your cancelled appointment. I got a kick out of seeing the snow video that Mary posted, and about your mention of sliding down your driveway delivering Christmas cards. I can't even imagine how tricky getting around in conditions like that must be.
Adagio, congratulations on your release. I was happy to see your flowers.
Hanieh, Your post about housecleaning made me think about how much my own house needs that. I hope you have a beautiful New Year celebration. My ankle is healing quickly, and I'm grateful.
Mary, yes, May is coming up fast. It's good to have trips to look forward to.
I have a dentist appointment this week, and I'm not looking forward to that at all. I just took another CA 15-3 blood test, and I have mixed feelings about it. It creates so much stress. I'll know more next week after my 3 month oncologist check-up.
Have a great week,
Pam
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HI EVERYONE !!
Its been a while since i have logged in, it has been a manic few weeks at home and at work.
I have pages to catch up on !
I hope you are all doing well and staying strong
Its has been snowing again here in England and its been awfully cold so I hope you lovely ladies are staying warm and snuggly.Update with momma: She had her final EC infusion on the 2nd of March ! 3 out of 3 DONE ! hurray for her, she handled it very well I must say, no nausea, no vomiting, she would get extremely fatigued post steroids for a good 10 days, but then is back to normal, blood counts are good, the week before her last infusion she did her weekly echo and her cardiologist gave her 3.25mg of beta blockers to protect her heart as one of EC's side effects is heart damage. I must say the side effects of those pills were rather scary, it gave my mother ( who's normally very bubbly and positive ) the worst depression and suicidal thoughts - that was very difficult to deal with, however i am happy to report she is feeling much better now and is less depressed with no scary thoughts like that !!! She didn't do cold capping on her last session as her nurse said there was no use, that was a little downer as she's managed to save quite a bit of hair, very thin but smart enough to slick back in a little bun. She starts her 1st infusion of weekly taxol this Friday. Fingers crossed it goes well and is easier than the EC.
Will catch up now on all your posts !
Sending you all lots of love.
Kindest,
Sarah
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Hello Hanieh,
Thank you for your interesting post. I have not had time to sit down to do some posting today. I shall answer in more detail tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your vacation and finish the rest of your chemotherapy. You will need time to recover from this and get strong again. Do not rush into anything.
I shall talk to you tomorrow.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Mary,
It has been one of those days, so I just wanted to thank you for your post and I shall post more tomorrow. I do think that mammograms may be part of the problem.
Sending you my love and I shall talk more tomorrow.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Pam,
Thank you for your post. I shall write more tomorrow, but do hope your dental appointment is not too bad.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Sarah,
It was good to have you back on the thread. Take your time catching up.
I shall write more tomorrow when I hope to have more time to myself.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Marias,
I am thinking of you and hope everything is progressing.
Abrazos.
Sylvia xxx.
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Hello Mary,
You mentioned mammograms in your post. I think we all probably have different opinions about mammograms. We know that Chris Woollams is against them and I certainly think that it cannot do us much good subjecting ourselves to radiation. Women seem to be getting these at younger ages and very regularly, so who knows what it is doing to them. There are certainly more and more women of younger ages being diagnosed and they seem to get the same full treatment a lot of the time. They are being treated with very small tumours. I think all we can do is let women decide for themselves or follow their doctor's advice. As for me, I was not having mammograms. In this country I think you were called in on the NHS for mass screening at 50. I was 51 when I came back from Canada and registered with the NHS. It was not long after I came back that I was surprised to receive a letter in the post from the NHS telling me to present myself at such and such a time for a mammogram. I was quite surprised and annoyed and I contacted them to say that I had not arranged any mammogram and did not intend to. I left it at that, did my breast testing and had no mammograms until 2005 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have had a few reluctantly since then. The last one was about four years ago or more and I do not intend to have any more.
I was interested in what you said about DCIS. There are differences of opinion about that as well. Some say DCIS is a pre-cancer situation and should be left alone. I have a friend who is a retired nurse, and she feels strongly about this and that it is not cancer. I do not know what to think. It seems to be treated nowadays as full blown cancer.
It is only my opinion but I think that your daughter-in-law's treatment for DCIS with a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction was rather drastic. A lumpectomy would seem to be more moderate.
I would think that not having chemotherapy or radiation would be sensible.
If you can avoid those two toxic treatments and all the long lasting effects of them I would think it is all for the good.
Even with the surgery you are opening yourself up to lymphoedema and I think that the lymphoedema that can follow from a lumpectomy and thus be in the chest area, is worse than the lymphoedema in the arm, which is bad enough.
From what you have said, all three women had hormonal breast cancer, which I think is just as bad if not worse than triple negative breast cancer, with women facing five to ten years on awful drugs, such as tamoxifen and the aromatase inhibitors such as Arimidex, with awful side effects, such as weight gain and osteoporosis. The aromatase inhibitors are usually given to post menopausal women or they get a mixture. I know two people who had surgery and nothing else for hormonal breast cancer, and they had weight problems etc. and some women just cannot handle the drugs. That is why I say that I am positive about being TNBC and I get so annoyed about all the negative publicity surrounding it. It is only because the drug companies have nothing to give you for years on end after your standard treatment.
I think it is possible that some of these small tumours will not necessarily have progressed to a dangerous state but the medical experts would probably not want to take that risk. Only the patient can decide to take the risk.
We probably hear more about cancer cases because of early testing but I still think we are having an epidemic of it. With mammograms being given to younger women and very regularly, I would think the radiation must be having some kind of negative effect on the body.
Of course, there are many risk factors for developing breast cancer but even if you have them it does not mean that they cause the cancer. We all know the risk factors that are often stated, such as, starting your periods early, having a late menopause, not having children, having your first child late in life, the birth control pill (I think a big factor), obesity, smoking, alcohol, bad nutrition, lack of exercise, stress, working nights, and so on and so forth. All of us will have some of these risk factors. In my own case I think not having had children, stress and hyperparathyroidism.
I think people need to have a think about all of this and just make their own decisions if and when confronted with breast cancer.
I also tend to think that people are being over medicated all the time and I do not think long term medication can be doing any good. I think of over use of antibiotics and what it does to the body.
Please remember, these are my own personal opinions.
The snow has all disappeared and it is a nice sunny day today.
One last word, I cannot believe the number of threads being started on the triple negative forum.
I also forgot to mention genes and viruses and the development of cancer.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Pam,
I actually do not really mind not having my hospital appointments. I hate going to the hospital and it takes up so much of the day. I have no idea when I shall get new appointments and it is almost a relief. There is not much that can be done for lymphoedema, except self care, which is mainly gentle massage and exercises to keep the lymph going. As for the mole removal, the deep cut is taking time to heal and I worry about getting bad news.
I was glad to know your ankle is healing.
I would not worry about the blood test. My oncologist told me they were a waste of time and I have never had any. As you say, we have these tests and anything that is slightly out of order causes us stress and that is absolutely what we do not need.
I do hope all goes well with your three month oncologist check up.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Hanieh,
I do hope you will make the most of your two weeks New Year vacation and that you will feel ready to start your classes again. I was glad to know that your daughter likes to speak English.
I understand what you said about being tidy and organised. I also understand what you mean about Spring cleaning. It is a ritual here as well and I think it will all start off soon.
Yesterday was the Spring Equinox here, Tuesday March 20th. That means we are officially out of winter and spring has begun. I am watching the grounds here slowly come alive and am enjoying the lighter evenings.
I was interested to know that in Iran you are also having lots of women diagnosed with breast cancer. What are the cancer experts putting forward as possible causes? Are they same basically as are being put forward here? I agree with you that more and more younger women seem to be affected.
I do hope that you get good results from the BRCA test that you are going to have. Please remember that these faulty genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 are not that common. I think they represent only about 5% of all breast cancer cases.
I do hope they come up negative and that you will not have to think about having your ovaries and the other breast removed. You are far too young to be going through all of this. For the moment concentrate on finishing your chemotherapy and building up your strength.
If you can, have a DEXA scan to see what kind of state your bones are in now, so that you have an idea of what they are like before taking any of the medication that is prescribed for osteoporosis in menopausal women. They do have nasty side effects and I have never taken any, but I know people who have.
It would be useful to have that DEXA scan to know how much your bones have already been affected by your chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.
I think you are right not to take any pills for hot flushes until you know the results of your BRCA test. You may not even need them at all. Not all women have side effects through menopause. If it were me I would be getting through the chemotherapy, getting strong again and then having a good think about what I think is best for me. You are quite right to think about the effect on your body of all these chemicals.
I know those injections to avoid osteoporosis are much in vogue at the moment. If you look up bisphosphonates you will see they have very bad side effects. I refused them and have no regrets. I treat my osteoporosis from cancer treatment and an over active parathyroid in my own way. I try to get most of my calcium from food (not dairy products) and supplement with vitamin D and cod liver oil soft gell capsules.
I hope you will enjoy your New Year and laugh and be happy with your family. I am sure you will look lovely in your wigs or your scarves. Concentrate on the positive aspects in your life.
That is all for now. If I can help or support you in any way please let me know.
Love and Happy New Year.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Sarah,
I have to take a break now, but I have not forgotten you and your mother and I shall post later on today.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Sarah,
I can tell from your post that you have been having a very busy time and I do hope things will quieten down for you.
I do hope that you manage to catch up with the posts, as they always have helpful and meaningful information.
I was glad to know that your mother had had her final EC infusion on March 2nd. I was even more glad to know that she had had no nausea or vomiting. The fatigue is really unavoidable and it builds up over the months.
It was good news that her blood counts are good. It is true that EC can cause heart problems, but it does not mean that it will definitely cause them. I had an ECG before I started chemotherapy and then after I had finished it. My heart was normal. I was not told that EC could cause heart problems, but I was told that the taxane drugs could and that my oncologist had chosen docetaxel (Taxotere) rather than paclitaxel (Taxol) because it was less damaging on the heart. Who knows where the truth is? We know that the whole of chemotherapy is toxic.
I was interested that you said your mother had been given beta blockers to protect her heart. I have looked up beta blockers in a book I use for reference. It is the New Guide to Medicines and Drugs – The complete home reference to over 2,500 medicines, by the British Medical Association (BMA). This is a book well worth having for reference. I knew a bit about beta blockers from people who are taking them and they seem rather frightening. I am not a doctor, so I am wondering how they can protect the heart. I thought they were used in the treatment of people with certain heart diseases, such as angina and irregular heart rhythms. Does this mean that she is taking the beta blockers because her heart has been damaged by the EC already?
I am glad that your mother is feeling better.
I think we all find thinning hair and losing our hair very traumatic and we just have to hope that it grows back normally after treatment, even if it takes time.
I do hope all goes well for your mother tomorrow with the Taxol.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Sending you bast wishes.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello everyone,
As Mary and I were talking about breast cancer and possible causes, I thought I would post this chart that comes from a page my big medical book entitled Complete Home Medical Guide - The essential reference for every family by the British Medical Association and published by DK. it is a big heavy book but has lots of illustrations and I would not be without it. It is 10 inches by 12 inches in size.
I use it often in conjunction with the New Guide to Medicines and Drugs by the BMA and published by DK.
I have a third medical book which is more concise but I shall talk about that later.
I thought this chart was very interesting.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello again everyone,
I am posting these two different pictures that show the different food groups and their importance.
The first one which comes from my thick medical book is I would say the more traditional one and emphasises the groups that were emphasised for a long time and probably still are.
The second one is one i posted here on March 1st and I got it from a book i read this year entitled The Dental Diet by Dr Steven Lin and the eating of fermented foods is very much emphasised, along with a mixture of fats. He emphasises the fats because he thinks we need them to absorb the fat soluble vitamins. A, D, E & K. As for fermented foods, they are very much in favour and we need them to have a healthy gut, a healthy biome.
That is all for now.
Happy first day of Spring, whether you think it was yesterday or today. If you have a nice Springtime photograph, please post.
Wishing all the best to everyone and hoping that we shall hear from a few new patients who recently joined but do not post much, Duchess60, SusieW5, HappyHammer, Chelsea. I hope all is fine with you.
Best wishes
Sylvia xxxx
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Hi Sylvia,
Thank you for your post. I always like to hear your perspective about the things that we go through as cancer patients and survivors. I'm sorry to hear that the deep cut from your mole removal is taking a long time to heal. That kind of worry really impacts our quality of life, and I really hope that your doctors can put you at ease soon.
That chart from the Complete Home Medical Guide is a very clear way to get an idea about cancer risk factors, and clearly puts a lot of weight in the diet area. Maybe we'll look back at the Dental Diet book and information as the beginning of our enlightenment about which items to emphasize in that diet.
Pam
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Thanks Sylvia for the post about mammograms. When I saw my oncologist last week I enquired about the frequency of mammograms and she told me that the standard is yearly after breast cancer treatment. I am not in favour of this. I had my last mammo 31st May, 2017 and I got a note in the mail yesterday for another one which is scheduled on April 4th - so that is less than one year apart, so I will be cancelling it for sure. To be honest, I wrestle with the frequency of the mammograms and I need to do a lot of hard thinking about it.
I have decided that I will not take the drugs for osteoporosis for now - I have never felt right about taking them, so I will continue with my healthy diet and Vitamin D and Vit K3. When we refuse to take medication for osteoporosis in Canada - we are only allowed to have a DEXA scan once every 3 years - I will have to wait one more year for that - if the numbers are drastically changed, I may need to reconsider my options. I will keep an open mind.
I am a bit like you Sylvia, in that I do not like to take pharmaceuticals except if I absolutely have to. Thankfully, I am generally healthy and do not need any prescription drugs at this time.
On a positive note, the itch I had on my back has now settled down - I noticed a big improvement after my week in Mexico and I asked myself the question what do I do differently at home? I eat raw green cabbage, red cabbage and carrot each and every day at home for lunch and I did not have any of those while I was away - but when I came back and had my usual yummy cabbage salad, I got very itchy with a rash, redness and burning especially around the jaw line - I thought it was purely coincidence, so I ate it the next day also and it got worse - so I decided to cut out raw cabbage for a week. It has been 5 days now and the itch has improved and the rash is gone. It is mysterious and if I can pinpoint the cause I will be very happy. Now I will have to find a good substitute for my daily salad.
Hope your surgical site continues to heal well.
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Mary - when I read the list of what the MRI showed up - it is understandable why your knees hurt. My youngest daughter had meniscal tears on both knees a teenager from playing competitive soccer. She had surgery on both of them and honestly I do regret that she had the surgery at all. Ten plus years on and her knees still bother her especially when she is running and playing soccer. So I am not convinced that surgery is the answer to that problem at all. The other issues seem to be degenerative and I am guessing that a lot of aging knees if they were to be MRI -ed may look exactly like that and maybe some of us get pain and others don't . Who knows? The human body is such a mystery especially in how things affect each of us so differently. However, living with that kind of pain consistently is no picnic. Would your surgeon consider you a candidate for knee replacement? Sorry I cannot recall if you mentioned that or not.
So glad you are finally over your bout of flu and hopefully with Spring on its way, we will all have a little more energy and life to do all the necessities of daily living in a home. We have a decent size yard which I do love to enjoy in the Spring and Summer, but there is definitely a lot of work involved in the maintenance.
How often do you get a mammogram? And I am wondering about the protocol in the US regarding the length of time for having regular checkups with your oncologist? Is it 5 years like us in Canada. I think Sylvia was lucky to be seen for 10 years - and I wonder if that is still the standard in the UK?
Enjoy the remainder of your week.
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Happy Norouz, Hanieh - I like the idea of spring cleaning the whole house - it is just that I do find it a lot of work. So I tend to just keep on top of things all year long, so that the Spring is just a little bit more work and not a lot more work.
Glad you are having a break away from your treatments - give your body time to recuperate - it will happen with time - and like the others said, your hair will return. My hair is definitely not as thick as it was before, but it is OK - better than having none at all.
Enjoy your time with your family on vacation - they love you no matter what, and they want you to be well and healthy, so they will support you throughout this difficult time. Take care and look after yourself - brighter days will come.
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Maryna8. I did see my doctor yesterday and she said that it is like nerves that were cut. I can live with it. Where I find I need to be careful is lifting with my right hand (the side the surgery was on). I lifted a heavy bag of groceries on Monday to bring into the house without thinking, and now I am in pain from my neck to my hand. The bag must have been more than 10 lbs. Today, I can't even lift a coffee cup. Hope it's just muscles and that they heal quickly.
Interesting about your sister-in-law; who knows, we might have even met each other. We like to go there because it is relaxing, instead of being in the hotel zone where you have to take a tour or ride the bus for a long time to get away from the stores. We don't go for the shopping; just to relax and enjoy quiet time together. We just love the ocean side of the island; I could spend hours watching the waves. There has been a fair bit of construction since last year, and we may thing of going somewhere else next year.
Take care and thanks for your encouraging note.
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53nancy - I still get pain in my left breast which is the one which had the surgery. I mention it each and every time to my MO and she is not at all concerned. I cannot do any over the head exercises or stretch my arm - even carrying my grandaughter is felt 2 days later. I have accepted it as part of the package. I cannot lie on that side much at all and if I do, I know about it.
Having said all that, I do know that some women do have no pain eventually - so that is what I hope for you. My mind still goes to dark places when I have pain in my breast because pain was the very first symptom that presented long before a lump was evident when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer.
Hope your arm feels better soon - and maybe you should avoid doing anything that hurts until the healing is complete. Gentle exercise is good though but not carrying heavy items or overstretching at least for me.
Hope you survive the snow storm. Can't wait until Spring arrives.
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Pam - so glad your knee is healed. It should be completely better for your trip in May.
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Hi, Sylvia
I think there must be a different name for the electrode therapy the acupuncture doc used on me, I will ask again. He did have a name for it. It made my knee very sore the next day, I am interested to find out if that is good or bad!
Yes, I have always liked to do physical work, and have taken pleasure in the fact that I could do it. Having to adapt these activities to avoid pain takes forethought and it makes progress slow. Delegating chores is difficult when one lives alone, anyone who stops by usually asks if they can do anything and I always say yes, as a matter of fact, you can! Now I am pondering how I could magically make a laundry room upstairs, that would make life easier too.
I was looking at a map of Devon UK and its' environs when you were having such snowy weather, and I was interested to note that it is quite close to Dartmoor National Park. Since childhood I have enjoyed the stories of Sherlock Holmes with one of my favorites being Hound of the Baskervilles, which features that area. Devon is also not too far from Cornwall, which was heavily used as location in the Gothic novels I enjoyed as a teenager. Each story in that genre seemed to feature an orphaned governess landing a position in an isolated mansion working for a mysterious handsome widower, or sometimes he would have hidden his insane wife in an upstairs attic, and always by the end of the book they were together and beginning a long happy life. Anyway, I still do enjoy Sherlock Holmes, and would be interested to see all that area some day.
I think it is not that I am so excited about the drug they are re-using for lymphedema, but I am glad that they are studying it at all. As I said, it's very interesting that they think it may be an issue of the skin as well as the lymph, that is hard for me to figure out. I'm glad it's getting attention, so odd that it's taken them so long to soak in that these lasting side effects of chemo and radiation make life difficult for a lot of people. They must look at these effects as necessary collateral damage.
I don't know where the Raynaud's syndrome I have came from, it has been with me a long time, probably 30+ years. My feet are also always cold, but they do not turn white as do my fingers. I suppose because of the neuropathy I do not feel that they are cold, only if I put them in water or touch them. It could be worse, I don't worry too much about it, I wear gloves outside long past the time most people do, and usually have my hands in my pockets!
My post was not specifically about mammograms, but about the fact that early testing is showing a lot of results that were not seen before, so I was surmising that was partially why there is such an uptick in BC diagnosis. Showing early results is fabulous in invasive BC, I was wondering about how important it is to aggressively go after the non-invasive breast tumors, such as DCIS, I just don't know. I would imagine that once one knows there is a tumor, whether invasive or not, it is a very scary thing and the normal reaction is to just want it gone. I will have to do some more reading on that.
Yes, one of the side effects of mammogram, and any x-ray is cancer. I was told that CT scans put out the most radiation. Any test where the person performing the test runs out of the room before hitting the button is scary in my opinion. I do have a mammogram once a year, although I always question it since the mammogram I had 3 months before BC diagnosis did not pick anything up. And perhaps it wasn't there yet? I will never know the answer to that. At least having only one breast makes the process very quick! I was interested to read about the thermal imaging (thermography) testing, but there is not a place around here that does it, and when I asked about it at the hospital the x-ray technician was very dismissive of it. That needs more research on my part.
I will be back later to comment on your latest posts, love, Mary
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t
this is my first flower of spring, it's a hellebore. Sometimes in mild winters it blooms in February.0 -
Maryna - I love hellibores - they are so beautiful. That is a great colour - mine are creamy off white - nowhere near as stunning as yourgorgeous purple ones.
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Hello adagio, Pam and Mary,
Thank you for your posts. I shall gradually answer answer them during the weekend.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello everyone,
I was doing some reading on the latest Calling all TNs posts and noticed a reference to Foundation one, which I had never heard of. This is the link and I would be interested in your comments.
http://www.lancastercancercenter.com/disease-drug-...
There was also another link about TNBC. This is the link and again I would welcome your comments.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-03/uo...
To Mary, I have just received a new email from Chris Woollams but I am going to give it a miss this month as I think I am definitely suffering from information overload!
I woke up to the early morning news on the radio about cancer. Again it is all about bad nutrition and lifestyle and how you can prevent it this way if you do what you have to do. I think "if" is a little word full of meaning. I think something should be said about the role in all of this with stores awash with junk and processed food devoid of nutrients. If these things are available people will buy them.
Obesity was also mentioned, along with lack of exercise and smoking. I noticed too much medication was NOT mentioned, nor was alcohol, sugar or dairy products! These are often used by cancer charities for raising money and the latest on the television was the Great Bake Off for Standing Up to Cancer!
Best wishes
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello Pam,
Thank you for your recent post and for your kind words.
I was glad that you appreciated what I posted from the Complete Home Medical Guide. I think with both charts we can make our own decisions. The most important thing is to stay away from junk food and processed foods, especially those full of sugar. There does seem to be a conflict between eating high fat or low fat diets. I think it is best to avoid extremes and do everything in moderation.
I do like the reference books that I have, the large medical book has a really good section on cancer, its process etc. I do like the illustrations as well.
I also have another medical book that I use. It is entitled A-Z Family Medical Encyclopedia – The essential reference to over 7,000 medical terms including symptoms, diseases, drugs and treatment. It is the British Medical Association (BMA) again and published by DK. The one I have is the 6th edition published 2014.
I hope you have a good weekend.
By the way, if you know any long term survivors of TNBC with multi focal tumours, in one breast, such as DCIS and IDC, I would be interested to know about them.
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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Hello adagio,
Thank you for your posts. I think that the yearly mammograms must be standard for Canada, after breast cancer. To my knowledge and in my experience that is not the case here. The standard seems to be every three years, but I do not think you can be forced to do this. During my treatment and over the course of the ten years I stayed with the oncologist a mammogram was brought up every three years but it was not dictated. Once a person is not in the hospital system you go back to having a mass screening mammogram in a mobile unit as it visits your area. I remember my oncologist telling me that if I wanted a mammogram I should just turn up at the mobile unit when it is in Exmouth. I do not intend to go and I have not been summoned in the three years since I was discharged from the oncologist. This year when I had to work my way back to the hospital because of the lymphoedema, I had to do it through seeing my breast cancer surgeon who arranged an ultrasound to show I was still clear of cancer. She did ask me whether I would like a mammogram while I was having the ultrasound, and I just said I did not want one and she said that was fine.
As far as I am concerned, the less I am exposed to radiation the better. It was bad enough having radiotherapy as part of my treatment, with all the side effects of that.
I understand your reluctance to have frequent mammograms. We do not know whether they are causing breast cancers and they are starting women on them at a younger and younger age.
It seems to me that there is a certain bullying aspect to state medicine, which I do not like, even though I am in favour of the NHS, but it cannot take over a person.
I do understand about those drugs for osteoporosis. I have always refused them and I know people who have had problems with these bisphosphonates. They are now doing six-monthly injections as treatment. I feel that I want to help my bones through my diet, and like you I stick to vitamin D and one calcium supplement a day which has a proper combination of calcium citrate, magnesium citrate, D, and K3. The instructions are to take four of these a day, but I am not going to do that. I get my calcium through nuts and seeds, beans and pulses and green leafy vegetables like bok choy. I also have nut drinks and soy yoghurt enriched with calcium. I have no idea what is happening with my osteoporosis as I am no longer offered DEXA scans, which seem to based on your age. I have only ever had two.
I do not take any prescription drugs or over the counter ones. I know that in a life threatening situation you do not have much choice, but in all other situations I prefer to let my nutrition and immune system do the work. Too many pills are being dished out and I think they may be doing a lot of harm.
I was glad to know that the itch on your back has settled down. It might have been that the warmer climate of Mexico helped your rash.
Your cabbage salad sounds healthy. Do you mix something in with it? I would imagine that raw cabbage could be hard to digest and perhaps you had been having too much of it.
It is a mournful day here with no sun and it was raining when I opened the blinds. I think Spring is very late here.
I would be interested to know what you think of the links I posted, when you have the time.
I am very weary of the wound from the deeper cut on my lymphoedema arm and I do hope it will disappear soon but I know that complete recovery from this and normal muscle will take a year. I find it unbelievable. All this has made it difficult to deal with the lymphoedema. I do not think it is bad and I hope it will go away. I am doing my own measurements and there is very little difference between my left arm, the normal one, and the right arm. I do not find the compression sleeve makes much difference and I have not worn it for a few days because it was irritating the scar.
That is about all for today. Do you have any special plans for Easter?
Love.
Sylvia xxxx
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