About 30% of people diagnosed with breast cancer at any stage will develop distal metastasis. I am one.
Pain is much on my mind lately. As recently as last November I wrote a post (Pain) in which I talked about my reluctance to use narcotic pain relief. Recent readers of Telling Knots will know that I have since agreed to take the stuff in spite of my objections....
Last week I published a post about ways of referring to people with cancer at different phases of the disease (Cancer Words), mostly based on an article and a letter in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. (The link will take you to a Medscape Nurses review of the discussion.) You...
Today it is my great pleasure to reblog this post from the American neurologist who blogs at Doctor Grumpy in the House. (It is a great blog with humor, honesty, humanity and all kinds of good stuff that does not necessarily begin with H. You should read it.) This post,...
I’ve written quite a bit about the power of words. Words are potent, sometimes in magical. Words do not only express our lived experience, they also give it shape, name it, describe it. One aspect of philosophy of language deals with the interaction and mutual influence of words and thought. Fields...
With thanks to Dr. Deanna Attai, a California breast surgeon and the new Secretary-Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee of The American Society of Breast Surgeons, who posted this on her Facebook page, I’d like to draw your attention to this article in the Seattle Times, by Marilynn Marchione, AP Chief Medical...
Okay, I got used to the surgical scars across my chest and under my arm. I got used to the radiation burn down the middle of my chest. I got used to the weakness in my left arm after surgery. I got used to my lopsided silhouette and to none of...
I love the Internet! With thanks to my friend GG, a stellar webcomber, I have been spending the last couple of days studying the most recent independent audit of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. The audit is available to all as a PDF at that link. First,...
With thanks to Nancy Stordahl of Nancy’s Point for posting it on Facebook, I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to a spot-on article on Salon: The ultimate cancer taboo: Sometimes it kills you by Mary Elizabeth Williams. If anyone wonders why people with metastatic cancer sometimes (often) feel like the red-headed stepchildren of the...
A meta-analysis published in The Lancet looked at the role of SERMs (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators) and found that they do indeed play a role in reducing incidence of breast cancer recurrence for as many as ten years after initial diagnosis and treatment, with the greatest benefit in the first...
Please, please, please read Scorchy Barrington’s latest post “Chronic Illness”. Scorchy has outdone herself in this valuable post. Starting from the point of her mets diagnosis just a few months ago, she continues with a critical reading of the Komen organization and then moves smoothly to Peggy Orenstein’s brilliant article...