A journey
It’s not every day that researchers discover a new organ – one that might be implicated in how cancer spreads.
Continue reading “Scientists discover “new organ” which may be implicated in spread of cancer”
What do you think is the most commonly asked question of a person who has, or has had, cancer? If you guessed, “How are you?” you got it right.
What to say to someone you care for who has cancer or another debilitating disease:
“Feel free to cry with me, to talk, or not to talk. I’ll take my lead from you.”
Read Jane Brody’s column at the NYTimes.
“Cancer was a piece of cake,” Virginia Harrod says. “It was the lymphedema that almost killed me.”
NPR reports that nine months after Harrod’s mastectomy, her cat scratched her hand. She wasn’t concerned at first, but her doctor “recognized her symptoms as a serious and advancing infection.”
Harrod was in the hospital for eight days, and that’s when she first learned she had lymphedema. Over the next 10 months, she was readmitted twice more with dangerous infections.
Lymphedema (secondary/acquired) is a common complication of breast cancer treatment, but it gets short shrift from doctors when patients are assessing treatment risks. My experience confirms this research finding.
Continue reading “Lymph node transfer is a viable treatment for severe lymphedema”
Last treatment was the 19th. Half of my chest is obviously healing. One-quarter is obviously not healing and may be worse (slightly swollen/puffy and always hot).
So I went to SCCA Proton Center today. They confirmed that it was good to come in.
Today was my last proton therapy treatment! The machine decided to remind me of day one: the first (of four) treatments took 20+ minutes (instead of <5). It really doesn’t like low barometric pressure/rain.
Like Monday, I took a nap this afternoon, although today’s treatment didn’t kick my ass like yesterday’s.