Breast Cancer - Facing a Giant

Health & Wellness Facing a Giant Breast Cancer

By Tracy McCoy

will become breast cancer survivors. They will dig deep and find a way to fight. They’ll find a network of friends or other women who are in the fight and find support and love. They may have surgery, undergo treatments and take hormone therapy, targeted therapies, and what ever else they can to stay alive. Cancer treatments have come a long way. Today there are many preventative measures women can take, from examining her own breasts to yearly mammograms. Early detection increases the effectiveness of treating breast cancer and should be a priority for all of us. Many breast cancer symptoms are invisible and only detected through professional screening, but some symptoms can be caught early just by being proactive.

Cancer sucks! Just the word makes me nauseated. Every woman who goes for her annual mammogram holds her breath until the letter comes in the mail. With trepidation she opens that envelope and breathes a sigh of relief when it says normal. What about the woman who doesn’t get that result? Her heart skips a beat and she must feel terrified. She is asked to come back in for a more in-depth screening, an ultrasound, MRI or biopsy. She then gets a call from her doctor and hears the word cancer. An appointment is usually made with a specialist, likely an Oncologist, the doctor nobody wants to have to see. Sleepless nights, thoughts of her children, husband, all of the things she hoped to accomplish down the road. A bucket list begins to form in her mind, she’ll write it down in the morning. What about those grandchildren she doesn’t have yet but has always looked forward to. She tries to calm her mind and think positive, but it is so hard. Maybe she calls her best friend or maybe she keeps it to herself and doesn’t tell a soul.

Sitting in the chair across the desk from the man in the white coat, with all of the awards on his wall, is so uncomfortable it’s hard to breathe. She sees his mouth moving but her mind is reeling from the diagnosis. She hears words like mass and stage and radiation and chemo and metastatic and she is trying to keep from crying. This is the day she never wanted to have. Numb, she goes in to the exam room drops the shoulder of the gown and stares straight ahead while the doctor examines her breast. He shows her the films from her mammogram and points to the white cloudy spot. She dresses and leaves knowing she has decisions to make and a hard journey ahead of her. Once in her car, she sobs, ugly cries, beats the steering wheel and asks God why. This is the reality of 287,850 women in America in a year. Of that number it is estimate that 43,250 will die. While that is startling and very sad, 244,600 of these women There are at least 12 different types of breast cancer, some invasive and some not. Staging the disease is a complex process. There are many factors but basically the number is an indicator of how many sites the cancer has spread, but even that is not easy to understand. There are many myths about breast cancer, like that finding a lump means you have cancer, it does not. It is a myth that men do not get breast cancer, they do. Some have heard that mammograms can cause breast cancer to spread, that is not true. The notion that your antiperspirants and deodorants cause breast cancer has been suspected, but researchers at the National Cancer Institute have found no conclusive evidence linking the two. I found an abundance of valuable information on the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s website (www. nationalbreastcancer.org). The first thing is to do your monthly self checks, have that mammogram, stay on top of preventative measures and talk to your doctor about any concerns you have. This fall wear some pink in honor and memory of our sisters and brothers who have faced this battle. Say a prayer for those engaged and those who have survived. Remember the families of those who didn’t.