The Surgeon and the knive

Meeting the Surgeon and the continuous paperwork

We drove about away miles to meet with a very specific general surgeon.  I was referred to this surgeon from a new friend that had a double mastectomy done.  It is important to feel comfortable and a whole lot of confidence in the doctors that you pick.  Secondly it is utmost important that you received a referral from your primary care physician.  Thirdly make (100%) sure that the doctor, the anesthesiologist and the hospital is on the insurance as in network provider.  The one that most of us forget to check on is the anesthesiologist.  Bottom line all referrals have to go through your Primary Car physician and - honestly I went to their office to make sure this was done and still it was not done.   The paperwork can be really frustrating - there are the referrals and then always with every doctor the family health history statements – as if having cancer is not enough to deal with.  

Regarding the FMLA forms for my employment to have time off for surgery.  Keep in mind you are supposed to get that paperwork back within 15 days to the employer that is US Federal law.  Well the primary car told me I need to send it to the oncologist , the oncologist said the surgeon have to do it and the surgeon said the plastic surgeon do it.  Well maybe nobody does it … every time I have to send and email to my boss and the FMLA Coordinator stating that the next doctor will have to complete it, finally now I know it is the plastic surgeon that have to complete the FMLA forms.  

What I learned at the surgeon office is the following:

The surgeon’s job is simply to follow the instructions on the incision marked lines that the plastic surgeon draw out on the breast before the scheduled surgery.  Secondly the surgeon is going to make sure all the breast tissue both sides are removed and if the surgery includes nipple preservation tissue from underneath each nipple is send to be tested separately.

However my surgeon insisted that the surgery will be done her in this remote location where his office is.

 

More Free Stuff

http://breastcancerfreebies.com/retreats/

Freebies::: One Central Spot to look

Freebies::: One Central Spot to look

“I WISH I KNEW ABOUT THAT WHEN I WENT THROUGH TREATMENT!”

That’s what I hear all the time when I tell women about all the Breast Cancer Freebies available.

That’s why I created this site. Like many of you, I had surgery, chemo and radiation for breast cancer.

Along the way I got a FREE wig from the American Cancer Society and a FREE bag of goodies from the Lydia Project.

As a journalist I began to search the internet for other wonderful freebies. But there was no central place to find them.

Until now. This site is my way of paying it forward in gratitude to my health and in thanks to all the good people who helped me.

FREE is my favorite four-letter word -- after LOVE!

Wigs

A woman’s hair is an incredible form of self-expression, so hair loss can strike an especially crippling blow to those fighting cancer. A recent study revealed that nearly 60 percent of women consider hair loss the most dreaded side effect they face when undergoing chemotherapy.

Real-hair wigs can cost thousands of dollars and are often only partially covered by health insurance, but there are ways to get wigs for FREE:

§  American Cancer Society: To support cancer patients undergoing chemo, the American Cancer Society offers brand new FREE wigs at wig banks and cancer centers around the country. For local resources contact, Click Here or call 800-227-2345.

§   

§  Friends are by Your Side: Celebrity hairstylist Martino Cartier founded this charity to help thousands of cancer patients get FREEwigs through a network of 300 salons in four countries. Click Here to see whether there is a salon in your area.

§  It takes at least six ponytails to make one wig. If your friends and family have hair to spare and want to help the cause, tell them about the Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign that collects healthy hair to make FREE wigs available to cancer patients at the American Cancer Society’s wig banks. Donated hair must be a minimum of 8 inches long (measured from just above the elastic band of a ponytail to the ends). Click Here, or call 800-945-7768, for more details and where to donate.

• Chemo Angels: This volunteer organization is dedicated to bringing a ray of sunshine and a heavy dose of encouragement into the lives of those undergoing IV chemotherapy treatment. They match patients with an angel who will send FREE notes, cards and small gifts to keep spirits up during the course of treatment. Click Here to apply.
• Card Care Connection: With the message “Join Together Lift Spirits,” Card Care Connection’s aim is to provide personalized handmade greeting cards to people with cancer across the US. TheFREE cards provide an uplifting message of hope to brighten a cancer patients’ day. Request a card to be sent to a friend or loved one, ask for one for yourself, or even volunteer to make some to help the cause. They also encourage people to organize a card-making event to help them in their efforts and they accept donations of money, stamps and supplies. For information, Click Here.
• Casting for Recovery offers FREE fly-fishing weekends in 33 states for female breast cancer survivors. Founded on the principles that the natural world is a healing force, you don’t have to know how – or even like – to fly fish; the main goal is bonding.  The retreats are held from April to November and also incorporate counseling and educational services with trained facilitators. Participants are selected by lottery, but you can reapply if not selected. Click Here, or call   888-553-3500, to apply.
• Stowe Weekend of Hope is a three-day gathering held each spring in the resort town of Stowe, VT, for both male and female cancer survivors and their families. FREE accommodations are available for first-time guests and most events are free. Activities include educational sessions with top doctors presenting current medical research in all areas of cancer treatments, workshops by cancer type, movement and exercise classes, a 3-mile run and more. Click Here, or call 800-GO-STOWE.
• Little Pink Houses provides FREE week-long beach retreats in private homes in North and South Carolina for breast cancer patients and their immediate families. The aim is to promote recovery and reconnection in a relaxing environment. Meals are served in a common area with other families. Activities include fishing, yoga and parasailing. Babysitting is provided so parents can have a date night. Click Here, or call 336-213-4733.
• Image Reborn offers FREE Living Beyond Breast Cancer weekend retreats in Park City, Utah, for women diagnosed with the disease. Their aim: to provide a safe and peaceful environment where women with breast cancer can come together in small groups to share common experiences and realize they are not alone on their path to recovery.  Retreats include education, nutrition, massage, journaling, exercise and support. Click Here, or call 435-658-1715.
Good to Know
• Breast Cancer Wellness Magazine sponsors one or two cruises a year complete with speakers, workshops and mastectomy-wear fashion shows. Cruises are not free, but each year they sponsor a contest to give away a FREE cruise. They also offer scholarships to women with stage IV breast cancer. Click Here

Free Yoga Classes for Cancer patients

http://www.yogabear.org/page/free-yoga-classes

Request Services

Lydia's free services are meant for women currently facing cancer. Receive support for yourself or any woman currently receiving treatment for any type of cancer anywhere in the world by using the buttons to the right to request a tote, prayer, or support.

The Challenges/Situations Lydia Addresses:

Women with cancer

Suffer with depression and feelings of isolation; are afraid to share their fears with family and friends; and seek out tools and other survivors to help them cope with their emotions during this time of crisis.

Caregivers and Loved Ones

Struggle with what to do or say to comfort the woman in their life with cancer; search for tangible signs of comfort and support to give to the cancer patient; and need a safe place to discuss their fears and emotions about their loved one.

Healthcare Providers

Look for places of referral for cancer patients and families to find emotional and spiritual support; desire to show compassion, empathy and community support to the cancer patient; and value practical tools that complement medical treatment.For a complete list of partnering healthcare agencies click here.

Gotta Watch This….Love!! Pink is in

Gotta Watch This….Love!!

http://pinkglovedance.com/videos/2013-video-contest/reading-health-system/

Kicking Cancers Ass - The Menstruating Lady

The Menstruating Lady
Can God touch and heal you and me from cancer?  The answer is yes.  But God has his own time and his own ways.
Mark 5:24-25

Healing Touch of Jesus

…24And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him. 25A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse--…

Leviticus 15:25
"'When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period.

Matthew 9:20
Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

Mark 5:24
So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him.

Mark 5:26
She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.

Jesus was walking in the street and a great crowd was around him and following him some were pressing against one another as they all tried to stay close to the great Rabbi to hear what he had to say.  They all wanted to see and stay close to the miracles he performed. Women that had being ritually unclean because she had blood flowing for the past 12 years saw Jesus passing on his way t the house of Jairus.    Later that day  Jesus raised Jairus daughter from the death. 

However getting back to the story of the menstruating Lady - she strongly believed if she can only get to Jesus and touched his clothing she will be instantly healed.   It is not as if she did not seek a cure she visited all the doctors that practiced medicine during that time and she ran of money, and now she had to live under the strict Jewish unclean rules.    One of those was not to touch anyone because otherwise they will also be considered unclean, in many ways the purity laws made a prisoner of a women’s such as this..  She had faith God that defied any logic.  She had faith in what she did not see.    I want to ask you as women have ever gone through a time of prolonged blood flowing?  Women that struggled with similar conditions: report being becoming anemic, tired, depressed, and unhappy, no hope and being alone.  This menstruating lady showed to be Women of faith.

So many of us will be much happier and more blessed people if we simple in faith step out of our past and into the future.  The Menstruating lady had a choice to make she could just keep to herself and stay in her house and not touching anyone as the Purity Laws required.  But she made up her mind she is going to step in faith out of the past, and in faith she touched Jesus clothes and she was instantly healed.  Many times us beautiful ladies hold on to the past instead of just simply letting go of the past and walking into the future in faith with Jesus.  Let’s stop memorizing the past let it go and walk into the future.

Will Jesus heal my cancer? I don’t know but I still have faith in God for all His purposes for my life He say is Good..

Jesus heals 100% of all cancers and all diseases. - Kicking Cancers Ass

• “I am the Lord who heals you.” Exodus 15:26
• “He heals all our diseases.” Psalms 103:3
• “He (Jesus) healed them all.” Mat 12:15
• “There was not a feeble one among all their tribes.” Psalms 105:37
• “Himself took our infirmities and bore our sickness, and by His stripes, we were healed.” Isaiah 53:4 and 5
• “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we may be dead to sin, might live unto righteousness, and with his stripes we are healed.” 1 Pet 2:24-25
• Use your past as an ally not an anchor.

Nipple sparing mastectomy, sensation, breast reconstruction

Nipple sparing mastectomy, sensation, breast reconstruction

 

So far I had being rolling around thousands of racing 

 thoughts in my mind – and specially the old time favorite that we all struggle with and that is the “what if?” question.

What if I just removed the once breast will they be able to reconstruct them to look similar?

What if I do that will the changing cell in the other breast show up as cancer soon?

Will I then just have to remove the other breast?

If I have a mastectomy will I still feel like women?

If I dress will I still feel like myself?

If I am intimate how can I be without sensation in my breast?

If I keep my nipples will I get cancer in that tissue easily?

If they do nipple preserving surgery will I keep the sensation in my breast?

Yesterday at church I talked to a Christian oncologist and in general he said that Nipple Sensation after Mastectomy

“The standard answer would be that sensation of an intimate nature does not return after a mastectomy. During a mastectomy the entire breast is removing and that includes the nerve to the nipple. This would be true with a nipple-sparing mastectomy as well. There could however be return of general skin sensation to the area but it is very unpredictable. The important issue is choosing the operation that gives you the best long term survival. The nipple will not regain sensation overall because of the mastectomy.  The most sensitive part of the breast is the upper breast skin above the areola.  I would evaluate the sensation on a 4 month basis.  Sensation in the skin can improve over time.  I use a time frame of a year before I feel the result is complete from a nerve and sensation standpoint.  What the Christian friend did state though of all the doctors involved in this process the most important doctor will be your plastic surgeon because you will live daily with the work he has done

 

I was not thinking of survival I wanted to know how it will affect my sexual life after the fact.  But I think this is a more complete answer. No one really knows if the sensation will return and any breast tissue left put you at risk for cancer returning.

There are great explanations on the breast cancer site in regard to “Mastectomy is the removal of the whole breast. There are five different types of mastectomy: "simple" or "total" mastectomy modified radical mastectomy, radical mastectomy, partial mastectomy, and subcutaneous (nipple-sparing) mastectomy.”

Subcutaneous mastectomy is performed less often than simple or total mastectomy because more breast tissue is left behind afterwards that could later develop cancer. Some physicians have also reported that breast reconstruction after subcutaneous mastectomy can result in distortion and possibly numbness of the nipple. 

Tomorrow I meet with the Surgeon to discuss the chopping off or removal of my breast Left (Ella) and my right breast (Emma).  I named them now since a friend suggested that it is easier to talk about your body in this way.   I still have that burning sensation or pain in the cancerous   Emma.  It mellows out at times, but I have to actually use pains stiller sometimes … I know it makes no sense since breast cancer should not hurt.

Cancer Lite discrimination

Lets talk about Cancer Discrimination!

What is this thing about Cancer lite.  Cancer kill and cancer lite is just detected early and not invasive as a progressive cancer.   

  One of my friends had the following to say :  Believe it or not, there is discrimination among cancer survivors based on staging and treatment plan.  I have experienced it myself on one of the large breast cancer blog sites.  Since my cancer is only a stage 1 “you really don’t know what having breast cancer is” or “you aren’t qualified to have an opinion because you don’t have to go through radiation or chemo”.   Women haven’t said this verbatim but it was implied.  Basically we are “shoved aside and/or ignored” because we barely have cancer.   And I’m not alone.  I have seen it happen to others.  I have heard this also happens in support groups and with some doctors.  WTH?!?  I didn’t know there was a category called “cancer lite”.  Cancer is cancer…right?

Those of us with Stage 0 or Stage 1 cancer still panic when a new lump is found or we feel a random pain.  We’re still anxious waiting on follow-up test results.  We still make lifestyle changes trying to minimize our risk of recurrence.  Are we supposed to feel guilty because our prognosis is better than others?  Sometimes I do feel guilty, but mostly I feel very, very blessed.

It’s just sad that, on top of everything else, we have to deal with discrimination within our own little “community”.  Seriously? “  What is the deal with all this.  Some would say you are a lucky one.  Yes, but the truth are no one is ever cancer free or cured from cancer - you are just a cancer survivor.

I have found that with cancer within your household and even immediate co-workers it is just best to be strong for your own survival and I can understand that it can be a major frustration if any of your friends would make a terminal illness such as cancer off to be nothing just because you don’t look sick, or because it was caught early.  I never allow myself to complain to others I make jokes, and talk about it as if it is just nothing And even though many times it feels like y breast is on fire or when I am feel tired to death it self - I just keep up the good look But I would like to remind others just because your friend don’t look sick didn’t mean they didn’t need to be babied now and again and that they did not feel tired and overburdened.   

They might not even feel up to sharing  regularly with  you – like did not tell a lot of people the reason for my surgery because cancer will sometimes make people uncomfortable. They don’t know what to say or do. Neither did I.

Just this reminder - humans are self centered - wee don’t like to believe that we are self-centered people but there are just times in our life we want and need it to be about “me.

Sigh…