Time Sense With Cancer
I lovexkcd.com (Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog)
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 17, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer bonds Source Type: blogs
Feel Like I'm Back Twenty Steps
Finally I am feeling better and my post surgery recovery seems almost complete. The signs are there because I actually felt able to bring in the empty trash barrels and recycling bins (put everything in the big barrel and wheel it down the driveway). This is the first time since early October I have felt up to that. My husband even noticed.I was all set to go to the gym this week for the first time in months but I woke up Monday with a temperature (101.5) and thought I had the flu. It wasn ' t the flu. It wasn ' t an ear infection. It was just your basic run of the mill cold. It set me back - I postponed everything from th...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 16, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: exercise gym knee surgery physical therapy Source Type: blogs
Clinical Trial Exclusions
Arecent SEER report looked at the incidence of previous cancer diagnoses in newly diagnosed patients. An average of 18% of newly diagnosed cancer patients have previously been diagnosed with cancer. (25% of patients over the age of 65 and 11% of those under 65.) All these people will also probably exempted from any clinical trials for their new cancer because of their previous cancer." The investigators concluded: “A substantial proportion of patients diagnosed with incident cancer in the United States have survived a prior cancer. These patients may be excluded from clinical trials and underrepresented...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 15, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: clinical trials exemptions medical history Source Type: blogs
Tumor Evolution
It turns out that tumors do evolve. And the result ofthe evolution is that sometimes the cancer treatment stops working." A new study by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah observed how breast cancer tumors evolve over time and demonstrated how changes within tumors may contribute to the process by which cancers no longer respond to treatment. Further, the research identifies that some of these changes may be shared across certain treatment-resistant breast cancers. "The problem in examining tumors is getting samples because that is that can be invasive. You can ' t really say to a woma...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 14, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer breast cancer treatment cancer research change tumor Source Type: blogs
Friendships
This has come up time and again but for some reason I have seen it more often in my Facebook feed in the last few weeks. Friendships - they come and go. We make friends and we lose friends. Some friends we lose when we change and move on - maybe we used to work together, live next door to each other, go to school together, or some other commonality which held us together but doesn ' t any more.Other times we opt to lose our friends when they appear to have changed. The point is from your perception you don ' t really want them as a friend any more. For instance, if you had a friend and they did something unethical/illegal ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 13, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: aggravation changes friends Source Type: blogs
Breast Cancer the Socially Acceptable Cancer
A breast cancer diagnosis is no fun. Actually any cancer diagnosis is no fun. We all know that. But maybe because of all the ' awareness ' , it is now more socially acceptable than other forms of cancer. Isn ' t that just weird? I think so.Meanwhile, a woman in New Zealand was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer andshe wonders if breast cancer would be better because of the stigma surrounding smoking and lung cancer.I think lung cancer is the only cancer which is regarded as ' self inflicted ' . Face it, as normal human beings we associate lung cancer with smoking. But not all smokers get lung cancer and not all lung...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 12, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer bonds cancer stigma lung cancer support Source Type: blogs
That Lingering Risk Thingy
I can ' t say how much this just aggravates me. You get breast cancer. You get treatment and then they say we will see you once a year. You are NED (No Evidence Of Disease) for now. If you are hormone receptor positive (ER+/PR+) you get to take a little pill (tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors) that should help you stay that way.But there is always that lingering risk of recurrence. That ' s the one thing none of us want. A newstudy which looked at data from 88 different clinical trials over more than 20 years found that the risk of recurrence lingers after the AIs are ended." Researchers from the Early Breast Cancer Triali...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 11, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment cancer recurrence cancer research femara Source Type: blogs
Personalizing Personalized Medicine
What is personalization? Its making things for the individual. This is seen all the time online. If you visit Amazon ' s website and search for toothpicks, you will start seeing ads for toothpicks popping up all the time. Until you search for something else.... Amazon ' s site is responding to your needs by reminding you about your recent search - meeting your needs.Personalizing personalized medicine means not doing the same thing over and over again, and taking into account patient ' s individual needs. However, we talk about personalized medicine and then discuss starting mammogram screening for all women at age 40. Whe...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 10, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer cancer diagnosis mammogram personalized medicine Source Type: blogs
I'm Tired
I ' m watching the new season of Top Chef so I can say I got myself in the weeds for rest this week. I think the term of being in the weeds is a restaurant kitchen term. It started when I had a two day craft show last weekend, followed by houseguests all week. They were my cousins and I was glad to see them. But I didn ' t get enough rest.Today I ' m staying in bed and resting. For tomorrow ' s craft show and a friend ' s party. And making brownies for the party.But in the meantime, I am lying in bed as long as I can today. (Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog)
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 8, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: resting tired Source Type: blogs
Waiting for Cancer Research
After 12 years (how the heck did that happen?) of breast cancer coping, I have actually seen some cancer research go from new or in clinical trials to become standard of care. This includes length of hormonal treatment for breast cancer patients. But it does not include many, many others.Some cancer ' breakthroughs ' are still in trials, or have vanished because they didn ' t work. They provide us cancer people with instant elation at the possibilities it hints at, followed by deflation as we realize it is years or decades in the future.An example of this is this news that at UVA they are working to find a wayto stop tripl...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 4, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment cancer research clinical trials waiting Source Type: blogs
Post Surgery Recovery
Its exactly 8 weeks and one day since my knee surgery that made me rest more for longer than I have had to in many years. I was told 4-5 months of rehab for my meniscus repair. Now I am at the end of month two and realize I still have many more weeks of rehab in front of me.The first month I was not allowed to drive so I sat around and gained back the ten pounds I had just lost. I got a lot of reading and knitting done and binge watched way too much TV. The cats liked me to be home and sit around a lot so they got attention. I had to postpone many doctor appointments. The only thing I did get to do was go to physical thera...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - December 1, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: frustration knee surgery recovery Source Type: blogs
Not My Story To Tell
One important issue when you have cancer or anything else ' yucky ' is that well meaning friends and relatives often take it upon themselves to retell your story, with embellishments, to others. Its not their story to tell.As the patient, you have the right to decide who to tell, what to tell, and when to tell about your ailment. This is one of the big reasons I have a blog. I get to funnel the information and tell what I want after I have a chance to digest it, when I want to tell it.You might have noticed I do not write about other ' s health challenges. I might mention someone but I don ' t tell their story. Its not my ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: ailments being a patient story Source Type: blogs
Supporting Your Friends Through Your Cancer
Say what? You know that line ' don ' t my your problems, my problems ' ? This is clearly the case here. Yes, sometimes your friends want emotional support because of your illness.One of my closest friends mostly vanished from my life during my treatment. Yes she has a very busy schedule and she had a small child at that time. Her mother was also very ill. But I missed her emotional support during that time.Currently and in the past, we would talk at least once a week and get together once a month. But during that treatment time period, I didn ' t talk to her for months. I had other friends but I missed her. Later one of ou...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 29, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer support friends stress Source Type: blogs
Cancer Friends
For the past two days I have spent time with different cancer friends. I call them cancer friends because I met them all through cancer situations - one group from my old support group and two others I met at different cancer retreats.What was the gist of all our conversations? Our health and our numbers of ailments. We all have ailments we are coping with. Some of us have new or potential ailments which bring us concern. Some of the ailments are side effects of our cancer treatments. We do not all have cancer concerns right now but that always lurk in the background. And we all know it will never go away.We shared test re...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 28, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer bonds cancer support friends Source Type: blogs
More Not Blogging
I have been very busy the last fewday weeks. Now that I can drive, I have been driving and going places and thus wearing myself out and making my knee hurt. I had Thanksgiving prep for food and house guests and dinner for 14. I also have had some doctor appointments that were postponed from when I couldn ' t drive. I still have lots more appointments for the same reason as well as PT for my knee.So now that I am getting back to normal I have things on my mind for blogging topics. They will not get all the coverage due because I have been a slacker for my reasons above.I have pondered the issue of losing friends and m...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 26, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: aggravation ailments blogging friends holidays Source Type: blogs
