Monday, June 04, 2001
Gina's Page - a lovely young woman who is also fighting breast cancer.Use of alternative / complementary therapy in breast cancer patients - a psychological perspective
Results of PET scan may alter cancer treatment
Exercise Reduces Fatigue in Women with Breast Cancer
Use of gene chips, artificial intelligence facilitates cancer diagnosis
Metabolic Flare: Indicator of Hormone Responsiveness in Advanced Breast Cancer Technical issues and pathologic implications of sentinel lymph node biopsy in early-stage breast cancer patients
Dexamethasone Relieves Nausea and Vomiting Caused by Chemotherapy - I got this in an IV along with Zofran or Anzemet before all my chemo sessions. Still threw up. Don't even want to know how much worse it could have been without the drugs!
Lymphedema: A Serious Concern for Many Breast Cancer Patients
SPECIAL REPORT: O. CARL SIMONTON: THE POWER OF THE MIND IN HEALING - from BreastLink. Excellent article on why attitude is so important for healing.
posted by Karen Weber Monday, June 04, 2001
Tuesday, June 05, 2001
Well, I've got another bladder infection. I believe that I'm causing them by scratching. My head may be full of hair, but there is hair elsewhere that is just now starting to grow and it is driving me NUTS. Anyway, I got myself in to the doc immediately this time, knowing what was going on, and he gave me some prescriptions to take care of both problems. The antibiotic he gave me is making me pretty dizzy, but that's a small price to pay I guess. I am very eager to make sure this doesn't interrupt my lymphedema treatment because I have just 2 treatments left. I won't wrap tonight, and then if I don't have a fever tomorrow I can go in for treatment. I have an appointment with the gal from Bio-Concepts to measure for my permanent day sleeve on Friday before my last appointment. I can't tell you how glad I'm going to be to have this over and done with! Oh! I clarified what the 222% improvement means. When I went for my first treatment, the PT measured the volume of both arms. The affected arm was slightly larger than the other arm. The goal of treatment is to decrease that difference by 40%. I have decreased it by 222%, which is really terrific, especially since I haven't been wrapping during the day and I've had to take time off for infections. Glad to be almost done. I should be getting my Contour Plus sleeve sometime this week, and that will put an end to the rolling and bandaging every night. I can't wait for that either.On an unrelated note, the landscapers have finished with our yard. We have a new sliding door from the master bedroom out to the pool. And the housepainters should be finishing up today or tomorrow. The cats and I are pretty stressed out. The last couple weeks have not been good for beauty sleep for us, and that's bad! But it's almost done!
Weekly trastuzumab plus paclitaxel active in metastatic breast cancer
Estrogen-receptor-directed neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer: Results of a randomised trial using formestane and methotrexate, mitozantrone and mitomycin C (MMM) chemotherapy
Paclitaxel: Epirubicin in metastatic breast cancer – a review - this combination is less cardiotoxic than adriamycin (doxorubicin) and taxol (paclitaxel).
Evaluation of HER2, p53, bcl-2, topoisomerase II-a, heat shock proteins 27 and 70 in primary breast cancer and metastatic ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes - the study finds a possible difference in biologic marker expression between the primary and the metastatic sites.
BREAST CANCER - an overview from MIT
Review article - Uses Of Guided Imagery For Pain Control By African-American And White Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer - Oncolink has teamed up with Elsevier Science to provide full text journal articles online. This is one of the currently available articles, but check out the rest of the offerings on complementary and alternative treatments.
How Useful Are Unconventional Cancer Treatments? A review of some popular treatments, including green tea, essiac, vegetarianism, mistletoe (what Suzanne Sommers is using instead of chemotherapy), etc.
Lymphedema: What You Need To Know - excellent patient resource from OncoLink
Effect of Raloxifene After Tamoxifen on Breast and Endometrial Cancer Growth. - research presented at the 2001 ASCO conference showing that taking raloxifen after taking tamoxifen for 5 years may be a bad idea.
Cognitive Changes and Menopausal Symptoms in Women Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: A Matched Cohort Study. - confirms the presence of a higher incidence of moderate/severe cognitive impairment in the patient group (29% vs 13%), mainly for three domains: memory, language, self-regulation and planning. So listen all you people who keep telling me that I'm just getting older, uh uh. I'm getting older, AND I have chemobrain. I keep telling Rick I'm not safe to be left alone :-) To counterbalance the cognitive deficits, however, survivors score better in the emotional domain than the controls.
Effect of Tamoxifen on Bone Metabolism in Postmenopausal Women with Early Stage Breast Cancer. - tamoxifen treatment is associated with preservation of bone mineral density and bone metabolism. This is good news. I have been worried about whether I needed to add Fosamax or something like it to my pillbox.
Prophylactic Radiotherapy Following Surgery for Early Breast Cancer - Is the Benefit Mainly to Patients with Involved Margins? Results from a Cancer Research Campaign Trial. - Prophylactic radiotherapy prevents local recurrences in good prognosis patients who also receive adjuvant systemic therapy regardless of margin status.
Serum HER-2/Neu and Response to Megace vs. an Aromatase Inhibitor. - printing this to take to my oncologist to see if I should be on something other than tamoxifen. I've never had my serum her2/neu levels tested.
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, June 05, 2001
Wednesday, June 06, 2001
Dietary changes among cancer survivorsReduction of Metastases in Breast Cancer - Patients Treated with Hormone Replacement Therapy Before Surgery: a Retrospective Analysis in 544 Women. Good news for those of us who were on HRT before having breast cancer - an improved bone metabolism caused by HRT may protect patients with breast cancer from metastatic bone disease and thus prevent secondary metastasis
Breast Cancer ACTION Nova Scotia - BCANS
Lymphedema Wrapping - yours truly models her beauteous wrapping technique. Had to do this fast -- my Contour Plus has shipped and will arrive Friday.
posted by Karen Weber Wednesday, June 06, 2001
Thursday, June 07, 2001
According to UPS, here's what's happening with my Contour Plus sleeve today:
Jun 7, 2001 2:38 A.M. PHOENIX, AZ, US ARRIVAL SCAN
So it arrived at 2:38 am and is now just sitting there not doing anything. That lazy sleeve! Come on! Get on a truck already!!!!!Hitting the Panic Button - an article by a breast cancer survivor on how to handle the panic after being diagnosed.
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, June 07, 2001
Friday, June 08, 2001
bcmets.org - all about breast cancer metastasis. Thanks to Trace for posting this link to the Friends in Need listserve!Lymphedema: Current Issues in Research and Management
Doctors falling short on breast cancer tests
posted by Karen Weber Friday, June 08, 2001
Saturday, June 09, 2001
My ContourPlus arrived yesterday and it is WONDERFUL! So much more comfortable than the bandaging, and I can put it on by myself in a minute or two. It doesn't irritate the palm of my hand or the elbow (over the medial epicondyle) like the bandaging either. Rick says he could tell I was sleeping better last night, too. This is great!
posted by Karen Weber Saturday, June 09, 2001