Sunday, July 08, 2001
Wow! Yesterday I got my second daytime sleeve. This is the one I call the Sports Fan Sleeve. It's primarily purple with orange insets and red stitching. I will be the best looking fan at the Phoenix Mercury and Suns games!I've put 8 new quotes on the Collected Thoughts page and several new Inspirations pages. Click on the Inspire button to the left to see what's new there. Good stuff!
posted by Karen Weber Sunday, July 08, 2001
Monday, July 09, 2001
The MUGA scan in heart disease - a good overview by the cardiology guide at About.comCancer Survivorship in the 21st Century - RealAudio streaming video of a conference that includes two speakers on breast cancer survivorship.
posted by Karen Weber Monday, July 09, 2001
Tuesday, July 10, 2001
Should women be routinely taught breast self-examination to screen for breast cancer? [CMAJ - June 26, 2001] - I don't know what these folks are thinking, but according to the ACS, they are wrong.The new controversy over breast self-exams
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, July 10, 2001
Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Well, I met with my new oncologist today. He does seem to be a pretty nice guy, but I liked my sweet Taiwanese doc better. For one thing, he sat and talked to me while I was fully clothed, then left to let me get into the gown for the exam. This guy made me get into my gown before he came in, and he conducted the entire appointment with me half-dressed. I don't think that's as considerate for the patient. I didn't say anything this time, but next time I will say something up front.Anyway, that was not the biggest disappointment. The CT scan is different from last time. The lesion is 3.3 cm. Last time it was 3.0 cm. On the PET it was 2.0 cm. Anyway, it's still possible that they are just slicing in different places, but this oncologist's assumption is that it's cancer until we know otherwise. He said that even if the CT next time shows no growth, it won't change that assumption since I'm taking tamoxifen and that could be treating it. So I am not going to hear the beautiful letters NED (no evidence of disease) for at least 4 years. And I have to keep getting the CT scans every 3 months for the time being. He said they could try again at a liver biopsy, but we pretty much ruled that out. No reason to think they'd be any more successful this time. I could also have a repeat PET scan. Perhaps in January again. I'm sort of mad at myself, because I knew that he couldn't tell me I was NED but I let my emotions get ahead of my brain and set myself up to be disappointed.
On a more positive note, I'm singing the national anthem with a group of breast cancer survivors at the Phoenix Mercury game tonight. Really jazzed about that!
posted by Karen Weber Wednesday, July 11, 2001
Thursday, July 12, 2001
Diet May Count in Preventing Breast CancerI had my 6 month mammogram today - left breast only. They had to re-do the exposure that looks at the armpit tissue, but all was clear. Phew! I'm very sore tonight. Not as sore as I was after the mammogram in January, but still not very happy. My shoulder and both breasts are really, really sore and swollen. I think a skinny dip later on will help that!
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, July 12, 2001
Friday, July 13, 2001
Fatigue Related To CancerINFO Breast Cancer - Stan and Carol's web site. Lots of great information here.
Substantial bone loss associated with breast cancer chemotherapy
Tamoxifen may increase the risk of later tumours being more aggressive - write up includes comments saying that study design and sample size were flawed and there should be no change in current recommendations for tamoxifen.
Partial irradiation of the heart - "It is concluded that left-sided breast cancer patients should always be 3-dimensional (3D) dose planned."
posted by Karen Weber Friday, July 13, 2001