I put UPLIFT: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors together because, as a survivor, I saw the need for a book that treated breast cancer as a do-able experience—and, indeed, the response to it has been remarkable. The book contains useful woman-to-woman hints—things the doctor doesn’t say—practical advice on topics ranging from what deodorant to use during radiation, to what minimizes nausea during chemo, to how to feel feminine and upbeat. This advice comes first-hand, in the words of 370+ breast cancer survivors, their sisters, children, parents, lovers, and friends. The new 3rd Edition adds updates, five years later, from many of the original contributors.
The following are some uplifting tips from breast cancer survivors. I hope you find them as inspiring as I do:
The Worry Box
"I found a box and glued colorful scraps of wrapping paper on the top. Inside it, each morning, I tucked handwritten notes about my worries and fears. Then I closed the lid and went on with the rest of the day." Nancy Burgess, in the "TAKING THE REINS" chapter.
The Art of Healing
"Go to a theater, a museum, a concert or ballet. Art can take us out of ourselves, lift us beyond our immediate environment, enrich us spiritually and aesthetically. Opening yourself to great beauty is always a life-enhancer. In times of crisis, it’s also healing." Susan Stamberg, in the "TAKING THE REINS" chapter.
Pins and Needles
"Apparently, there is a dressmaker in Chicago who had prostheses made out of her pin cushions, so that she could conveniently stick her needles and pins into her chest when sewing and making alterations!" Darlene Jurow, in the "HUMOR" chapter.
Eating With Friends
"I found conventional support group meetings difficult, so I formed my own support dinner group. We dine out every couple of months to discuss having breast cancer. We also share stories of our spouses, children, and travels." Deborah J.P. Schur, in the "SUPPORT GROUP" chapter.
Drinking Helps
"Someone told me my chemo symptoms sounded like a really bad hangover! Their suggestion that Gatorade was good for hangovers led to my drinking gallons of it, which helped steady that queasy shakiness." Jane Vaughan, in the "CHEMO AND EVERYTHING ELSE" chapter.
Accentuate the Positive
"Perhaps the most significant outcome of my battle with breast cancer is that I have changed my outlook on life. I now regard life as precious and try not to focus on negative things. Eliminating stress and resentment from my life and concentrating on the positive things has become my goal. I am now more at peace with myself. "
Sandy Mark, in the "PURE UPLIFT" chapter.
Looking Ahead
"It’s been five years, nine months for me, but who’s counting! I still think about my cancer, but less and less. I’m exercising more now. I really found out how good it was after my surgery and I got into a program for cancer survivors. I only wished I had started earlier in life. Now I faithfully visit the Y to start off my day."
Judy Peterson, in the "FAST FORWARD" chapter.
About the author:
Barbara Delinsky is a bestselling author. Her novels are highly emotional, character-driven studies of marriage, parenthood, sibling rivalry, and friendship. They regularly appear on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today Bestseller Lists. UPLIFT: Secrets of the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors is Barbara’s first non-fiction work.
Barbara donates all of her proceeds from the sale of UPLIFT to her charitable foundation for breast cancer research. So far, the sale of the book has allowed the Barbara Delinsky Charitable Foundation to fund three years of a breast surgery fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. The focus of the fellowship is to launch the career of a surgical oncologist with an additional year of training focused on innovative breast cancer treatments and research, hopefully offering returns to the field of cancer research for decades to come.
Monday, January 17, 2011
This Herceptin treatment
This Herceptin treatment article has been written by my wife Marjory. Herself a nurse – she was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2006. At the time of diagnosis she decided to blog about her breast cancer treatment experiences and her site now attracts many thousands of visitors each month. She wrote this to reassure anyone about to embark on the gruelling assault course that constitutes treatment with herceptin. Here’s how it went:
Herceptin Treatment is a fairly new treatment for breast cancer. It was originally licensed for women who had some form of breast cancer metastatic spread but a little over two years ago it was licensed to be used on women with early stage breast cancer. For me this was amazing timing as I had just had a mastectomy and it was discovered that the tumour I had was HER-2 positive. This is the only type of tumour suitable for herceptin treatment.
So, it was organised that after chemotherapy and radiotherapy I would have seventeen Herceptin treatments at three weekly intervals. To be honest after all the other treatments I was tired and weary. However, I was aware of how important this treatment was and decided to give it my all! And hey ... that’s pretty much what it required as things turned out!
Herceptin works by interfering in the way which breast cancer cells divide and grow. Some breast cancer cells divide and grow when a protein that naturally occurs in the body attaches itself to another protein known as HER2, and guess where HER2 isfound – that’s right, it’s on the surface of the breast cancer cells.
Herceptin blocks this bonding process by attaching itself to the HER2 protein so that the growth factor cannot reach the breast cancer cells. This stops the cancer cells from dividing and growing.
Herceptin only works in people who have high levels of the HER2 protein. It appears to have little effect in those who do not. Approximately one in five breast cancer patients are HER-2 positive.
The reasoning behind giving Herceptin over seventeen treatments is that the timescale from diagnosis to the end of Herceptin is approximately eighteen months and eighteen months is the most likely time for recurrence, or metastatic spread of the breast cancer to occur – clever don’t you think!
During my treatments – which I got at home- I felt tired but not the dreaded near death tiredness that chemotherapy had delivered, and the herceptin tiredness only lasted a few days.
That said there was a build up effect and nearing the end of it I did feel pretty ropey a lot of the time.
My biggest problem with Herceptin was cannulation of my arm veins. Having had Epirubicin as one of my chemotherapy drugs my veins in my left hand and arm were hard and near impossible to cannulate.
The nurses could only use my left arm as my lymph nodes had been removed on the other side during the mastectomy and no cannulation or injections were allowed on the right to try to prevent infection and lymphedema. The poor nurses! Me a quivering wreck and no veins to be seen. It did cause me a lot of stress but to their great credit they managed it every time.
I was quite lucky not to have experienced too many side effects during my treatment. I did experience diarrhoea but while unpleasant, it’s manageable. Forward planning about the location of toilets and Imodium in your handbag works wonders!
Flu like symptoms are also common following administration of herceptin.
One of the more serious herceptin side effects is a reduction in heart function. To monitor this it is normal to have an injection fraction scan every three months to determine if any damage has been done. These scans terrified me at first as I didn’t want anything to interrupting my treatments. As it turned out I needn’t have worried as my heart function actually improved on Herceptin! Trust me to be different.
People can also experience allergic reactions and this is the reason the first two treatments are usually given in hospital.
My message to anybody out there who is embarking on Herceptin treatment is it’s not as bad as chemo, it truly is life saving and it will be over before you know it!
Herceptin Treatment is a fairly new treatment for breast cancer. It was originally licensed for women who had some form of breast cancer metastatic spread but a little over two years ago it was licensed to be used on women with early stage breast cancer. For me this was amazing timing as I had just had a mastectomy and it was discovered that the tumour I had was HER-2 positive. This is the only type of tumour suitable for herceptin treatment.
So, it was organised that after chemotherapy and radiotherapy I would have seventeen Herceptin treatments at three weekly intervals. To be honest after all the other treatments I was tired and weary. However, I was aware of how important this treatment was and decided to give it my all! And hey ... that’s pretty much what it required as things turned out!
Herceptin works by interfering in the way which breast cancer cells divide and grow. Some breast cancer cells divide and grow when a protein that naturally occurs in the body attaches itself to another protein known as HER2, and guess where HER2 isfound – that’s right, it’s on the surface of the breast cancer cells.
Herceptin blocks this bonding process by attaching itself to the HER2 protein so that the growth factor cannot reach the breast cancer cells. This stops the cancer cells from dividing and growing.
Herceptin only works in people who have high levels of the HER2 protein. It appears to have little effect in those who do not. Approximately one in five breast cancer patients are HER-2 positive.
The reasoning behind giving Herceptin over seventeen treatments is that the timescale from diagnosis to the end of Herceptin is approximately eighteen months and eighteen months is the most likely time for recurrence, or metastatic spread of the breast cancer to occur – clever don’t you think!
During my treatments – which I got at home- I felt tired but not the dreaded near death tiredness that chemotherapy had delivered, and the herceptin tiredness only lasted a few days.
That said there was a build up effect and nearing the end of it I did feel pretty ropey a lot of the time.
My biggest problem with Herceptin was cannulation of my arm veins. Having had Epirubicin as one of my chemotherapy drugs my veins in my left hand and arm were hard and near impossible to cannulate.
The nurses could only use my left arm as my lymph nodes had been removed on the other side during the mastectomy and no cannulation or injections were allowed on the right to try to prevent infection and lymphedema. The poor nurses! Me a quivering wreck and no veins to be seen. It did cause me a lot of stress but to their great credit they managed it every time.
I was quite lucky not to have experienced too many side effects during my treatment. I did experience diarrhoea but while unpleasant, it’s manageable. Forward planning about the location of toilets and Imodium in your handbag works wonders!
Flu like symptoms are also common following administration of herceptin.
One of the more serious herceptin side effects is a reduction in heart function. To monitor this it is normal to have an injection fraction scan every three months to determine if any damage has been done. These scans terrified me at first as I didn’t want anything to interrupting my treatments. As it turned out I needn’t have worried as my heart function actually improved on Herceptin! Trust me to be different.
People can also experience allergic reactions and this is the reason the first two treatments are usually given in hospital.
My message to anybody out there who is embarking on Herceptin treatment is it’s not as bad as chemo, it truly is life saving and it will be over before you know it!
Soy Consumption Effects On Women
Numerous study show that soy consumption has evident benefits for our health and does help in some specific woman problems. Let’s see some of there studies them below.
Cancer-inhibitory effects of soy consumption on breast cancer.
Although numerous experimental studies have indicated that soy foods and their components have cancer-inhibitory effects on breast cancer, the association between adolescent soy food intake and breast cancer risk was not evaluated by any epidemiological study.
All study participants were interviewed to obtain specific information concerning their nutritional intake from ages 13–15 years. Adolescence is a period when breast tissue is most sensitive to environmental stimuli as it represents a stage when the mammary glands (breasts) are actually developing.
Soy food intake and breast cancer risk were measured using unconditional logistic models. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) deriving from the logistic models we used, show that the women in highest soy food intake group had an OR of 0.35 which means the lowest breast cancer risk due to soy food intake.
The conclusion is that high soy intake during teenage years may diminish the risk of breast cancer in a woman’s maturity years.
The study was realized by 5 research institutes in USA and one in China.
The "magic beans"?
I am not talking about "Jack and the Beanstalk" story although is still has its magic; the magic beans I refer to are the black soybeans. Their "magical powers" are to prevent diabetes, lower fat and cholesterol levels and control weight.
South Korean researchers fed all the rats (used in their research) a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet, while some of the rats got black soybeans as supplement.
Their discovery established that: rats that got black soybeans supplement (10 % black soybeans) gained only 50 % of the weight the other rats did. In addition, the rats that were given the black soybean supplement had 25% lower total blood cholesterol and 60% lower LDL (or bad cholesterol).
The researchers observed that soybeans changed the fat composition in a different way; this is the reason they believe that black soybeans might prevent obesity and the type 2 diabetes.
The low GI (glycaemic index) , high fiber and low fat are three characteristics of legumes that provide real benefits for our bodies as they allow and facilitate a normal intestinal transit(no more constipation problems),a better weight control (because of the low fat) and also help diabetics keep their blood glucose levels under control. Black soybeans are indeed a great substitute for starchy foods such as potatoes and white bread (in the limits of a healthy diet, of course).
Therefore, if you want to buy black soybeans, you can find canned ones in some Oriental food stores as well as in health food stores.
Cooling down hot flashes? How?
Once the menstruation period ends (it usually occurs from early forties to early sixties), the second adolescence begins; I am calling it "adolescence" because of the hormonal changes our bodies go trough. Due to this wave of hormones, some of us may have palpitations or may blush all of a sudden with no reason at all, also sometimes the whole body starts perspiring without any apparent cause. Still, not all women go trough such "Calvary". Some do not have them at all, or they experience them but very mildly manifested.
Mom "met" these hot flashes when she was 43. She says:" after my breast cancer operation, my menstruation was interrupted and I experienced sudden overheating; regardless of where I was or what I was doing, I felt this heat in my body-especially in my back- accompanied with perspiration; it lasted around 2 minutes and of course after unequal pauses it came back. "She is 52 now and she had them for approximately five years.
Millions of American women go trough hot flashes nowadays. Most of them (75%) get them in the months / years before and-or after menopause.
Here are the alternatives:
Exercise Regularly! That means around a half an hour of quick and energetic walk on most days of the week; this exercise will make hot flashes less intense.
Drink enough water! Even if you are not thirsty, you should drink at least eight glasses of water a day .When you feel hot fleshes coming, drink something cold, it will make you feel better.
Alternative effective supplements
Japanese women experience fewer, milder hot flashes than American women. Why is that? Because Japanese women’s diet is rich in soy food, their daily intake is around 50 to 100 milligrams isoflavones. For example, a cup of cooked green soybeans contains 100 milligrams isoflavones and a cup of tofu contains 50 mg.
Remifemin is another adjuvant, made of black cohosh; it is usually administrated twice a day.
The hormone therapy has the best effects on hot flashes yet, this therapy is not widely embraced because of the results that ascertained an increased risk of breast cancer or stroke.
We have seen the most important effects of soy consumption on our bodies and as women; it is good to know that there is something natural to help prevent some of our problems. Why cure when we can prevent?
Cancer-inhibitory effects of soy consumption on breast cancer.
Although numerous experimental studies have indicated that soy foods and their components have cancer-inhibitory effects on breast cancer, the association between adolescent soy food intake and breast cancer risk was not evaluated by any epidemiological study.
All study participants were interviewed to obtain specific information concerning their nutritional intake from ages 13–15 years. Adolescence is a period when breast tissue is most sensitive to environmental stimuli as it represents a stage when the mammary glands (breasts) are actually developing.
Soy food intake and breast cancer risk were measured using unconditional logistic models. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) deriving from the logistic models we used, show that the women in highest soy food intake group had an OR of 0.35 which means the lowest breast cancer risk due to soy food intake.
The conclusion is that high soy intake during teenage years may diminish the risk of breast cancer in a woman’s maturity years.
The study was realized by 5 research institutes in USA and one in China.
The "magic beans"?
I am not talking about "Jack and the Beanstalk" story although is still has its magic; the magic beans I refer to are the black soybeans. Their "magical powers" are to prevent diabetes, lower fat and cholesterol levels and control weight.
South Korean researchers fed all the rats (used in their research) a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet, while some of the rats got black soybeans as supplement.
Their discovery established that: rats that got black soybeans supplement (10 % black soybeans) gained only 50 % of the weight the other rats did. In addition, the rats that were given the black soybean supplement had 25% lower total blood cholesterol and 60% lower LDL (or bad cholesterol).
The researchers observed that soybeans changed the fat composition in a different way; this is the reason they believe that black soybeans might prevent obesity and the type 2 diabetes.
The low GI (glycaemic index) , high fiber and low fat are three characteristics of legumes that provide real benefits for our bodies as they allow and facilitate a normal intestinal transit(no more constipation problems),a better weight control (because of the low fat) and also help diabetics keep their blood glucose levels under control. Black soybeans are indeed a great substitute for starchy foods such as potatoes and white bread (in the limits of a healthy diet, of course).
Therefore, if you want to buy black soybeans, you can find canned ones in some Oriental food stores as well as in health food stores.
Cooling down hot flashes? How?
Once the menstruation period ends (it usually occurs from early forties to early sixties), the second adolescence begins; I am calling it "adolescence" because of the hormonal changes our bodies go trough. Due to this wave of hormones, some of us may have palpitations or may blush all of a sudden with no reason at all, also sometimes the whole body starts perspiring without any apparent cause. Still, not all women go trough such "Calvary". Some do not have them at all, or they experience them but very mildly manifested.
Mom "met" these hot flashes when she was 43. She says:" after my breast cancer operation, my menstruation was interrupted and I experienced sudden overheating; regardless of where I was or what I was doing, I felt this heat in my body-especially in my back- accompanied with perspiration; it lasted around 2 minutes and of course after unequal pauses it came back. "She is 52 now and she had them for approximately five years.
Millions of American women go trough hot flashes nowadays. Most of them (75%) get them in the months / years before and-or after menopause.
Here are the alternatives:
Exercise Regularly! That means around a half an hour of quick and energetic walk on most days of the week; this exercise will make hot flashes less intense.
Drink enough water! Even if you are not thirsty, you should drink at least eight glasses of water a day .When you feel hot fleshes coming, drink something cold, it will make you feel better.
Alternative effective supplements
Japanese women experience fewer, milder hot flashes than American women. Why is that? Because Japanese women’s diet is rich in soy food, their daily intake is around 50 to 100 milligrams isoflavones. For example, a cup of cooked green soybeans contains 100 milligrams isoflavones and a cup of tofu contains 50 mg.
Remifemin is another adjuvant, made of black cohosh; it is usually administrated twice a day.
The hormone therapy has the best effects on hot flashes yet, this therapy is not widely embraced because of the results that ascertained an increased risk of breast cancer or stroke.
We have seen the most important effects of soy consumption on our bodies and as women; it is good to know that there is something natural to help prevent some of our problems. Why cure when we can prevent?
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