Friends, Missions and Normal

Good friends mean a lot!  One took me to treatment yesterday and the time went faster than usual.  I had another friend come back to work the other day from a long BC treatment time.  She looked great and her attitude is amazing.  Miracles can happen, folks. I so appreciate you all for your support and try to remember to be grateful for it every day.

I also try to remember two things when I get lost in my own fears about cancer getting me.  The first is the stage 1 thing and the second is that the treatment period will pass and life will get back to some semblance of normal.  I know from my own experience, that when things pass they get looked back on as having been much shorter and less difficult than they actually were.  Our memories are good about that.  (If  they weren’t, folks would never have more than one baby! )

That being a given, and as I’ve said, I wonder what normal will be for me.  I know that it won’t be the same normal as before.  There will be a lurking concern that IT will return.  I am not borrowing trouble, I know that the concern will always be in the back of my mind, but I am also sure that I can get around it when I need to.  I hope my family will be able to let go of that, too.  The other day, Corinne said that she knows that I am going to recover from this, but it’s still cancer and it still is scary to her. I understand that!

Yesterday, in the infusion room, we met two third semester nursing students.  They were really interested in seeing the IV tubing being placed in the port in my shoulder.  They stuck around and asked questions about my experience.  It was a moment to educate, so of course I took it.  I always start, when people ask about this, with the fact that I have Stage 1 BC, so that people can relax a bit.  I did talk about my concern and interest in making young women aware that lumps can be cancer for them, even if doctors say stuff like, “It’s probably nothing, you are too young for breast cancer”.  I think I’ll have to start doing some work around increasing the awareness of young women regarding this issue. Maybe that will be my “mission” around this experience. What I have learned is too important not to share broadly! Because I found this lump by ACCIDENT and the mammogram didn’t find it (I have the letter congratulating me on having a clear mammogram) I tell everyone who will listen to check themselves and always push the medical profession to listen to them. I’ve been wondering what this experience will cause me to do when I have more energy.

There are a zillion stories, in the infusion room, in books, in blogs and online about women who were misdiagnosed and ended up in really bad situations.  Something needs to be done to get these stories out.  The only way that people will not be misdiagnosed is to make them aware of how often it happens and how problematic it has become.  Maybe helping young women become aware is one thing that I can get involved in.

Action starts with thought, right?

Learning Moment: When things pass they get looked back on as having been much shorter and less difficult than they actually were.  Our memories are good about that.  But, in this case I hope I remember well enough to be able to commit to helping others.  I always said about teaching that if we forget how we learned, we should quit teaching.  Keeping alive memories of life’s significant moments is important to do!

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Missed Diagnoses–Young Women

Here’s a quote from the Story link below:  “At least ten thousand women per year are misdiagnosed with breast cancer and most of these women are young! (1) Physicians commonly misdiagnose young women due to age bias where breast cancer is not expected in a young woman, as the median age for a breast cancer diagnosis is 63 years old. (2) As a result, often physicians do not do all the correct tests and aggressive procedures to adequately rule out cancer, thinking cancer is not possible in a young women. (3, 4) This is particularly unfortunate as young age is a negative prognostic factor in breast cancer diagnosis, where cancer is often more aggressive, and a delayed diagnosis may gravely impact on prognosis. (5)“

Bibliography for this quote

(1)(3)-Goodson, William H. III, MD, Moore, Dan H. II, MD. “Causes of physician delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer.” Arch Intern Med. 2002: 1343-1348.

(2)(4) (5)-Kern, Kenneth A., MD. “The delayed diagnosis of symptomatic breast cancer.” In:  Bland K.I., Copeland E.M. III, eds. The Breast:  Comprehensive Management of Benign and Malignant Disease. 2^nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa:  WB Saunders Co.; 2004: 1588-1628.

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Misdiagnoses Links:

Story: Brief version–http://breastcancer.about.com/od/truesurvivors/a/robin_gray_2.htm The whole story: http://breastcancer.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=breastcancer&cdn=health&tm=11&f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_p736.4.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//breastlumphelp.com/

Good general site:  http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/b/breast_cancer/misdiag.htm

How to perform a self exam:  http://breastlumphelp.com/

An Attorney Explains Misdiagnoses and Delayed Treatment: http://law.freeadvice.com/malpractice_law/medical_malpractice/cancer-misdiagnosis-attorney-interview1.htm