Drive By Mastectomy

Below is a propsed law to change the time a women is allowed to stay in the hospital after a mastectomy.  Currently most insurances will only cover a one night stay.  My double mastectomy surgery was done in the outpatient wing of Overlake Hospital.  After surgery I was transported to a hospital room for an overnight stay and then asked to leave by 11:00 am the next morning because my "vitals" were normal.  I was so drugged up that I do not remember the post-operative directions they told us.  Good thing my husband and sister were listening!

Proposed Mastectomy Law Change
(written by a surgeon)

I'll never forget the look in my patients’eyes when I had to tell them they had to go home with the drains, new exercises and no breast. I remember begging the doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies. So there I sat with my patient giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet
'Thank you' they muttered. A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery. This Mastectomy Bill is in Congress now. It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important. Please take the time and do it really quick! The Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill is important legislation for all women.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below.

http://www.mylifetime.com/community/my-lifetime-commitment/breast-cancer/petition/breast-cancer-petition

It's Only Hair...

Oh the time has come for me to lose my hair…darn it. Last Saturday while eating breakfast I reached up to scratch my head and hair fell onto the table (ya…gross). So out of curiosity I grabbed a chunk of my locks and pulled a fist full out…gasp. Fortunately the boys were at a Bauer’s baseball game and I was the only witness to this peculiar situation. I was told that my hair would start falling out on day 16 so I was somewhat prepared for this change and Saturday was day 16! This hair thing has been a “ripe the bad-aid off and get over with it” experience for me so I embraced the new look and had my hair shaved off the following Tuesday. Now I see visions of Sinead O’Connor every time I look in the mirror. Man was she a brave soul!! Even though it is freeing to walk around bald, and more power to the women who choose to, I am wearing wigs and scarves because I do not want to freak out the kiddos. I purchased a shoulder length real hair wig (expensive) and received a short hair synthetic wig (free) from the American Cancer Society. Well guess which one is more comfortable…the synthetic one and according to my husband does not look fake! So if you run across a real hair wig for sale on Craigslist it may be mine. I last about 6 hours in the wig and then I have to take it off and give my head a big old scratch session. I hear Dolly Parton always wears a wig. How does she do it?? My after 4:00 pm head gear is a scarf. The kid’s think I look like a pirate…argh. Otherwise they pay little attention to my rotating head accessories. I miss my hair already and cannot wait for it to grow back. I will never complain of a bad hair day again!!

Bauer's Logic

Mike and I sat down with the boys last night and explained how my hair will go away in a week or so due to the medicine I am taking. So we told them that I will be getting my haircut really short today, and will have no hair this summer and wear a wig, and then have short hair like Grant’s around Halloween time. The conversation lasted about 5 minutes and then Bauer interrupted with something having to do about legos and that was that. Now obviously Bauer was mulling over the discussion because first thing this morning he had questions about it. This is what he said, “ so Mom today you will get your haircut like me, and then this summer you will look like Uncle John (who is bald), and then for Halloween you will look like Grant ”. That sums it up!

Chemo 101

March 25 was my first day of chemotherapy. I’m assuming many of you have been fortunate and not had to go through chemo but may be curious as to what is involved. I definitely had no idea and associated it with sickly looking thin patients who were stuck in bed for months. The Dying Young movie came to mind for me. Fortunately for many cancers (including breast) that is not the case and other than losing one’s hair most would have no idea someone is going through it. The good thing is they load you up with anti-nausea drugs so no time are spent hugging the toilet. My special chemo cocktail for April–June is Adriamycin and Cytoxan and I’ll receive it via my port every other week. Then I’ll have weekly low doses of Taxol (chemo) and Herceptin (non-chemo) June-September. I’ll lose my hair with Adriamycin/Cytoxan but it will grow back while I am on the Taxol…phew. So what happens while you are receiving chemo? Swedish has a nice set-up and you sit in a lounge chair with a blanket and are hooked up to the IV. First they administer the anti-nausea drugs and one of them makes you sleepy/spacey. Forget about getting some reading time in. That takes about an hour and then they add the Cytoxan which runs for 30-60 minutes. Then I go home with the Adriamycin connected to me via a plastic tube that slowly goes into my system over the next 24 hours. The following day I was a little tired and felt the worse on Sunday (day 4) which is typical. I feel like I’ve sailed through the first round so let’s hope the remaining are not too bad. I’m eating well, sleeping 8-10 hours a night and exercising everyday so all of that has to help! The one thing I cannot have during chemo is wine…darn it. Oh well, I went without it during pregnancy so I can do it again. We’ll use the opportunity to stock up our wine cellar. Wish me luck on the next round April 8!!

1 in 3 Breast Cancer Diagnosis may be avoidable

Saw this article on MSNBC and thought I'd pass it along.  Changing my diet and increasing my excercise for cancer prevention is advice I am hearing from my doctors and reading about. 

A New Development

Well, there has been a slight change in my treatment plan and it is all good. When I was first diagnosed I had a difficult time getting into an oncologist at Swedish Hospital. Therefore I decided to stay with Overlake. A friend referred me to the Seattle Cancer Treatment Center so I visited them for a second opinion and was impressed. A last minute development happened and I was able to meet with Dr. Saul Rivkin (oncologist) at Swedish and was even more impressed. So Swedish it is! I will be in communication with my naturopath doctor and taking supplements and getting acupuncture throughout. Now it is full steam ahead… My Hickman Port was installed yesterday which is not a fun procedure. I’ll spare you the details as you can go to ask.com if you want to know more but fortunately they gave me happy drugs during the procedure or I would have freaked out. I’m officially tired of being in pain and poked with needles. Chemo starts tomorrow (Thursday) and I’ll have treatments through the beginning of September. So next time you see me I’ll have long thick brown hair. Ya, obviously not my own ;).

East meets West

Research, research, and even more research is an important lesson I have learned in deciding upon doctors and learning about cancer and care options. Which sounds like I am stating the obvious but the information out there is overwhelming. With that said I have finalized on my decision regarding an oncologist and my care routine. I will be using Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center in Renton and my oncologists are Dr. Nick Chen and Mark Gignac N.D. (naturopath). They will work as a team regarding my care…an integrated approach. The clinic also has acupuncturist and psychologist/mind healers. To quote Mike, “Honey you have found your people”. One of the many things that impressed us about the clinic was the procedure to administer chemo (for my type of tumor) weekly at low doses versus every 3 weeks with higher does. Studies have found that Taxol is more effective at lower doses and increases survival rates. Dr. Chen has been doing the weekly doses for several years whereas many large hospitals are slow to make the change. See link if you are interested in reading more about this… http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/chemotherapy/new_research/20080417c.jsp . Dr Gignac put together a supplement and food plan for me and I will become very skilled at popping pills as I swallow about 20 a day. However I 100% embrace this plan and want to remind you all to get your vitamin D levels tested. If you live in the Northwest there are no way you can get enough vitamin D from food or the outdoors. Mr Sunshine just isn’t out enough here. My level was 25 and normal range is 33-100. I am on 10,000 IU a day to get it back to normal! There are theories out there that suggest low levels of vitamin D may cause cancer. Well, chemo starts next week for me but more on that later…