Have you Ever Had a Benign Breast Biopsy?

Ok..so this is my blog and usually I talk about other things....but a many of you may know, I was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer in Dec. 1997, when I was 37 years old...my second bout of cancer.  I was living with No Evidence of Disease until 2010 when I discovered it was in LOTS of places and I'm still fighting it.  Try to promote studies which might provide a cure or methodology to prevent breast cancer....because as a stage IV Metavivor, I will have a shortened life....I don't want any more people to die from this.  I don't want any more people to have to struggle with it.  Stage V? There is no stage V unless, I suppose, you call it death.

So.... The Army of Women is doing another study, this time for women who have had a benign breast biopsy. (Why not men too, I don't know ....men get breast cancer too!)  Here's the scoop:

Alongside the research team at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Army of Women has just launched Phase 2 of the Discovery of Early Markers of Breast Cancer Study to investigate whether the amount of DNA damage seen in the cells of normal breast tissue might indicate future breast cancer risk.  They’ve already collected data and tissue samples from women who had a benign biopsy but then went on to develop breast cancer. 

NOW, they need women who had a benign breast biopsy but did NOT go on to develop breast cancer!

For more information on this new study, please visit:  http://blog.armyofwomen.org/2012/01/ever-have-a-breast-biopsy/.

So, if you fall into this category, please check it out and consider participating. 

Pink is upon us again, join the Army of Women

Twice a year, the U.S. (and perhaps the world..I don't know) start "thinking pink." May, around Mother's Day and October, everyone reminds you to "think pink! It's Breast Cancer Awareness month (in the case of October). I wonder why they chose October, because it has Halloween, and is therefore scary?

Some of us have to think pink daily. Blazoned across my brain and everywhere else I am praying for a cure. The Army of Women not only works for a cure in research, as well as offering several mentoring possibilities, but it pushes for breast cancer prevention. Is it possible? I sure as heck hope so. Take a look at this.



I support the Army of Women, and would like you to take a look at their website, even though I think that "Army of Women" is a little, um... sexist as men get breast cancer too. One of the things I really like about AOW is that they really get the word out and there are lots of research opportunities for people to participate in. Check this out here. If you qualify, or if you know of someone who qualifies for a study, please please please ask them to participate.

I am currently in the study for young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer. I was the first one in my family to win the cancer prize when I was diagnosed at age 33. I was married at age 30, and had my first (and only) child at age 32. I was 38 when I had a stage IV recurrence with bone metastases. I was cancer free until this year when I was diagnosed with multiple metastases to various bone locations in May, 13 years after the second diagnosis, 16 years after the first.

Unfortunately, I had a daughter. Why unfortunately? Because I'm afraid that she might get it too, and that was a motivating reason for me to join the AOW and participate in this study. With a sister, and both parents still living, perhaps studying my genetics will provide something so that they can figure out how to avoid it.

Don't get me wrong, I really really want a cure. Currently, I am living my life wondering if I should join soemthing , or buy something because I might not live long enough to enjoy it. In just a little bit, I will celebrate my 20th anniversary with my poor husband who has lived most of his married life with a woman who is no longer interested in sex because she had her ovaries removed when she was 38 to try to prevent a recurrence. He married a woman who ran, biked and swam, but for the last year can barely walk some days because of the pain in her pelvis because of the recurrence/damage caused by cancer and its treatment.

Even if you don't have stage IV, even if you don't have a recurrence, it is always the elephant in the room, a shadow hanging over your shoulder. Some days you think about it. Lots of other days you don't. If we could find out more to prevent it, it would be great.

Don't believe all of the stories about "well, if you didn't do this, or that" then you wouldn't have breast cancer. Listen folks, I was slender, I was active, I didn't drink, smoke, nor was I ever on birth control pills. For several years, I was a vegetarian. I ate healthy food, far more vegetables than most people. Yet, I got cancer. I gained weight. I struggle to survive. Finding out more, working to prevent it is definitely something I can support and hope you do too.

And the rose? It's Belle Story, a wonderful long blooming rose by David Austin, great fragrance, great color, long lasting and tough. Something I wish we all were.

Resilience

As I have mentioned before, I tend to plant things for winter interest as well as for enjoying during what most of us consider the growing season. One of the things I enjoy most about this is watching the patterns of shadow on the snow.


Here my Harry Lauder's Walkingstick (Corylus contorta) shows its twisted form and catkins. I have two varieties of this shrub. This one, a plain green leaved variety and another which has red leaves in the spring. This one is in the front yard and I am going to have to move it as I'm tired of explaining to passersby that it isn't sick that it is supposed to be contorted. (Harry Lauder was a Scottish entertainer in the first half of the 20th century...and I loved his "Wee Highland Laddie" when I was a child).

Another winter wonder is the Hellebores. I have several varieties and it isn't for nothing that they are commonly called "Lenten Roses."

Here, you can see the little buds of the flowers getting ready to open. They will open soon, probably by the end of the month. This particular one is Helleborus foetidus (stinking hellebore) and I love it's sharp pointed leaves which are like stag's horns.




















I also love how the shadows play on the snow, casting dark blue and lavandar lines. This is a baby Acer Sangu Kaku (Coral Bark Maple).


We've had a lot of snow for SW Ohio....well, we've had three snowstorms with no melting in between, which means that I have snow up to my kneecaps in my back yard. One of the things which is heartening about looking at a garden in the winter is the resilience of the plants.

The hellebores go on making their bid for regeneration and prepare for their flowering, even in the middle of what most people think of as a wasteland.



Grasses bend under snow and are covered, but given some warm days, they too will once again stand tall.


On Thursday, I am having to practice my own resilience. Last week Thursday, I went for my 4 month visit to the oncologist. This Thursday, he called me with my tumor markers. Tumor markers are substances which are produced by specific tumors or by the body in reaction to tumor cells.

Usually, since I've had breast cancer twice, it is in the 20s. Two visits ago it elevated to 40-something. This was a little alarming, but usually if my markers rise, they will go back down again. This time, my markers were in the 60s. That, coupled with the "area of concern" on my pelvis indicates that in all probability, the cancer is back. Well, heck.

So now I have been switched to a higher aromatase inhibitor--something which prevents the tumor cells to "hook" into the food supply in my normal cellular structure. Tamoxifen is an aromatase inhibitor; I've been on a higher level one called Arimidex for years. I am now put on Aromasin. I just about croaked as when I went to pick up 14 tablets to tide me over until my mail order drugs come, it cost me $164.98.

I took it last night and this morning have a stiff shoulder. Heck, opening the window with my opposite arm even hurt. This might be a side effect of the Aromasin as it can cause joint pain...or I may just have slept on it incorrectly. Who knows?

Next week, I'll start another regimen: IVs of Zometa which is used against bone metastases. I think he said that I will start out getting that once every three months and that the infusion only took 15 - 20 minutes.....a heck of a lot better than the 4 hours I was there with Aredia.

I asked him if this combination might be sucessful in killing off the cancer and he told me that yes, it was possible, but because cancer cells are our own cells gone awry, you never know unless you try. This made me feel a little better as the two strongest types of chemo available for breast cancer patients, I've already had and obviously have failed on. There is no more chemo for me, except to use down the road to alleviate pain. So, hopefully somewhere in my DNA is an enzyme for a super ball, and I'll rebound once again...or at least be like my ornamental grasses, lifting my bent head.

At any rate, even like this picture, the sun shines bright against a dark sky.

Quilters have Big Hearts

There's one thing about most quilters...their hearts are very large.

On Thursday night, I received an email from Ed Chamness, the Miami Valley Quilter's Guild's email chairman. Extreme Home Makeover was coming to Beavercreek (Dayton) and the Quilt Guild was going to make quilts for the family who was getting the home makeover. By August 5, Guild Volunteers were to have cut, pieced, quilted and bound one King, one queen, three twins, and one lap quilt for the family.

Above, Kim Gros who arranged for the facility at Prudential One to be used, and Susan Hill, president, press the borders which I had stitched.


Local shops, (Appalachian Quilts, Sulphur Grove Quilt Shop, The Mason Jar, and The Fabric Shack) donated fabric, with Appalachian Quilts donating the batting and backing for the king size quilt as well. Several long-arm quilters were going to take the quilts home and quilt them. The rest was up to the membership.


Work started on Friday, with many people cutting and piecing. I went down on Saturday night as there were fewer people there and many of the jobs had been parcelled out.

I helped put on the 1 1/2 borders on the queen size quilt.

Several of the quilts had already gone to the long-armers, I only saw the pair of "I Spy" generous twin size quilts which were going to the younger twins before they were packed off to go to the quilters. The pink and purple quilt for the young girl had already gone. Here's what I was able to take a shot of.

The red/white/and blue is going to be a King size and it is just fabulous! A Kaffe Fassett print really made it electric!

I worked on this one, which is going to be a queen size once all the borders were added.

When I first heard about this, I couldn't believe that this would be accomplished. I felt that the readily available, poorly made, inexpensive Chinese quilts which have flooded the market had made people think that quilts were easy to pop out....I couldn't have been more wrong.

I should have known that this guild, with its large membership, could accomplish what seemed to be an impossible dream, even on short notice.

Now, after working on some other things, I'm going to turn my attention to making one (or more if I'm lucky) 5" x 7" art quilts for "Hearts for Anna".

Dawn Goldsmith has stepped up to help a quilter in need. Here's the story and what she's doing about it and what I'm going to work on:

Anna Millea, (shown in photo) a longtime Guild and Artful Home artist, is fighting breast cancer - again. The disease has returned aggressively and is now in her bones, requiring an extreme sixteen rounds of chemotherapy. She has no insurance, having been deemed un-insurable due to her "pre-existing condition." When we at The Guild/Artful Home learned of this we knew we needed to do something to try to help her through this situation.What we have come up with is an event we are calling "Hearts for Anna", to which we hope you will contribute and donate a little bit of your time and talent. Artful Home will hold a 5-day online event, "Hearts for Anna", August 12-16, 2009 in which miniature artworks, no larger than 5" x 7", will be sold. The items will be sold first-come, first serve, with all items selling for $100 on Day 1, $75 on Days 2 - 4, and $50 on Day 5. All money will go to a fund that goes directly to Anna Millea to help pay for her medical bills.Requirements for donated artwork: (Deadline: August 7)Participation is open to all artists, both Artful Home members and non-members. The point is to get great participation, and thus give a greater hand to Anna.The artwork can be in any medium, no larger than 5" x 7". Artists in all media are encouraged to participate and donate works.The artwork should be one of a kind, though each artist participating can submit more than one piece.All work should fall within the theme of "Hearts for Anna", however the artist chooses to interpret this.

For pictures and the full scoop, as well as the entry information, please go to

http://subversivestitch.blogspot.com/2009/07/cancer-no-insurance.html

Consider donating, and if you can't whip up a little piece of art, then please consider bidding. I can't imagine facing the bills with no insurance.....Breast cancer is scary enough without it being a recurrence with no insurance.