Daffodil Days

I went to the Wellness Center last week and was presented with a small bunch of daffodils. Someone had donated heaps and heaps of bouquets to the center and in turn they were handing them out to their visitors and members.

Every year, during the two months before the first day of spring, cancer societies across the globe sell daffodils. Daffodils were chosen because they are one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring and are a "message of hope." The daffodils are sold to individuals, businesses, schools and organizations. Many are donated to cancer treatment centers that in turn give them to their patients. The funds raised are used to help people facing cancer get testing and treatment, push for laws toward access to screening and health care for everybody, as well as fund research to find causes and cures.

In the northern hemisphere, daffodil orders are collected in January and February. In the southern hemisphere, they are taken in May and June. Growers are usually near the equator - if their spring weather stays mild and allows a longer growing season, then orders might be taken for a few extra weeks into the next month. Anyone can sell as well as buy daffodils. Below is a list of participating societies.

American Cancer Society

Australian Cancer Society

Canadian Cancer Society

Irish Cancer Society

Marie Cure Cancer of Care of The United Kingdom

New Zealand Cancer Society

Please tell me if there are other countries with cancer societies that sell daffodils and I will add their links to my list. Thanks!

Underwire Bras and Breast Cancer

I heard something about underwire bras causing breast cancer. Well, unless they're using radioactive metal, I think it's a bunch of hogwash and decided to do some research.

Evidentally someone wrote a book and posed their own fantasy theory (to make their book sell) about this issue and now it has become a minor urban myth.

Please make sure your medical facts come from the medical experts, not gossip passed from one person to the next and definitely not from a non-expert trying to sell a book. Beware of conspiracy theories. There is no evil plot.

Never fear. Underwires do NOT cause cancer. Every single link shown below agrees with my hogwash opinion.

http://cancer.about.com/od/breastcancer/f/underwirebras.htm

http://askville.amazon.com/wearing-underwire-bras-breast-cancer/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=603714

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCallPlusRiskAndPrevention/story?id=3636127

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_2_1x_Forwarded_Emails.asp

For a listing of more breast cancer myths, visit http://breastcancerisabitch.blogspot.com/2009/01/breast-cancer-myths.html#links
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CHEMO BRAIN

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Chemo Brain is a strange thing. Doctors don't really know what to make of it or what to do. Is it physical, psychological or imagined? It's definitely "in your head" no matter how you look at it. Is it even related to chemotherapy? It's not on any list of side effects from chemotherapy drugs.

One thing is agreed. Many chemo patients have complained about impaired thinking and assumed it had something to do with the chemo drugs. Studies are just now starting to investigate this strange complaint.

Here are some of the documented complaints in these new studies:

• Forgetting things that one shouldn't forget
• Trouble concentrating on tasks
• Forgetting names, dates, memorable events
• Difficulty multi-tasking
• Slower thinking, processing and completion of mental tasks
• Forgetting common words

Personally, after my 1st chemo treatment, back home that night, I received calls from relatives and friends wanting to see how I fared. For the life of me, I could not concentrate on their words or answer simple questions, let alone carry on a conversation. It was like I had a buzz from a drink or cold medicine. As soon as I felt my mind wandering (to nowhere) I handed to phone to my mom and said, "You take it." I felt bad brushing off my sister's call but I could not function! Luckily this only happened for that one night. I put myself to bed the other nights, not trying to socialize. I was always fine the next day.

According to recent studies, "mild cognitive impairment" ranges from a one-time-only event to long term condition. Some people complain of slight changes in ability while others are hit harder, like I was. It appears more often in patients with higher doses of chemotherapy drugs.

Experiments have linked nerve damage to some chemotherapy drugs but the effect on the brain cells is too new for results. Experts are concerned about chemotherapy treatments that are aggressive and high dosed. Possible treatment options that protect the brain are being studied as are existing medications that might also help treat chemo brain.

The causes and triggers of chemo brain are unknown at this time. Pictures of brain activity show changes in chemo patients that don't show up in non-chemo cancer patients. For some participants, these differences are still showing up 5 to 10 years after treatment ends.

Right now the best guesses as to the cause of chemo brain include the cancer itself, chemotherapy drugs, medication used to manage side effects of chemo drugs, patient age, stress, low blood counts (chemo kills off blood cells), depression, fatigue (chemo makes one anemic), and hormonal changes. Both men and women complain of chemo brain. About 25% of chemo patients report having thinking problems.

Personally, I think my chemo brain was a combination of things:

• I had to suck down 5 bags of drugs.


• I was in a strange place with people I didn't know fussing over me - poking a needle into my chest for the IV hookup, all of which was overwhelming and stressful.
  
• I definitely think depression is a part - surgery, tests, poking and prodding, chemo...it's a sudden loss of control over one's life.


• Fatigue - chemo kills off the red blood cells and makes you anemic and tired. After my subsequent chemo's I pretty much slept for a week, getting out of bed for meals and helping my daughter with schoolwork only.


• Hormonal changes were definitely part of my experience. Ladies' ovaries are shut down by the chemo. Younger ladies bounce back after the treatments are over. I was old enough to be thrown into permanant menopause. I don't know about guys' hormones. I am relatively young so I don't think advanced age is on my list of possible causes. Most of my "mates" were old enough to be my parents or grandparents. The nurses called me "The Kid."

So what do us foggy-headed people do about this? Well, here is a list of what might help out:

• Write down your schedule rather than try to remember everything


• Make to-do lists
  
• Do puzzles and other thinking games or exercizes


• Get lots of rest


• Exercise to help improve mood and decrease fatigue


• Eat vegetables (studies show it helps the brain)


• Create routines and rituals


• Forget trying to multi-task for awhile


• Keep a diary of times you have trouble thinking (times, food, meds, activity etc)


• Accept the problem as temporary and have a sense of humor about it. Give yourself permission to be a little kooky.


• Tell friends and family about it so they are aware of what you are going through

If chemo brain gets too severe, meet with a neurologist, psychoneurologist, or psychologist. These experts can test brain function and suggest mental activities to help you overcome or lessen the effect of chemo brain. Hopefully in the next few years, more will be known and more can be done to avoid or treat chemo brain.
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Breast Cancer Awareness

I would love to be un-aware for just one day, please!

Ever since I was diagnosed with cancer, my ears now perk up whenever I hear or see anything about the subject and this reminds me about my own health and it makes me sad. Enough encounters with these demonic reminders and I go into a depression. I would love to go one whole day without someone or something reminding me of my cancer.

It's bad enough that I am reminded every time I get dressed, take a shower, or apply Mederma to the scars. I also see one of my 3 doctors quarterly and have to get mammo's and MRI's just as often. That's enough reminding for me.

Imagine, if you can, people popping out of bushes or from behind corners shouting "You have cancer!" several times a day, every day. That's what it's like! I wish I could shut these annoying people up. (I know they mean well...)

Here are some examples of what my overexposure to breast cancer awareness is like:

Last year a friend made a donation to the Susan G. Komen fund in my name. SGK sent me a little card. It was a nice gesture by my friend but I really didn't need SGK to tell me.

After I was diagnosed, I received multiple visits from Teleflora and 1-800-Flowers. My surgeries coincided with the month of my birthday so I also received flowers from my brother-in-law who didn't know yet. I treasured this bouquet because these were not pity flowers.

This year two friends went on fundraiser walks/marathons and asked me to join them. I wasn't emotionally strong enough for this. I needed to distance myself.

The last time I replaced my latex dishwashing gloves my only choice was pink "breast cancer awareness" gloves from Playtex.

This past summer I buried a friend who died from breast cancer. She had been my "big sister" who held my hand and answered my questions when I "joined the club." She handed down her scarves to me, not knowing that a year later her own cancer would return. I was an emotional wreck at the funeral. I felt like Scrooge did when he met up with the Ghost of Christmas Future at the cemetary. Someone saw me loosing it and rescued me into her hug.

Every once in awhile I receive phone calls asking me to donate money to find a cure. I tell them I donated almost $3000 last year and this year looks like it's going to be about $1000.

The entire month of October the grocery store I shop at had a huge display of pink stuff for sale - scarves, mittens, vacuum cleaners, cupcakes, cakes, ice scrapers... I recently visited Linens'n'Things to take advantage of their going-out-of-business sale - there was a big display of pink M&Ms and Tic Tacs at the entry. I think I've developed an adversion to things pink.

I used to have long hair- half way down to my elbows. Maybe once or twice a month I'll run into someone I haven't seen in awhile and they always comment on why on earth did I cut my hair. Do I tell them the truth or lie?

At the cash register area of the local arts & crafts store last week, there was a huge display of silk flowers and grave markers - giant pink ribbon symbols. This little event just screamed DEATH as well as Breast Cancer to me.

I hear about breast cancer on tv, on the radio, on the internet, on magazine covers...it's everywhere and I am feeling a little too exposed to it. Yes, I am very aware, so let's please change the subject and talk about something else!