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Article by Dr Susan Love
Wed, 19/10/2011 - 07:35
#1
Wishful Thinking and Breast Cancer
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-m-love/breast-cancer-awareness-month_b_1006197.html
Dr Love makes some interesting points about mammograms and surgery, aimed more at the situation in the US than here, but still worth considering. Many of us here have already been through these questions with our doctors and surgeons, but this might be helpful to anyone new to this club we don't want to join.
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I agree. This is such a sensible article which says things that our rational selves probably know - but which, in the shock of diagnosis and confronting our own mortality, we aren't always able to accept.
That's when we are at our most vulnerable and most susceptible and likely to clutch at any data, stats., advice or recommendations that may or may not be relevant or helpful - eg, in my case, buying Lifemel honey , a Chillow and eating weird foods to prevent a low blood cell count during chemo and buying expensive (and useless) hair-growing products to restore my thin hair!...etc etc !
Very interesting and knowledgeable article, clearly written by someone who knows what she's talking about.
I was given the choice and decided to 'offer my breast to the gods' just hoping now that science will prove it was (as my surgeon said after surgery) the right decision
Taking a deep breath
L4W
I'm very glad I've never been in the position of some others of having to choose between treatment plans based on small statistical differences.
I thought the article was good too. Very interesting re % chance recurrence with mastectomy versus radiotherapy..... !
If you are keen to learn more she also has a very good book on BC - Dr Susan Love's Breast Book ("the most trusted, most authoritative guide to breast cancer diagnosis and treatment") Its already been mentioned in previous posts and I have a copy now too. Its rather thick - so I haven't got to the end yet - tend to dip into the chapters that apply to me most. Good reference book tho. x
well, i had the opposite experience. was diagnosed with grade 3 BC and had WLE and ANC. the path report found an extra tumour that didn't have clear margins, so there was a choice of going back to get the rest of that or 'offering up my whole breast', which i did.
the subsequent mx found another malignant lymph node in the breast tissue which would have been missed if i'd had another WLE.
so i'm v grateful i made the sacrifice.
jx