Is She Crazy, or is it Chemo Brain?

©Survivorship Media Network, LLC.  All rights reserved.

If the old adage “a picture’s worth a thousand words” istrue, I have several photos that are worthy of a book.  One of my favorite photos my friend Linda took of me theday after my last chemotherapy.There I am in all my chemo splendor, bald and glassy-eyed with 25heart-shaped red foil balloons stuffed down the back of matching red foilpants.  If that isn’t strangeenough I am naked from the waist up except fora giant pair of red silk lips duct taped to my mastectomy scar.  Plus I am wearing silver lamé tennisshoes with orange stripes.  If youthink the photo is odd you should see the attached ‘Thank You’ card I made togo with it.  It's atleast worth a referral to a good shrink.

On the front of each card I stamped red balloons then useda heat gun to emboss them with red glitter and wrote “Bubbles was the daughterof a famous circus clown.  ButBubbles didn’t want to join the circus…”When you opened the card there was the photo of “Bubbles” in her best chemo cheerleader pose, and at the bottom itsaid “Bubbles didn’t want to join the circus.  She wanted to be a Las Vegasshowgirl!”

 

At the time I thought the card was the highlight of mycreative endeavors.  Now I wonderwhat my friend Linda must have thought when I opened the door dressedas Bubbles.  She must have stifled the urge to scream, run down the driveway andholler for help.  If she thoughtI’d lost my mind, she didn’t let on a thing, acting as if this was acommonplace occurrence when you knocked on a sick friend’s door.  To make matters worse, I tried to explain…  But where does one start, especially when you have had eightrounds of chemotherapy under your belt--or lips?

 

As “Bubbles” babbled on,Linda may have pieced together balloons, an end of chemo party the nightbefore, shoes bought under the influence of chemobrain and "they’ll look great with the right outfit.” 

 

I have the most wonderful friends.  When faced with a crazy lady,they smiled and took me in stride, ignoring that I paid $500 for shoes that areso not me.  (If you assume that’s true you must be wondering how Ijust happened to have those red foil pants.Another story.)  My friendsdid not look at me askance when I found “the rightoutfit,” but instead, lovingly supported and cheered me on.  Chemo brain is frightening, annoying andfunny, all at the same time, and not just for those of us who have it, but foreveryone who loves us.

Hypnosis and breast cancer.

If there is a way to transform something negligible as a major source of concern, I find it. With precision laser - like that I can turn a simple stage IV melanoma blackhead, while with a likely candidate to be next woman list bulldozing of James, all in time to examine the imperfections in question in the light of the best. As my mother, I am a worrywart champion, but unlike my mother, I work hard to deal with my concern sometimes paralyzing. How, you ask? Hypnosis.

I love hypnosis. more than 20 years, hypnosis has helped me relieve a lot of my fears and anxiety. It helped me to death, disease and dread.Not conducted by a certified clinical hypnotherapist, hypnosis bares no resemblance to stage the performers who obtain volunteers of the audience to believe that they were abducted by aliens from the planet Zeon.Simplement, real hypnosis keeps your mind occupied for a certified hypnotherapist awareness speaks to your unconscious mind of questions you want address. anytime you have free will. Your unconscious knows that you can manage and what is in your interest.Nobody does will you do everything that you do not want to do while you are unconscious hypnose.Votre will not let them.

Hypnosis works for the most part, everyone and can reduce the fear, anxiety, even sleep problems and hot flashes , but it is particularly effective for cancer patients newly diagnosed, survivors and those with the réapparition.Avant the mastectomies and surgical reconstruction and before and after each of my chemotherapies, I used hypnosis. The psychologist that use has been recommended by my family doctor and is affiliated with a local hospital. make sure that you're dealing only with someone who is certified and experienced in hypnosis.Our sessions we talk about my concerns, if it is the duration of surgery, anaesthesia, my recovery, etc., then it inserts a cassette tape into a recorder and we began the process of hypnosis. At the end of each session my doctor gives me the cassette tape that we made in his Office, so I can listen to as often as I want.

After one of my breast cancer surgeries, the anesthesiologist stopped by my room to tell me that it does not have to manage as many anesthesia as he had planned to keep me at the required surgeon.The anesthesiologist has been very surprised by cette.Je told it not, I've been surprised because I had been listening to a tape of hypnosis custom daily for two weeks .the band said my body would begin to relax on a skeletal and muscular level and should produce its own pain suppressors, keep me as having anesthesia and for faster recovery post-surgical .the ' agreed anesthesiologist hypnosis had done both of these things, for me, and he wanted more people could benefit from hypnosis. , I never took any after one of my eight surgeries pain meds and I never was never nauseated after one of my eight chemotherapies.

To find a hypnotherapist accredited in your region, removing American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, www.asch.net/ more watch mind & BODY videos on www.breastcancersisterhood.com/

Live life with breast cancer.

© Brenda Coffee.  All rights reserved.

Eight days after my first mastectomy
and went to a concert in outdoor Sting where heat index was 110 degrees. I wore white linen and my Turkey-drains basters that strained pipe rubber, surgically attached to where was my chest. my small friends

Our seats were in the last ligne.De rear it might have been lip syncing Sting songs for all we knew Carrot Top. As I looked around for thousands of women in public, I could not shake that statistically thought one of eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her life .I have studied adolescents, women in their 20s 1930s, 40 years and the 1950s, all the time to think "she has and does not know it.""It will faire.Elle had it.".Breast cancer. unspoken fear we all host deep in.Fear that will change our lives forever.

I also thought that if each of these knowledge women my bandages and Turkey basters - where a week ago my right chest had been - many would not have consented with me: currently, life gets not any better than this. I was living.I was there with my two best friends, singing and clapping as my world had been condensed on a slide hospital pathology.Fifty years smeared on a piece of two-inch long glass and three-quarters of a large, inch my card member for breast cancer and four girls.

I was struck with the desire to hug each of these women and tell them to keep singing; keep laughing; keep living, to extract the each time the things you want rappeler.Les apprécier.Ils chérissent.Ils to flout. live your life with joy.Do deliberately and intentionally. "Tomorrow is promised in person."

The benefits, side effects and respond with Arimidex

© Brenda Coffee.  All rights reserved.

Arimidex is one of the weapons of choice for positive estrogen, postmenopausal women in the war against the recurrence of breast cancer. The 100-month trial, presented ATAC of the San Antonio Breast Cancer, 2007 Symposium showed by the judgment or inhibiting the production of estrogens .Arimidex showed superior to tamoxifen .As with most drugs, Arimidex shipped with possible side effects but much less that tamoxifen. side effects that receive the most complaints are hot flashes, joint pain and bone loss.Curiously enough exercise is the factor that go very far to mitigate all three complaints .

 My friend Sarah and take Arimidex : Sarah during three years; me, four and a half years. Sarah does nothing to prevent the recurrence of the as a nutritious diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, avoiding sugar and alcohol, limiting the red meat, proactive ways to deal with constraints or exercising. Sarah suffers from hot flashes, joint pain and bone loss.  

I am obsessive-compulsion and do everything which precedes or worry why I step. something that I am faithful to what is the year - walking, weight, yoga - a nd if for some reason, I do, my joints ache as I have severe arthritis.I made this correlation shortly after I started Arimidex.Other OS loss and vaginal dryness, minors whose my oncologist said will improve after I stop Arimidex in six months, I have no debilitating side effects .

I have disabled suggesting Sarah go to the gymnase.Je understand his aversion to .the year ago days, I'd rather anything other than the exercise, then I think the "R" Word. recurrence . Is that when I turn procrastination on his head and say, ", I'd rather than die of cancer of the breast." You'd be surprised speed motivates my behind the door and the way to an intense walk.

There is no need to spend our time speculating about who will be, and will not have a recurrence, because nobody knows really. Sarah will probably live be a 105, and I will die not cancer, breast, but hair dog.They are everywhere in my house, and I let them wherever I'll .j ' imagine only hair dog flew how disable my jacket that I've sailed down the Alaska zip line.

New to the Blogs of breast cancer?

© Brenda Coffee.  All rights reserved.

There are oodles of blogs on the Internet in the form of a journal breast cancer or personal memories of the Chronicle journeys of cancer of the breast. blogger some blogs are supposed, incisor and Merry with philosophical reflections on life and include useful to face treatments. tidbits other blogs are written by women panicked to view the world as a glass half empty .It is comforting to know others know the same difficult things that you, these blogs are depressing.

If you are newly diagnosed or recurrence, battling it is easy to relate to bloggers who have exceeded with their situation and in detail their ache, pain and fear . When reading a constant power tales of horrible cancer - mental, physical and psychological - can give you a sense of community, it will not help you to remain in the spirit of right to combat breast cancer .

Even if I'm five years from my diagnosis and I am not in middle of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, I remember this moment was like. Every second of every day, I've thought about or not I would die .It has no importance if I was watching television or listening to my husband describe its day; my impending mortality was still there, as the stable shots of my coeur.Pour the first year and a half I went in life this way. After my worries backed up until I was only thinking die every few hours.Little things like buying a coat on sale, winter made me me asked if I even here would be the next winter he wear.

Last month, I've had my healthy breast reconstruction prophylactic and was given a clean bill santé.Maintenant I think only die each...I am serious? died of breast cancer through my mind every week.I did fixate on what I used to but I am fighting the dark side to exit this cookie on the plate or wants to achieve, the mortality factor still cache in the back of my mind.As "stuff" you want to clean up the Cabinet, whether you open the door, you know that this is, awaits you.

As a member of the four girls and breast cancer we must use every tool we can kick cancer on the sidewalk and erase negative thoughts of our spirit. ".""Thoughts are things" as my mother likes to me the rappeler.Ne not give these half empty glasses while more energy than they déjà.Je'm not naive enough to think that we can do that 50 or even 2 5 percent of the time but please, resist the urge to read negative cancer blog chest s.

Friendships and cancer

©Network of survival, Media LLC.  All rights reserved.

The breast cancer has made lots of friends in my life who now hold high places of honor.People who I thought were my friends fell from yesteryear, and I leave go. it is difficult to be abandoned by old friends, but do not take personally if it you arrive.beaucoup of people do not want to "too close" to cancer, because then they will be forced to consider that this can happen for the.

Before I have been diagnosed I was the picture of health: I've eaten whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean meat, chicken and fish, no fried foods, some fast food have water aerobic six days a week; I was a perfect size 8, received annual visits and mammograms safe, remained out of the Sun, took vitamins and I've had alcohol in moderation. a friend told me that if I, who was straight, could get breast cancer it fear him thinking about his chances of getting breast cancer.However, it does not have its enough to get a mammogram or wish me as his friend scare: it has neither - because both have obliged to look more closely at the breast cancer. Instead of this, she chose to live in the land of denial.

Another friend, a publisher of a publication, I used to write, called and asked me how I was doing? "Sensational," I told. then as if it had launched me in the gut, she says, ", I wouldn't talk if I were you.". "It has a way to come back."Thank you very much, I thought.You sure have to support someone who is struggling for their vie.Quelques weeks later, she called to ask me to write something for the next issue, and I said non.quelles are my "no" really has well-meant, "no, I don't want anything to do with you ever." From this I said politely I had my hands full future predictable but thanks for thinking of me.

In fairness to the friends and knowledge, most people don't know what to say in front of a serious disease They don't know how to provide a comfort or are afraid to tell the bad chose.partir when I have been diagnosed, I wanted that people understand I was the same person I was before the breast, and I had even their friendship and to hear about their life. for when friends called and asked how I was, I would say, "I am grand.Comment are you?"."What have you been up to?"

I think that this response done two things: firstly, it relaxed the appellant since they expect, fearing perhaps hear my surgery, chemos, nausea, gory details etc., when they do not have them is not fear as to call me at new.Secondly, with regard to the conversation I was therapeutic for me if only for the duration of our conversation has helped this technique concentrate on someone other than me.I could do enough to think about me when I was seul.Et, are due to because they are flooding the with details, they gave me positive feedback.

"Seem you too happy"or"you sound you're doing great," they would say. their comments have helped me to create a positive, self-reinforcing thinking than myself: if everyone thought I was doing great, so I have to être.Et you know what? I was .j ' have been much better achieved cancer patient chest I knew which focused on themselves, concerned to each thing shortly, fear the worst and expressed to everyone they knew.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney were right: "I get with a little help from my friends".

Nuts peuvent fight against breast cancer.

© Brenda Coffee.  All rights reserved.

We have all heard the expression ""an Apple a day is the doctor," but did you nuts can also contribute to the fight against the breast? A recent study on mice, presented at the April 2009 American Association for Cancer Research 100th annual meeting, found that by adding the human equivalent of two ounces of walnuts for their daily food, impact and tumors in mice breast size was greatly reduced."

A reason for this reduction of growth of the tumor may be due to the fact that the nuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids: antioxidants and phytosterols. Phytosterols are binding to the estrogen receptor.Since many breast cancers are positive estrogen, which means that they are powered by estrogen, it is estimated that phytosterols in nuts may slow the growth of estrogen-related breast cancer .Tandis researchers emphasize there have been no specific studies on the effects of the nuts on the human breast we know a healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, grains, seeds and nuts may prevent many cancers, diabetes and heart disease.Thus, instead of reaching for the potato chips and cookies when you want a snack, how a handful of nuts?

Each afternoon I go outside with my dogs, Sam and Goldie and soak sunlight - dealt paraben-free sunscreen - and have an Apple and a handful of nuts when that time my mother tongue is hard at work, try to dislodge the last vestige little nut sandwiched between my teeth arrière.Pardon me while I reach for the Floss.