It’s easy to connect Angelina Jolie
to her action hero roles (think Lara Croft Tomb Raider) after she made the
choice to have a double mastectomy as a breast cancer preventive measure.
Learning she carried the faulty BRCA1 gene, which gave her an 87 percent chance
of contracting breast cancer, Jolie took action and in doing so, lowered her
risk to 5 percent. The fact that Jolie lost her mother at age 56 to cancer was
a powerful motivator.
Jolie’s news got me reading the
net. First, I found a much talked about New York Times Magazine article from
April 25, 2013 entitled “Our Feel Good War on Breast Cancer,” which weighs the
pros and cons of preventive mastectomies as well as mammograms and breast
cancer treatment. For the most part, the article questions the
frequency of treatment and surgical procedures, and suggests a bit of an
environment of fear-mongering surrounding breast cancer in general. It reminds
me a bit of some of the controversy surrounding the frequency of Caesarian sections
in America.
When my son was born 30 years ago, I labored for a dozen hours, dilated to 9 centimeters and then failed to progress. The doctors did a C-section and I went home with a nine lb., 5 oz. healthy baby and a quick recovery. Contrast this to my grandmother who labored for three days to give birth to my father, who was a ten-pound baby. My father suffered such head trauma through the birthing process that shortly after birth he had a seizure, which somehow righted things. He ended up being perfectly healthy and both my grandmother and father lived a long life. But many women in those days died during childbirth, including my husband’s grandmother after giving birth to his mom. In my case, when my second and third children (girls) came 14 and 16 years after my first, I had scheduled C-sections. My recovery was again quick in both cases. I never felt I missed out on anything by not having vaginal deliveries. I do remember a support-group visitor at the hospital bringing me a pamphlet after my son was born, entitled “Having a C-section is having a baby too.” The visit left me confused; I was happy, not in need of support. After each of my children was born, I felt blessed to go home with healthy babies, each over nine pounds.
The thing about the NYT Magazine article is that it prompts more questions than answers, at least in me. It throws out so much information about breast cancer. Triple negative, which the doctors say I have (or am close to having), is not a good thing. It’s highly aggressive. This got me searching the net further. Secretory cancer, found in one percent of the population, is almost always triple negative, but it’s extremely slow-growing and highly treatable. Huh? Then again, it has a higher incidence of recurrence and more likelihood to metastasis. Hmmm? I’m compiling questions for my doctor next week. All the information is too hard to process on one’s own. The reality is each case is different. Each woman is different. It seems we have no choice but to rely on our doctors, our allies on this journey.
When my son was born 30 years ago, I labored for a dozen hours, dilated to 9 centimeters and then failed to progress. The doctors did a C-section and I went home with a nine lb., 5 oz. healthy baby and a quick recovery. Contrast this to my grandmother who labored for three days to give birth to my father, who was a ten-pound baby. My father suffered such head trauma through the birthing process that shortly after birth he had a seizure, which somehow righted things. He ended up being perfectly healthy and both my grandmother and father lived a long life. But many women in those days died during childbirth, including my husband’s grandmother after giving birth to his mom. In my case, when my second and third children (girls) came 14 and 16 years after my first, I had scheduled C-sections. My recovery was again quick in both cases. I never felt I missed out on anything by not having vaginal deliveries. I do remember a support-group visitor at the hospital bringing me a pamphlet after my son was born, entitled “Having a C-section is having a baby too.” The visit left me confused; I was happy, not in need of support. After each of my children was born, I felt blessed to go home with healthy babies, each over nine pounds.
The thing about the NYT Magazine article is that it prompts more questions than answers, at least in me. It throws out so much information about breast cancer. Triple negative, which the doctors say I have (or am close to having), is not a good thing. It’s highly aggressive. This got me searching the net further. Secretory cancer, found in one percent of the population, is almost always triple negative, but it’s extremely slow-growing and highly treatable. Huh? Then again, it has a higher incidence of recurrence and more likelihood to metastasis. Hmmm? I’m compiling questions for my doctor next week. All the information is too hard to process on one’s own. The reality is each case is different. Each woman is different. It seems we have no choice but to rely on our doctors, our allies on this journey.
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