Woo hoo, if you’ve read the book, you will know I’ve said I can’t wear bingo dresses any more. Well I was wrong. 
Before Christmas I found a store online Womanzone, I was looking for a tankini or two to take on holiday, so much easier for lazing on the beach (mind you it was bit windy on the coast in Morocco 
). And of course the tankini needed to be one to accommodate my swimming breast form and I wanted to pay a reasonable price. Online I found Womanzone, who make to measure. Two great tankinis and they are good to wear for swimming in the pool at home (I do need to tuck the top part into the pants when swimming, creates ‘drag’ in the water otherwise).
Womanzone sent a catalogue and on browsing through I discovered they do a strapless bra for mastectomy wearers, so you can wear your bingo dress with breast form after mastectomy. The bra comes in black or nude and up to size 42C (trust me this is a big size for mastectomy bras).
Wow well done
Actually it’s a the latest review on Amazon. thanks for this I’m humbled.
‘What do you do when you are diagnosed with breast cancer and know that in pretty short order you’ll be in hospital, giving up your left breast?
If you are Rosie O’Hara, (wife, Mum, Granny, NLP trainer and coach, social media super-user and Terry Pratchett fan), you a) gather your not-inconsiderable resources and `deal with it’ and b) you blog. Which is the origin of the book.
What you get is the benefit of Rosie’s experiences, what she did, what did and didn’t work, what she wished she’d have known sooner and, answers to questions like, “Why do I need to wear 100% cotton knickers in the operating theatre?” Rosie also uses her NLP expertise to explain the techniques she used to keep herself in a good space and, well, stack the odds in favour of a good recovery. She makes insightful observations about other people – reminding us we all have our own stuff around cancer and that this can get in the way of being with a friend or family member (or patient) who is dealing with the reality of cancer right now.
Whether you are interested for yourself, for someone near and dear or as a health professional curious about the patient experience, in `No More Bingo Dresses’ you can share the journey with this warm, funny, feisty lady who doesn’t pull her punches. I chuckled out loud, reflected on what I’d want for *my* funeral and got an understanding which I hope would make me a better friend should someone I know have a significant illness.
To quote you, Rosie, “Thank you for sharing”.’
Here we go an audio taster of the book -
For this post I’ve taken some what I consider to be highlights from NHS Choices and a US Cancer website www.cancer.gov I quote the exact link below. I couldn’t find anything on the web, well not immediately that was form the UK that was not NHS Choices or the newspapers NHS Choices quotes (quite fairly I think).
I’d actually like to start some kind of discussion on overdiagnosis and what it can potentially mean if we are not diagnosed, having met people whose bodies on their death for some other reason are subjected to autopsy and the discovery is then made that the person had had cancer for a long time and hey ho they had been living a good life.
All of this stuff is of course relative.
From NHS Choices
Overdiagnosis occurs where a woman is diagnosed and treated with no survival benefit even though the diagnosis is correct. This can be because the tumour identified would not have progressed to a clinical stage (i.e. it would never have caused symptoms) or because the woman would have died from other causes before the cancer reached a clinical stage.
The researchers included 39,888 patients with invasive breast cancer diagnosed over twenty years, between 1986 and 2005.
The authors estimated the rate of overdiagnosis due to mammography screening as 15–25%. They calculated that for every 2,500 women invited for screening, 6 to 10 women are overdiagnosed, 20 women are diagnosed with breast cancer that is not overdiagnosed, and 1 death from breast cancer is prevented.
This study has some limitations. It was based on data taken from registries rather than gathered to specifically assess screening. Also, the researchers could not adjust for all factors that could have influenced the results, some of which might have offered alternative explanations for the results. In addition, another type of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ was not studied.
However, despite its limitations, the study’s findings are similar to those in other recent publications, including some that have prompted a UK review of breast cancer screening and the type of information offered to women. This review is currently being conducted, although its expected completion date has not yet been announced.
Kalager M, Adami HO, Bretthauer M, et al. Overdiagnosis of Invasive Breast Cancer Due to Mammography Screening: Results From the Norwegian Screening Program. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2012;156:491-499
From www.cancer.gov
Evaluation of Breast Symptoms
Breast symptoms may suggest a diagnosis of breast cancer. During a 10-year period, 16% of 2,400 women aged 40 to 69 years sought medical attention for breast symptoms at their health maintenance organization.[1] Women younger than 50 years were twice as likely to seek evaluation. Additional examinations were performed in 66% of patients, with 27% undergoing invasive procedures. Cancer was diagnosed in 6.2% of patients with breast symptoms, most being stage II or III. Of the breast symptoms prompting medical attention, a mass was most likely to lead to a cancer diagnosis (10.7%) and pain was least likely (1.8%) to do so.
Barton MB, Elmore JG, Fletcher SW: Breast symptoms among women enrolled in a health maintenance organization: frequency, evaluation, and outcome. Ann Intern Med 130 (8): 651-7, 1999. [PUBMED Abstract]
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/screening/breast/healthprofessional/page3
Ductal Carcinoma In Situ
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a noninvasive condition that can progress to invasive cancer, with variable frequency and time course. While some authors include DCIS with invasive breast cancer statistics, it has been suggested that the term DCIS be replaced by a classification system of ductal intraepithelial neoplasia, similar to those used to grade cervical and prostate precursor lesions. DCIS is usually diagnosed by mammography, so it is rare in unscreened women. In the United States in 1983, the prescreening era, 4,900 women were diagnosed with DCIS, compared with approximately 63,300 women who will be diagnosed in 2012.
Although not about breast cancer, I think for me this has a direct bearing on any kind of medical treatment.
This week I got a result that I wanted. Without going into too much background detail, I’ve had constant problems with my teeth, throughout my life, in spite of a pretty strict cleaning regime. I have a really good dentist but he’s a three hour drive away and last year I had a problem with a tooth (a molar) and being more interested in the pain and being busy at work, when I heard my dentist was on holiday I didn’t ask the question if someone else could see me. Instead I found a local dentist. That tooth was extracted. So that was essentially okay, but then that very helpful dentist left the local practice. So a while later when they had found someone else I went back to the local practice. This new dentist told me I needed seven (yes 7 crowns replacing)! Now my original dentist who is a three hour drive away had already said these seven crowns are fine. Not just that fact, but I also queried that I had a top right hand molar and I felt there was a problem with that crown. The local dentist said no, just the other seven? So I asked for a second opinion.
Four months later I got an appointment at the dental hospital two hours drive away in the other direction and the consultant dental surgeon, after taking a thorough history and various X-rays, said essentially he agrees with my dentist who is three hours drive away re. longevity of the crowns and also with me re. The molar, which the local dentist says is fine.
The moral of this story is ask for a second opinion and persist, you know your own body.
And what did I say, well I said I was unhappy, that I didn’t believe what had been said, that I wanted to avoid paying out £465.—per crown (you can do the sums times seven), that I believe I know my body and I wanted to avoid lots of pain and discomfort.
Stand up for what you know is right and for your body.
