A Diet to Die For! Breast Cancer in Canada.

After Dr. Ewan discharged me from daily nursing on April 24th and being on such a high from the news, I was watching CBC on Saturday night and heard the following news …

Smoking is linked to breast cancer.

After many years of smoking, I quit in September, 2006, and now can’t stand to be anywhere near it. Yes, I’ve become psycho-anti-smoker, and proud of it.

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Christina Applegate is Not The Poster Child for Breast Cancer.

Christina Applegate, even after a bilateral mastectomy less than a year ago, was recently caught smoking in Los Angeles. She apparently said the photo was taken on a rare occasion when she was feeling bad (or depressed). Please Christina, try to have your pity-party in private and try to remember that every time you go out in public, there are lots of young women who want to emulate you.

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The report has only been out a few days and already there is controversy amongst the ranks. Why on earth would the research community ever debate whether smoking and breast cancer are linked? Unbelievable, but here is an excerpt:

” … The report is “a sharp dissent” from the common belief among scientists that there is too little consistent evidence to determine whether smoke has a causal role in breast cancer, the Times reports …”

– Medical News Today. April 28, 2009.

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Regarding my own breast cancer, I suspected the link between smoking and breast cancer when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2008. Lung cancer may be the obvious disease for a smoker, but I think there are likely a lot more carcinogens in retail cigarettes that we’ve barely scratched the surface.

It was just a week ago that I said to the primary nurse that, other than smoking, I have lived a fairly clean lifestyle the last 20+ years: even she said she wasn’t aware of any link between smoking and breast cancer …

I don’t do any recreational drugs, no alocohol abuse, I eat fairly well and exercise regularly. My blood pressure was taken yesterday and it was 124/66. Not bad for an old broad if I do say so myself!

I don’t have high cholesterol or am on any medications for any serious conditions.

I have annual check-ups, including mammograms.

I may still be a fat ass (I’ve lost over 20 pounds though), have some allergies and sensitivities, and enjoy some good wine occasionally (add a good man in there …), but nothing I do should alert any doctor hopefully.

Other than being an ex-smoker, I am fairly healthy, or at least was on the right track to becoming very healthy … so the breast cancer diagnosis was a total shock in more ways than one.

If you are a smoker, stop worrying about gaining 5 pounds if you quit smoking … I’m living testimony that 5-10 pounds of weight gain is far easier to get rid than cancer. I would gladly trade more weight to get my tit back.

Various articles and/or information that discusses the link between smoking and specifically breast cancer are:

• 2nd-hand smoke causes breast cancer in younger women, review suggests. CBC News
• Report warns smoking raises risk of breast cancer. CTV News
• … Norwegian scientists have revealed that smoking women have a higher incidence and earlier onset of heart disease in comparison with male smokers. Stop Smoking Steps
• Smoking and breast cancer linked. Lilith News Blog
• May 3, 2009: The Toronto Sun newspaper’s article Study affirms smoking-breast cancer link.
• marketwire’s Health Canada should move quickly to put breast cancer warning on cigarette packages. Want to read the panel’s 83 page PDF report? If so, here is the link to it.
• University of Toronto’s report … “There is now enough scientific evidence to link both active smoking and second-hand smoke to breast cancer …” [April, 2009]

If you’re not going to take the advice to stop smoking from a complete stranger writing a blog online (that would be me), take it from the experts.

You. Yes, you. Stop smoking and live long enough to aggrevate your family.

If Barbie were Yiddish, Joan Rivers could be her bubby (pronounced similar to boobie) …

Joan Rivers has had a lot of plastic surgery — I think I heard her say on some show that she’s spent about $150,000.00 on plastic surgery. To me, she still looks old, except now she could be Barbie’s really old relative with smooth skin. Poor Melissa, Joan’s daughter, could also be Barbie or Midge’s great old auntie now, too — I certainly see the similarity between Midge and Melissa’s foreheads, don’t you?

This post is about surgery, including plastic surgery, except it’s about the decision for reconstruction surgery after a radical mastectomy.

The good news is that the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) pays for all reconstruction surgery for breast cancer survivors because it’s considered “body image”.

I haven’t been referred to a plastic surgeon yet and Dr. Ewan says it will probably be a year before I’ll be able to get to see one — and that most plastic surgeons typically don’t like to consider surgery after breast cancer for at least a year after a mastectomy [paraphrasing] — so this information may change after I’ve seen a plastic surgeon.

After a mastectomy, there are several options (all paid for by OHIP):

1. Do nothing. This is more common than I ever thought and more common amongst mature women over 60. I read an article about a photographer who had taken photos of women with mastectomies which looks pretty darn cool.
2. Prosthetics (plastic boobs that pop into your bra). One of the nurses at the hospital came in to show us her prosthetic (there were 2 of us in the room that had a radical mastectomy). She popped it out and I was relieved to see that it has a nipple — continuing to look like a girl is important to me. She said that she had her mastectomy over 20 years ago and only now is she considering reconstructive surgery.
3. Implants. These, to me, seem to be the least invasive. My question would be, does the other breast also get a bit of a lift — since I still have one real breast, I think it would look quite odd to have one breast that doesn’t project like the other one. I’m hoping the answer is yes, I would get a smaller implant into the real breast so that both breasts match.
4. TRAM flap. For me, this sounds like I would be out of commission for a long time again. Although getting a tummy tuck as well as a new realistic looking boob sounds fabulous, I’ll guess that recovery time is at least another 6-8 weeks. After the surgeon takes the fat from the abdomen, they make a new breast from it. After which I can decide to have a tattoo for the areola — and the nipple is made out of a piece of the labia. I doubt all of this is done at the same time, which probably adds to the recovery time. Since I’m self-employed, this is not an ideal option for me … even if I would love to have a tummy tuck at 50!

Perhaps it’s a good thing I have to wait at least a year before making any decisions since I’m still numb from the elbow up to the shoulder, across to the collar bone and down past the incision area — it’s bizarre to be itchy and numb simultaneously.

Hopefully none of these options would make me look like old plastic; the way the majority of celebrities are moving towards … how on earth do they expect to have a career in acting if they can’t show any expression … hmmm. That’s another question for another blogger that cares about celebrities.

Look for the Joan Rivers doll & Melissa Rivers doll coming to a store near you …