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.

… and Melissa Etheridge … and Olivia Newton-John … and Sheryl Crow.

When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, I tried to find as much information as I could about the above celebrities’ various breast cancers, and what treatment options and reconstruction surgery they undertook, if any.

I, of all people know what a private matter this is and certainly don’t begrduge any of them for holding back details … I’m also not a celebrity hound and usually don’t know or don’t care about their private lives … but was hoping that if they spoke publicly about their treatment options and choices, it might help someone like me. Medical terminology can be quite droll and difficult to read at times — this is one of the major reasons that drove me to start this blog, i.e. provide as much information about breast cancer and the Canadian health care system in one place, in easy to read and hopefully understandable language.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find very much information about the above celebrities’ choices for breast cancer treatment … and most of the celebrities seemed to have had a lumpectomy: which is, if the tumour is small enough, similar to digging out a cyst, and means there is no removal of the breast, except for a tiny bit of tissue. I realize that on petite women and those with small breasts, even a small tiny bit of breast removal can be deforming.

I’m not thrilled to hear Christina Applegate say she is “cancer free”. That’s impossible from my understanding of the disease — I can only guess that because she carried the gene BRCA1 (which stands for BReast + CAncer) [link opens to National Cancer Institute], she decided to have a bilateral mastectomy (removal of both breasts) BEFORE any cancer had the opportunity to invade her body.

Here’s a link to another blog regarding Christina Applegate’s decision to have a bilateral mastectomy and her interview on Oprah Winfrey on CNN.

Since Christina Applegate likely didn’t actually have any tumours, she likely opted for implants. The implants were likely completed at the same time as the bilateral mastectomy … and likely why she was able to bounce back fairly quickly.

Ok, an over-use of the word “likely” … but I’m guessing what she did based on my personal knowledge about breast cancer.

—- Pardon the Detour —-

Another option for breast reconstruction is a Tram Flap [link opens to Wikipedia]. If you have abdominal fat, although more invasive than implants, a Tram Flap seems to be a great option — you not only get a real looking breast, you get a tummy tuck, too! If you are in Ontario, these procedures are covered by OHIP.

Information missing from Wikipedia
Will your Tram Flap (they really should find a sexier name for this!) have a nipple and areola? Yes, if you opt to get a tattoo for the areola. The nipple is recreated from tissue from your labia.

Recovery time from a Tram Flap will be much longer because you are getting multiple surgeries. There’s also a Diep Flap [link opens Wikipedia] -a  Tram Flap is apparently muscle-sparing.

—- End Detour —-

… and this is probably extremely personal but I think should be known: as far as I’m aware, if you carry the BRCA gene, not only does the likelihood of getting breast cancer increase ten-fold, the chance of also getting ovarian cancer increases as well.

My guess is that Ms. Applegate likely also had an Oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries) [link opens to Wikipedia]. If she didn’t get an Oophorectomy, this decision must have been quite difficult.

She didn’t undergo the miserable staples across her chest, radiation or chemotherapy that us regular folk have to contend with. If she did, she wouldn’t be in the public eye for at least a year.

In a way, Christina Applegate really isn’t doing us many favours by speaking out — if she really wants to help, she needs to say more.

I asked my surgeon, Dr. Ewan, about BRCA testing here in Canada and he informed me that the tests cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.  Yikes! No wonder the wealthy are disease free.

Please, my friends [bad political joke], stop sending me pictures of Christina’s cleavage unless you know what she had done — I have to admit that I was fairly convinced it was body makeup that gave her cleavage a lovely glow because I know what physical scars are left behind.