Brenda's Blog: A Guide to Surviving Breast Cancer

Walnuts May Fight Breast Cancer

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

©Brenda Coffee. All rights reserved.

We have all heard the phrase “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but did you know walnuts may also help in the fight against breast cancer? A recent study done 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 to their daily diet, the incidence and size of breast tumors in mice was significantly decreased. <PREVIEWEND>

One reason for this reduction in curbing tumor growth may be due to the fact that walnuts are high in omega-3 fatty acids: antioxidants and phytosterols. Phytosterols bind to estrogen receptors. Since many breast cancers are estrogen positive, which means they are fueled by estrogen, it is thought that the phytosterols in walnuts may slow the growth of estrogen related breast cancer. While researchers underscore there have been no specific studies on the effects of walnuts on human breast cancer, we do know a healthy diet of fresh fruit, vegetables, grains, seeds and nuts may prevent many cancers as well as diabetes and heart disease. So instead of reaching for potato chips and cookies when you want a snack, how about a handful of walnuts?

Every afternoon I go outside with my dogs, Sam and Goldie, and soak up the sun—wearing paraben free sunblock—and have an apple and a handful of walnuts. At this very moment my tongue is hard at work, trying to dislodge that last little remnant of walnuts stuck between my back teeth. Pardon me while I reach for the dental floss.

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Friendships and Cancer

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

©Survivorship Media Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Breast cancer has brought many friends into my life who now hold high places of honor. Others who I thought were my friends have dropped by the wayside, and I have let them go. It is hard to be abandoned by old friends, but do not take it personally if this happens to you. Many people do not want to get “too close” to cancer, because they will then be forced to consider it could happen to them.

Before I was diagnosed I was the picture of health: I ate whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meat, chicken and fish, no fried foods, few fast foods, did water aerobics six days a week; I was a perfect size 8, got yearly checkups and mammograms without fail, stayed out of the sun, took vitamins and drank alcohol in moderation. One friend told me that if I, who did everything right, could get breast cancer it scared her to think about her odds of getting breast cancer. However, it did not scare her enough to get a mammogram or keep me as her friend—she did neither—because both would have forced her to take a closer look at breast cancer. She chose instead to live in the land of denial. <PREVIEWEND>

Another friend, an editor of a publication I used to write for, called and asked me how I was doing? “Terrific,” I said. Then just as though she had kicked me in the gut, she said, “Well, I wouldn’t brag about it if I were you. It has a way of coming back.” Thanks a lot, I thought. You really know how to support someone who is battling for their life. A few weeks later she called to ask me to write something for the next issue, and I said no. What my “no” really meant was, “No, I don’t want anything to do with you ever again.” Instead I politely said I had my hands full for the foreseeable future but thanks for thinking of me.

In fairness to friends and acquaintances, most people do not know what to say in the face of a serious illness. They do not know how to offer comfort or are afraid of saying the wrong thing. From the time I was diagnosed, I wanted people to understand I was the same person I was before breast cancer, and I still needed their friendship and to hear about their lives. So when friends called and asked how I was, I would say, “I’m great. How are you? What have you been up to?”

I think this answer accomplished two things: First, it relaxed the caller since they were expecting, perhaps fearing, to hear gory details of my surgeries, chemos, nausea, etc., so when they did not it made them not as afraid to call me again. Second, the act of turning the conversation away from myself was therapeutic for me. If only for the duration of our conversation this technique helped me focus on someone other than myself. I could do enough thinking about me when I was alone. And, as a result of not inundating them with details, they gave me positive feedback.

“You sound so upbeat,” or “You sound like you’re doing great,” they would say. Their comments helped me create a positive, self-reinforcing way of thinking about myself: If everyone thought I was doing great, therefore, I must be. And you know what? I was. I was much better than the breast cancer patients I knew who focused on themselves, worried about every little thing, feared the worst and expressed it to everyone they knew.

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

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New to Breast Cancer Blogs?

Thursday, October 15, 2009

©Brenda Coffee. All rights reserved.

There are oodles of breast cancer blogs on the Internet that chronicle in diary or memoir form the blogger’s personal journey through breast cancer. Some blogs are thoughtful, incisive and upbeat with philosophical musings about life and include helpful tidbits for coping with treatment. Other blogs are written by panicked women who view the world as a glass half-empty. While it is comforting to know others are experiencing the same difficult things you are, those blogs are depressing.

If you are newly diagnosed or battling recurrence, it is easy to relate to bloggers who are overwhelmed with their situation and detail their every ache, pain and fear. While reading a steady diet of horrible cancer tales—mental, physical and emotional—may give you a sense of community, it will not help you stay in the right frame of mind to battle your breast cancer. <PREVIEWEND>

Even though I am five years out from my diagnosis and am not in the midst of chemo and/or radiation, I remember what that time was like. Every second of every day I thought about whether or not I would die. It did not matter whether I was watching TV or listening to my husband describe his day; my impending mortality was always there, like the steady beating of my heart. For the first year and a-half I went through life that way. After that my worries backed off until I was only thinking about dying every few hours. Little things, like buying a winter coat on sale, made me wonder if I would even be here the next winter to wear it.

Last month I had prophylactic reconstruction of my healthy breast and was given a clean bill of health. Now I only think about dying every... Who am I kidding? Dying of breast cancer crosses my mind every week. I don’t fixate on it like I used to but whether I am fighting the dark side about leaving that cookie on the plate or going to work out, the mortality factor still lurks in the back of my mind. Like “stuff” you intend to clean out of the closet, whether you open the door or not, you know it is there, waiting for you.

As members of the Breast Cancer Sisterhood we need to use every tool we can to kick cancer to the curb and erase negative thoughts from our mind. “Thoughts are things” as my mother likes to remind me. Do not give those half-empty glasses any more power than they already have. I am not naive enough to think we can do that 50 or even 25 percent of the time but please, resist the urge to read negative breast cancer blogs.

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Benefits, Side Effects & Coping with Arimidex

Thursday, October 08, 2009

©Brenda Coffee. All rights reserved.

Arimidex is one of the weapons of choice for estrogen positive, postmenopausal women in the war against breast cancer recurrence. The 100-month ATAC trial, presented at the 2007 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, showed that by stopping or inhibiting the production of estrogen. Arimidex showed significant superiority over tamoxifen. Like most drugs, Arimidex comes with potential side effects although far fewer than tamoxifen. Side effects which receive the most complaints are hot flashes, joint pains and bone loss. Interestingly enough exercise is the one factor that goes a long way in alleviating all three complaints. <PREVIEWEND>

My friend Sarah and I take Arimidex: Sarah for three years; me, four and a-half years. Sarah does nothing proactive to prevent recurrence like eating a nutritious diet rich in calcium and Vitamin D, avoiding sugar and alcohol, limiting red meat, finding ways to cope with stress or exercising. Sarah suffers from hot flashes, joint pains and bone loss.

I am obsessive-compulsive and do all of the above or fret as to why I am not. One thing I am faithful about is exercise--walking, weights, yoga--and if for some reason I cannot, my joints ache like I have severe arthritis. I made that correlation soon after I started Arimidex. Other than minor bone loss and vaginal dryness, which my oncologist says will improve after I stop Arimidex in six months, I have no debilitating side effects.

I have stopped suggesting Sarah go to the gym. I understand her dislike for exercise. There are days I would rather do anything other than exercise, then I think about the “R” word. Recurrence. That’s when I turn procrastination on its head and say, “No, I would rather do anything other than die of breast cancer.” You would be surprised how fast that motivates my butt out the door and down the road for a brisk walk.

It is useless to spend our time speculating about who will and will not have a recurrence, because no one really knows. Sarah will probably live to be a 105, and I will die not of breast cancer, but from dog hair. They are everywhere in my house, and I leave them where ever I go. I can only imagine how many dog hairs flew off my coat as I sailed down the zip line in Alaska.

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Live Life with Breast Cancer

Friday, October 02, 2009

Eight days after my first mastectomy my girlfriends and I went to an outdoor Sting concert where the heat index was 110 degrees. I wore white linen and my turkey basters—drains that dangled from rubber tubing, surgically attached to where my breast had been.

Our seats were in the last row. From that far back Carrot Top could have been lip-syncing Sting songs for all we knew. As I looked around at the thousands of women in the audience, I could not shake the thought that statistically one out of eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. I studied them, teenagers, women in their 20s and 30s, 40s and 50s, all the time thinking “She has it and doesn’t know it. She’s going to have it. She’s had it." Breast cancer. The unspoken fear we all harbor deep within. The fear that will change our lives forever. <PREVIEWEND>

I also thought that if each one of those women knew about my bandages and turkey basters—where a week ago my right breast had been—many would not have agreed with me: At that moment, life does not get any better than this. I was alive. I was there with my two best friends, singing and clapping like my world had not been condensed onto a hospital pathology slide. Fifty some years smeared onto a piece of glass two inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide, my membership card to the Breast Cancer Sisterhood.

I was struck with the urge to hug each of those women and tell them to keep singing; keep laughing; keep living, to pull from each moment the things you want to remember. Savor them. Cherish them. Laugh at them. Live your life with joy. Do it deliberately and intentionally. “Tomorrow is promised to no one.”

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Cinco Vidas

Debbie's Cancer Blog

Divine Caroline

Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer

Rear Window

Walnuts May Fight Breast Cancer

Friendships and Cancer

New to Breast Cancer Blogs?

Benefits, Side Effects & Coping with Arimidex

Live Life with Breast Cancer

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