Monday, December 19, 2011

Giuliana's mastectomy decision

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1 comment:

  1. I can obviously sympathize with Giuliana's decision. Fortunately, I only had cancer in one breast, my lymph nodes were negative, and I had clear margins (my surgeon removed tissue around my tumor that had no sign of cancer). With that said, Giuliana and I both had similar types of cancer. If her margins had been clear, she would have undergone radiation and hormone therapy - my current course of treatment. A double mastectomy, though, does not mean her cancer is completely gone. Hopefully, yes, but as with me, there could be stray cells in her body. The 5-year hormone therapy is supposed to take estrogen from my body so that those cells do not develop, as my (and Giuliana's) cancer is sensitive to estrogen. The fertility treatments that she has been undergoing and will probably be continuing involve pumping estrogen into her body and could therefore feed that cancer. Breast cancer does not just stay in the breast tissue - it likes to travel to the lungs and bones, and can even occur in the scar tissue of mastectomy survivors. Her decision was an extremely difficult one, and one I respect. I have wanted to be a mom for as long as I can imagine, but am wary of risking my life to conceive if it comes to that. As someone dealing with similar decisions, I wish her all the best.
    I'll post more about this because I've had some interesting experiences with discussing my treatment and fertility options with my oncologists, surgeon, and a fertility doctor.

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