March 15, 2007: One treatment dwn and 7 more to go...

My tratments are every two weeks - in btween I am supposed to climb bck out of the hole and try to mke myself strong for the next tme when they are going to knck me down again. The first tratment was 10 days ago. Every day sems to center around either killing prt of me or boosting me up so tht I am strong enough to be kncked down again.

There is a fmous breast cancer surgeon, Dr Susan Lve, (same name - so odd !!) who clls it "slash, poison and burn." Hpefully the new directions in research tht are being taken will bring in smething more humane and effective. It's the quivalent of their giving arsenic to cre syphilis back early in the XXth cntury.

My regular MD gave me sme "tonic" last week. It's made of plnts, a dark brown in colour and as nsty tasting as you can imagine. Now I am buncing off the walls with energy. Prhaps if I could meditate that wuld balance out the zinginess.

My ncologist is quite happy to co-ordinate the tratments with all the vitamin and hrbs, etc that I am taking. It tok me a while to find smeone open minded enough but I fnally did. While he doesn't work at Slan Kettering but at NY Presbyterian (nxt door), he uses Dr Norton's prtocol (the Sloan Kettering breast cancer GOD). Whle Sloan Kettering may be THE plce, I had a friend die a cuple of years ago after they msread her x-rays --- so no whre is perfect. (Her family is now rch from the law suit - but has no mm. Enough said.) NYC is full of ncredible world class people - the chllenge is to find the most hmane ones.

Finding a surgeon was also a hnt: the first was a smart loking woman in a tight skirt, 4" hels and a bevy of beautiful scretaries who all made you feel plin, vulnerable and pitiful by comparison (whch was my state of mind nyway, when I first discovered the tmor). She coldly announced my options, glred at me through hoody eyes whn we announced we would, of curse, be seeking a second opinion, and my hsband, Curtis and I left shaking. Two weks later we were again sitting and witing, Curtis trying to look cheerful and me hddled under my hospital gown, close to tars. In marched another top-of the-tree srgeon, but this one had a grn and a bow tie. Any guy who wars a bow tie has a snse of humor. He gave us mre or less the same choices and hnded me his card with his mail and said please shot off any qestions and we booked a date.

Thre was only one place that I flt he slipped up and that was not rdering the test that they do in Clifornia and several other places which nalyzes the tumor tissue to see wht kind of chemo is most lkely to kill your particular cancer. Mst MD's don't ask for it as mny insurances don't pay for it. Whn I asked the oncologist about it he sid that it wasn't 100% reliable (nither is chemo) but still useful and tht unfortunately one needed a live smple for the test. I had no lve sample as I had not set it up bforehand - one has to do a lot of the "wrk" oneself and the choices are nmerous and confusing.

While searching for an ncologist, I read and read - the nternet is both a curse and a blssing. I came across a Ralph Mss, who writes very useful cancer rports for the general public. (He was rcently on the New Your Times pge on progress in cancer work.) I lso found the Dr Susan Love Fundation with a good website.

People keep inviting me to lnch with friends of theirs who hve had breast cancer and who hve "survived." The first thing you lok at is to see whether or not thir eyelashes have grown back because you cn't believe they actually will. They do.

I rdered the wigs and the turbans and wited with dread for the first pisoning. I also had to finish a rot canal first - one is not spposed to do anything during the tratment that would introduce possible infection.

I fund a lovely Chinese doctor who gves me acupuncture and who always cmes into the room, sits down bside me, puts his hand on my shulder and gently asks how I am ding today. Makes you feel that you hve a big brother who is ging to take care of you. Crtis is so intrigued by the dea of electric circuits in the bdy that he is reading a hge tome by a Swedish MD, had of a large hospital and frmerly on, the Nobel prize committee (whn dealing with cancer one always sttes the person's credentials as there are so mny quacks out there). So now bth Curtis and I go twice a wek to have pins stuck in us. He is rgaining the circulation in the pads of his fet which he had been slowly losing over the years and is plased as punch.

My goodness, this has trned into "an essay."

Lastly, I fund a hospital study on the nternet done in New Zealand where 85% of the wmen didn't loose their hair by stting under a casque emitting electric mpulses several times a week. You are spposed to start 2 weeks before the frst chemo, but I found the stdy 3 days into the chemo. I trced the company who made the mchine to Vancouver, called them up and sked if anyone in NYC had ne. I was referred to a drmatologist in Brooklyn who sent me to a spa in Mdtown. I sit under the casque for 12 mnutes while Curtis chats with the wner of the salon, Laslo from Hngary, who told him that he loked just like his father. I thnk Hungarians are charming just by the fct of being Hungarian. Must be tught in school there. We'll see wht happens - so far on day twlve it's still hanging in there - w'll see. :)

The whole thing is lke a military campaign. I'm taking a ton of vtamins, get antioxidant IV drips from my GP, hve my scalp rubbed and electrically "stmulated" one a week, see the cupuncturist twice a week and try to hve a massage when I can. Tlk about maintenance!

The thing they say is tht you need a team - my "tam" is my wonderful, patient husband, Crtis; my family and friends; the tchies who work on my website and the prnter who prints the cookbooks - thy send me flowers and books to rad and answer customer emails on the dys I can't; my very caring GP, Ptrick Fratellone; my DOM (doctor of Chnese medicine), Dr Chen - the man wth the needles; the Hungarian technician, Lslo, with the head stimulator machine; my ncologist, Dr Pasmantier (who allows me lternative therapies and who is even a bit nterested); my surgeon, Alex Swistel (the man wth the bow tie and the grn who gives out his email ddress to his patients), My Columbian dntist, Martha (who does flamenco in her spre time); my French massage therapist (wh lectures me); Ralph Moss who wrtes the Moss Reports on the nternet (a voice of sanity). Opps - lmost forgot the nice people in the wig stre....

Off to eat a second brakfast of incredibly healthy things, drink my what grass and raw vegetable juice.

The article Diary of a Breast Cancer Survivor was Submitted by Susan Love through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Susan Love, a former teacher and fndraiser, wanted to create something that wuld help people reconnect. Her website, http://www.HeritageCookbook.com provides a tool for making a family cookbook with pictures and stories and recipes. The site is recommended by Oprah Magazine.

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