antics@druak.UUCP (GeigerL) (11/15/85)
<chomp chop chp cp c > A week before my sister's birthday, she decided to have that lump in her breast checked. It'd been around for a long time (maybe years), but after her last period, it just didn't seem to go away. She went to her doctor who decided that it was probably benign, but that it should be removed. The surgery was performed the day before her birthday. I called the next day (not knowing any of this) to wish her a happy 43rd birthday only to find out that she was in the hospital and that the surgery had proven the doctor wrong. A malignant tumor about the size of a walnut had been removed from her breast. The next day, she had all of the lymph nodes in the area removed in attempt to see if the cancer had spread any. Everyone has a different number of lymph nodes. Sandy had 20. One contained cancer. Just this Wednesday, three weeks after her first surgery, she began chemotherapy. I guess that only having one lymph node with cancer is a positive sign, but it still scares the poop out of me. The hardest part is that she lives in New York and the rest of my family lives in (gasp) Houston except for a sister in LA and me in Colorado. I'm not really looking for sympathy; I'm looking for diagnoses. How can further cancer be detected? Obviously, you can't just make a simple blood test to see if there are cancer cells. Sure, the tumor was removed from her breast and tests can be made for more there, but what if the cancer has spread? How long will it be before she effects of chemotherapy are noticeable? Will she start to lose hair immediately? How long after the treatments will she regain her sex drive and hair (assuming she loses them)? Will she necessarily get pale and age? Will that be reversible? I don't want to feel even worse next time I see her. I want to be as supportive as possible and I'd like to be as educated as possible. As an aside, now that the tumor from her breast has been removed, can it really be said that she has *breast* cancer? Lisa Geiger ihnp4!druak!antics PS Walt S, I'd love to hear from you. But, to avoid another major debate, please write to me instead of posting.