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Karen
(A member of Yahoo Stage
IV Breast Cancer Club posted this copy of her letter
the editor her local newspaper in October, 2000. It is reprinted here
with
her permission.)
Dear Editor,
This month is "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" and
we will all see lots
of pretty pink ribbons and happy smiling faces of those who go regularly
to
get their mammograms or "survivors" who caught the beast early
and are now"
cured."
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999
with Stage IV of the disease, the stage that is considered "incurable." But
the sad thing is that there is no cure for breast cancer at all. Yes,
the statistics are better for someone who got it at an early
stage but
even then, it can always come back and often does. Once you get
a
diagnosis of breast cancer, even if you get the most aggressive
treatment,
the threat of recurrence will forever hang over your head. And
although it
was once a disease that mostly attacked elderly women, now younger
and
younger women are getting it.
I would like to somehow
introduce you to the world of breast cancer-the
real world of breast cancer, not the sugar coated pink ribbon
world. The
horror of diagnosis with the realization that never again will
you know when
it can strike you down. The tears of the young woman who has
just given
birth to her first child and doesn't know if that child will
even remember
her because the child will be too young when the mother dies.
The dread of treatment-of amputation of the breast that should
be used to
nurture babies. The overall feeling of unwellness that consumes
the body
upon taking chemotherapy..the tremendous fatigue, the nausea,
the
depression. The bone crushing exhaustion that ensues after
radiation, the
burns that turn the skin into an open wound. The hormonal treatment
that
shifts a young vital body into immediate menopause with anxiety,
insomnia,
hot flashes, and of course sterility. The fear that comes from
never
knowing where the cancer will pop up next-will it strike the
bones, the
liver, the lungs, the brain?? It can in fact go anywhere and
I know because I have it in sternum and spine and lungs.
It's
just NOT a pink ribbon disease. No two ways about it. Many
doctors observe that breast cancer patients are "too nice" and
that's one
reason why more and better treatment is not available after
all these years. We
just don't complain enough or loudly enough. I see this too.
I see the
suffering but masked with a pleasant smile and polite thanks.
I see the
wigs that cover the baldness that is a result of the chemotherapy.
And the
prostheses that cover the amputated breasts. And there are
many workshops
that show the ghostly pale and haggard looking patients how
to apply makeup
and scarves etc so that they too can look good.
Forty
five thousand people a year die of this disease. Forty
five
thousand!! Forty five thousand women and men (yes, men
too die from
breastcancer) who are mothers and fathers, daughters and
sons, brothers and
sisters, and friends. It's a constant war going on and
we're losing, losing,
losing.
The media periodically enthusiastically announces
a new potential cure but
in reality little has changed in the last hundred years
in the treatment of
breast cancer. And the new treatments at best offer an
advantage of a few
months more life often at the loss of any quality of
life. We need money to
go to fresh innovative minds who are willing to look
in new directions
for treatment.
Please help us.
Please be the voice that too many
of us are too weak to raise. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Karen Bailey
Connersville,Indiana
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