Our first story is one that was told to me a few months ago. A woman I spoke with told me about her 67 year old mother. We’ll call her Barbara for the sake of this narrative.

Barbara is a cancer survivor. She had a mastectomy on one side and reconstructive surgery later. He daughter didn’t share with me the length of time between the mastectomy and the reconstruction. It is generally suggested that a woman either get reconstruction done immediately after a mastectomy (breast removal) or wait two years for the chemotherapy to be completely out of the system.

The chemicals used in chemo affect the circulation and can interfere with healing after surgery. As a side note, chemo can also leave behind little blue spots in the skin.

Barbara opted to wait and still developed necrosis. Her daughter didn’t share with me how severe it was. She only told me that her mother was SO sick of surgeries that she decided not to have the damage repaired. Barbara said that at her age she just didn’t want to deal with any more of it.

That is a pretty standard attitude with people who have been through a great deal of medical treatment. It’s exhausting. It eats away pieces of your life and by the time you’re done, you just don’t want to deal with any more.

I’m still looking for plastic and reconstruction surgery stories to share so please email them to boobcast@gmail.com. All names are kept confidential unless otherwise requested.

As the title says, this is the 200th installment of BoobCast. Today I am writing about you, dear reader. Today’s installment is all about the support and the stories that people have shared with me since I first started this blog on Oct. 11, 2008.

When I first started writing this, I was also fairly active on a website called All About Plastic Surgery (http://www.allaboutplasticsurgery.com). When I posted what had happened to me it didn’t take long before I was inundated by questions about various aspects of the surgery. You can find that entry here: http://boobcast.net/2008/10/14/questions/ People expressed a great deal of concern about how well I had checked out the surgeon, what indications I might have had and what legal recourse I might have taken. During that period so many people gave their support and I am grateful for it. So my thanks goes out to the women of the All About Plastic Surgery forum. They were the ones who inspired the idea for BoobCast.

Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Gee Maria, why do you call it BoobCast? Were they wrapped in plaster or something at one point?”

No, dear reader. There are reasons this site is called BoobCast.  In 2007 the podcasting community lost a precious member by the name of Joe Murphy. He died of a vicious type of cancer that took him quickly. During his medical treatments he talked in vivid detail about what was going on, the testing and all of it. His strength inspired me. I wanted to be as strong and as brave as Joe Murphy. So I planned to podcast what was going on with my breast necrosis. The name of that podcast was going to be BoobCast.

I never met Joe but his life inspired me. It just turns out that I’m not that strong or that brave. To honor that bravery I have kept the name.

I also owe thanks to a very dear friend, Tee Morris. When I was trying to find the strength to create BoobCast, He was there for me. He gave me mental and emotional support by letting me know that I *could* do it. I’m sorry I disapointed you Tee but want to thank you for being a friend when I needed one.

In the time I’ve been writing BoobCast I have had people email me directly for advice. Of course, after reading the email, my advice was always “Contact your PS (plastic surgeon) and ask for [fill-in-the-blank]. Whether it was about bruising, skin texture or pain, I advised talking to their doctor. If they couldn’t get a decent answer from that doctor, talk to another one.

The one that really broke my heart was the husband of a woman who, a few days previous the email,  had the same procedure I had. According to her husband, the pain pills her PS had given her weren’t doing much and she was in constant pain. She couldn’t eat or sleep and she was suffering. I told her husband to call her PS immediately and insist on different pain meds and not take NO for an answer. i explained that, right now it was his job to advocate for his wife since she couldn’t do it herself.

A couple days later I got an email from him saying that her PS had changed her meds and she was doing MUCH better. It’s emails like those that made BoobCast well worth the emotional pain of writing those early posts.

I also want to thank everyone who talked to me about BoobCast at DragonCon last year. Being told in person that I’m making a difference means the world to me. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Finally, my thanks to Carol Montoya, Lolly Daskal and the Woman At Denny’s. I promise that once I’ve had nipple reconstruction and recuperate from that, I WILL write the book. The foundation is in the works already.

My thanks to you all for reading, commenting and talking to me. Here’s to another 200!

It’s that time of year ladies. The time when we make our yearly appointments to have our breasts pressed into a thin, transparent form. None of us like to do it. It’s uncomfortable, awkward and a real inconvenience. And here’s where the lecture comes in.

Every woman I know makes excuses about why they can’t get it done. I’m here to tell you that there IS no excuse for disregarding your health. By NOT having a yearly mammogram after the age of 40 if ANY woman in your direct family has had breast cancer, you are potentially taking your life in your hands.

It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We all know someone (or knows someone who knows someone else) who has had breast cancer. Some women, like my two aunts and my mother, have come through it just fine and have been cancer free for decades.

Other women like my friend, let’s call her Hanna to protect her identity, aren’t so fortunate. Hanna developed breast cancer and opted for a natural treatment route. Unfortunately, it was ineffective and the cancer spread. Somehow, using something called Black Salve, she got rid of the tumor and she went into remission for about 5 years.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get the entire growth because it came back with a vengeance the second time. It spread into her  arm rendering it useless. The cancer grew in such a way that the doctors would have had to remove her arm to remove the cancer. It wasn’t long before it spread throughout her body including her brain. She has had two brain surgeries. But there is just too much in too many places in her body. She is now in hospice and may not live to see this Christmas.

The bright spot is that she made it to her goal. She wanted to live long enough to see her daughter graduate from high school. She made that goal Her daughter graduated this past June.

So please ladies… Suck it up and deal. Get it done. It’s only once a year. MAKE time. It may just save your life.

Imagine if skin could simmer like water and then be frozen in that state. That’s what keloid scars look like. Here’s a photo of keloid scars on someone’s chest.

Doctors do not understand exactly why keloids form in certain people or situations and not in others. Changes in the cellular signals that control growth and proliferation could be related to the process of keloid formation, but these changes have not yet been characterized scientifically.

The methods now available to treat keloids are:

• Cortisone injections (intralesional steroids): These are safe and not very painful. Injections are usually given once per month until the maximum benefit is obtained. Injections are safe (very little steroid gets into the bloodstream) and usually help flatten keloids; however, steroid injections can also make the flattened keloid redder by stimulating the formation of more superficial blood vessels. (These can be treated using a laser; see below.) The keloid may look better after treatment than it looked to start with, but even the best results leave a mark that looks and feels quite different from the surrounding skin.

• Surgery: This is risky, because cutting a keloid can trigger the formation of a similar or even larger keloid. Some surgeons achieve success by injecting steroids or applying pressure dressings to the wound site after cutting away the keloid. Radiation after surgical excision has also been used.
• Laser: The pulsed-dye laser can be effective at flattening keloids and making them look less red. Treatment is safe and not very painful, but several treatment sessions may be needed. These may be costly, since such treatments are not generally covered by insurance plans.
• Silicone sheets: This involves wearing a sheet of silicone gel on the affected area for several hours a day for weeks or months, which is hard to sustain. Results are variable. Some doctors claim similar success with compression dressings made from materials other than silicone.
• Cryotherapy: Freezing keloids with liquid nitrogen may flatten them but often darkens the site of treatment.
• Interferon: Interferons are proteins produced by the body’s immune systems that help fight off viruses, bacteria, and other challenges. In recent studies, injections of interferon have shown promise in reducing the size of keloids, though it’s not yet certain whether that effect will be lasting. Current research is underway using a variant of this method, applying topical imiquimod (Aldara), which stimulates the body to produce interferon.
• Fluorouracil: Injections of this chemotherapy agent, alone or together with steroids, have been used as well for treatment of keloids.
• Radiation: Some doctors have reported safe and effective use of radiation to treat keloids.

This is not a very common complication, but it can happen. There doesn’t seem to be a bias. It happens equally in men and women as well as all ethnicities.