A Life told in Hair! (and hats)

I'm linking up with SaveEveryStep. This is a nostalgia Linky of family stories. This week, the stories are all about our changing attitudes to (and experiments on) our hair. 

One of the first things Mom worried about after her cancer diagnosis, was her hair. We made an appointment with a hairdresser, who was in remission from breast cancer. She cut Mom's hair short and helped her choose a wig style. Then, when Mom's hair fell out from the chemotherapy, we already had a plan to deal with it. These photo's show Mom's changing hair over her life-time, the way we remember her. 

I have included photo's of Mom in hats, too, as she loved her hat collection, almost as much as her hair.

CHEMO OR NO CHEMO?

Perhaps I'm just more attuned to it, but I seem to be hearing this in all sorts of places. And it's making newspaper headlines, too. I think it's right that everyone has the opportunity to discuss all treatments options, and I do understand the toxic effects of chemotherapy, so it's not to be undertaken lightly. But what are the alternatives? Change your diet? Meditate? Exercise? Yes, all three are useful but what of the big cancer-beating treatment? The one thing that will whack those cells into submission. If you've had surgery and radiotherapy and the tumours are still there, chemotherapy can offer the next line of treatment. 

And in Mom's case, the first three rounds of chemo were well-tolerated, reduced the size of the tumours by half and kept the paraneoplastic symptoms at bay, so that Mom could enjoy life, have a holiday and not think about having cancer for a few months.

The fact that it didn't work in the end is something we have come to terms with, but on balance I would still say I am satisfied with the chemotherapy protocol Mom followed, and I am grateful for those months with Mom.

The problem is that the oncologists are so busy and often only the registrar is available in clinic, so discussion is limited. And there is limited funding for staff to spend as much time as needed with patients and their families. That's partly why I started this blog, to try to raise awareness of the options, the questions to ask, where to get help, and for others to know that so many families are going through the same thing. It doesn't have to be a struggle, God knows the treatment is bad enough.

Stay positive, listen to your body, surround yourself with love and don't forget the treats.

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Guest post: exercise against cancer

One of the great things about blogging is connecting with like-minded people all over the world. Quite by chance, David Haas read my blog and asked if he could guest post. Check out David's credentials here and read his post below. Thanks, David.

Link

Benefits of Exercise in Your Fight Against Cancer

When you’ve been given a cancer diagnosis, the last thing you often feel like doing is exercising. Cancer treatment can also sap your energy. Chemotherapy, in particular, causes patients to feel run down—rather than feeling like running around the block. Exercise, however, can help ease the stress of going through cancer. The body fat reduction you get as a result of exercise can even lower your risk of recurrence of some types of cancer.

Each stage of the cancer journey can produce intense amounts of stress. When your doctor first gives you a cancer diagnosis and every time you wait to receive a test result, the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol course through your system. Your body is preparing a fight-or-flight response, but the enemy lies unseen inside your body. When adrenalin and cortisol surge, your body wants to move, and the action of moving causes your stress hormones to recede. Exercise also stimulates the body’s production of endorphins, which naturally help relieve pain and elevate your mood.

Some people find rhythmic and repetitive exercises such as jogging or using an elliptical machine to be especially relaxing. Harvard Medical School’s newsletter calls this type of exercise “muscular meditation.” Some patients whose cancers involve the lungs, such as pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer patients, may find intense exercises too taxing during treatment. These patients can still benefit from a walking program or Tai Chi, with its slow, graceful movements.

Some cancer patients prefer the same kinds of sports they would use if they were being physically attacked. When they engage in sports like martial arts or kickboxing, they envision themselves beating cancer into submission. As patients become physically stronger, they feel stronger to fight against cancer as well.

While exercise isn’t a cure, it can help prevent a recurrence of some types of cancer. Body fat produces the female hormone estrogen, which often plays a role in developing breast cancer. Exercise causes people to lose body fat and produce less estrogen. One medical journal, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, cites recent studies that show a link between high body mass index and other types of cancers, too. Besides breast cancer, obesity is associated with a heightened risk of ovarian, endometrial, colorectal, thyroid, renal, gall bladder, pancreatic, and esophageal cancers. In addition, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, leukemia and adenocarcinoma all have a correlation with obesity.

David Haas 2011

AND NOW FOR THE SCIENCE BIT

Cancer cells, believe it or not, depend on the very same means of survival as normal cells do. They must produce energy and replicate. But it is the very efficient way they do this, without any control, that turns a rogue cell into a devastating tumour. They are vulnerable, however, and because of this, scientists have developed ways of cutting off the energy and replication machinery. This is what chemotherapy does. 

Have you wondered why chemotherapy affects certain healthy parts of the body too? This is because the drugs used are designed to interfere with the way cells divide. Any cells in the body which divide very quickly will also be affected. This is why people undergoing chemotherapy often lose their hair. Other cells that could be affected in this way include skin cells, cells lining the gut, and cells in the bone marrow which are destined to become the infection-fighting cells. So people having chemo need to be careful to avoid coughs and colds.

Two points to end on: there is good evidence that using a 'cold' cap during chemo slows down the growth of normal hair follicle cells and prevents hair loss - ask the Chemo nurse about this. And advances in immunology (infection control in the body) are such that a very good drug given just after chemo can boost the good white blood cells in the bone marrow.

Any questions, please ask.

THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER...

June 2011

The news was bad. The tumours had not responded, not even a partial remission. So everything we had read about small cell lung cancer (SCLC) was true - it's aggressive, chemotherapy is only palliative, prognosis 6-8 months. A horrific diagnosis. We put a brave face on it, attended all the oncologist appointments, listened to the registrar telling us the obvious, encouraged Mom to have all the chemo. We did everything we had to, we did our part, we put our hearts and souls into living with Mom's cancer.

The oncologist said there was another chemo regime to try. Mom had already had 6 cycles of EP (etoposide and cisplatin) over 18 weeks from Christmas to Easter, and she was still alive. Without it, she would not have made it to Dad's birthday in February. So we said OK, we'll give CAV* a go, how bad could it be...
(* C = Cyclophosphamide A = Doxorubicin (also called Adriamycin) V = Vincristine 
Cancer Research)

It was awful, Mom was sick all the time, getting weaker and weaker, and by mid-June we knew the game was up. The oncologist withdrew treatment and gently suggested we 'get the Macmillans involved'.

Actually, we already had the Macmillans involved. Mom's GP practice had set this up in January, via the District Nurse service. Our local facility was the Beacon Service.