Saturday, May 19, 2012

Why wont women really talk to each other ?

Living with cancer......no joke. I am always waiting for the other shoe to drop, where next? Is this headache cancer? Is this cough cancer? Is this pain cancer ? It never stops but my recent go around with this thing called cancer has to have been the worst. I got the dreaded breast cancer last year and I can honestly say after 25 surgeries this one has to have been the most painful.I have to keep communicating with friends who have walked this way before me to find out if I'm crazy or is this double mastectomy followed by expanders and implants really the worst experience in the world and do they feel like I do - ready to take them out daily. Yes they do all admit they make us look good in our clothes but not sure the pain is worth it. I gave a talk to 35 women recently - all breast cancer survivors - and not one with an implant in sight and I wanted to tell them how lucky they were to not have been able to afford these perky new boobs. They all had prosthesis of some sort from socks stuffed with all manner of things to sponge prosthesis and not one in the pain I was feeling while talking to them, but they all wanted to look like me and have breasts again.They informed me that those of them with large breasts are off balance if they forget to put in their prosthesis,and I explained to them that why my implants cause so much pain is because they scoop out all my breast tissue cause it's cancerous and put in the implants on a raw chest wall and nothing prepares you for that, and not being told makes it worse considering you see women getting implants daily to improve breast size with seemingly no pain so what a shock it is to realize that their implants are put into breast tissue so it has a cushion. It reminded me of putting my new born baby on my breast and the pain in my belly made me pull him off immediately no one had told me that when a baby suckles it causes your uterus to contract hence this cramping pain! The interaction between all of us was so informative -36 women giving their experiences and learning from each other - it was simply amazing especially when one woman learnt from several women who had been through it that the yeast infections that she was suffering from came from the Tamoxifen that she was taking. Why won't women talk so we can prepare each other? Let's talk ladies each one help one,the cold hard facts please lets no longer suffer silently!

2 comments:

Doreen Grant said...

You are great inspiration Pat. I have enjoyed your Blog. I am right now visiting Jamaica for the 2nd time and loving it. Learning alot about Jamaican food in its natural form. The abundance of fruits is amazing - it feels very much like home, Africa - where I was born. I miggrated to the USA almost 20 years ago to join my Jamaican born husband and have been so confused about diet!!! I a six year beast cancer survivor and exploring the medicinal benefits of food everywhere!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the blogs Pat, truly an inspiration! I must thank you about that bit regarding the yeast and tamoxifrn- I've been struggling with for over a year now...