Just adapting a post that I shared with my cancer group about the excellent Netflix limited series "Apple Cider Vinegar." Cuz at this point--and I say this as a cancer patient--cancer is a welcome relief from politics.
The show is a really engaging dramatization of the Belle Gibson cancer fraud case in Australia. Briefly, Gibson claimed to control/cure her brain cancer with diet, which she leveraged into a cookbook deal and Apple app and pledged to donate money to cancer causes. Except that she never had cancer, and none of the causes she pledged to received money.
But Gibson is not the only person fooling herself or others in this look at CancerWorld. The show does a great job showing that none of us gets a serious illness in a vacuum. We live in a Western culture that has certain ideas and attitudes about disease treatment and patients. And we live in a capitalist culture that rewards hustle, even when the hustler is a charlatan.
I was especially struck by the young fictional cancer patient Camilla's reaction to the elderly cancer patients at a pool: "They did this to themselves," she says angrily.
And there it is, the self-blame inventory everybody with cancer is forced to confront: What did I do to cause this? Am I a dupe of Big Pharma making billions off conventional treatment? Can I turn this around by being extra "good and pure" about diet and exercise? Did treatment fail because I didn't try hard enough to eliminate "negativity"?
There are lots of other good insights about our attitudes toward illness, and if you've seen it, please post thoughts here.
Naomi Klein has an autistic son. In “Doppelganger”, she talks about the blame game applied to autism, even by the parents. Maybe the vaccine thing stems from a desire to switch blame away from themselves, even though blaming themselves is fallacious in the first place.
ReplyDeleteMany observers have said that it seems that Barron Trump is on the autism spectrum. Trump actively supported a national autism day of some kind by lighting up the WH with special light colors. I don’t remember the details. But he was furious when it was suggested that his son might be autistic. And so he brought up vaccines causing autism. The only thing I’ve learned about autism is that there is a correlation with paternal age. No proof of causation, but if someone told him about the correlation it might explain his vehement denial and his antagonism to vaccines. He certainly would not want it to have anything to do with the fact that he was about 60 when his youngest son was born. As Stanley days, they would rather blame the vaccine.
DeleteJean, I have also heard people blame cancer survivors for their own disease. Ridiculous, AND unkind. I might look for the show.
Yes, I think that's a good point. I read today that a geneticist in North Carolina has identified a group of gene patterns and mutations associated with autism, ADHD, depression, and schizophrenia. The preliminary research indicates these run in families, suggesting an inherited condition, not something that arises spontaneously from, say, vaccines.
DeleteParental age. Boy, that's a whole other thing people love to run with. Any time The Boy had any problems, it was always because "you were too old when you had him."
DeleteI was 37 with our third. I was nervous because I was “ elderly” by obstetric standards and they offered amniocentesis because of the higher risk of a genetic problem. I didn’t get it because I didn’t trust myself not to rationalize terminating if a genetic defect was found.
DeleteI was 27 when our youngest was born. A nurse at my doctor's clinic remarked that I was "getting up in years". Even at the time I thought that was a weird comment.
DeleteMy mom had been just a month short of 40 when my youngest sister was born. I guess it's a matter of perspective, we really do have quite a wide window when it's possible, not necessarily easy, to have kids.
I was 41 when The Boy was born. Lots of freaking out.
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ReplyDeleteI can't watch the show because we don't have Netflix. But I have definitely seen the "blame the victim" thing. My mom had lymphoma. She never smoked nor drank, and was all about a healthy diet. There was never any kind of a rational way to connect the dots from something she did or didn't do to cause her illness. There is high nitrate levels in some water in Nebraska. But not in the area they lived in. We did get a filtered water system after Mom got sick. But we have no clue what the cause was. I have lost count of the times I have been asked if this or that thing caused it. And many have commented on the speed at which it progressed, with a central nervous system manifestation. Some things we're never going to know.
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry your mom had that, Katherine.
DeleteI'm sorry anyone has to deal with cancer!
DeleteI have a friend who works in a pharmacy. She thinks that because we have an anti-vaxxer as head of HHS, that insurance companies may stop covering vaccines. I hope she is wrong, because we are our own best advocates when the ones in charge won't advocate.
ReplyDeleteI kinda doubt that will happen if only because the cost of treating people for complications of preventable diseases is more expensive than vaccination. My cousin Phil died of the covid, and his daughter said that the hospital tried to put her on the hook for the tens of thousands his ER and ICU hospitalization cost. I do expect that vaccine research and public assistance for vaccinations will dry up.
DeleteThe Louisiana health department announced it will no longer promote mass vaccinations. They’re not opposing vaccinations, just saying it’s between a citizen and their doctor. But I could see this as a red state trend.
DeleteThat just means more of the poor who rely on low- and no-cost vaccines and use up a lot of welfare money will die, which is basically good news to the Effective Altruism hardliners like Musk. You provide the greatest material good for the most people by getting rid of the dead weight who consume resources that others have to pay for that they could otherwise spend on themselves and their family units.
DeleteI suppose Louisiana will no longer require certain vaccines like polio and measles for school, which would be bad news.
DeleteOne thing I wonder, will the expensive private schools where the rich families send their kids require the vaccines?
I do wonder whether RFK will normalize quack cancer cures. I have seen the way these things work: MPNs like mine unfold slowly. People opt for a quack cure and think it's working if they have a small, temp drop in high blood levels. Then they get on support groups and tell everybody taking the oral chemo that they're dupes for taking the chemo. My support group is thru the Mayo Clinic, and even there the number of people eschewing conventional cures is surprising. But they do get pushback from the nurses running that, many of them cancer patients themselves.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the alternative treatment patients either have a clot, bleeding episode, or morph to a full-blown leukemia. But they still claim that their treatment delayed their having to go on chemo, and it encourages a lot of lay people to give the quackery a try. Why? Because your chemo pills come with black box warnings, and alternative treatments are not subject to oversight.
Conventional oncologists have started to make deals with their balky patients, agreeing to sanction their alternative regimen for a time in exchange for regular blood monitoring until the patient realizes the alternative isn't working as evidenced by years of blood tests. The down side of this is that patients tell everybody that their oncologist "supports" their alternative treatment.
So the anecdotal evidence builds up.
My goddaughter had leukemia and the chemotherapy put it into remission. She said the experience was horrible, that it changed her, gave her “chemo brain”. Maybe the quack cures are just a way to rationalize not going through the real thing which is an ordeal. My father died from stomach cancer, essentially starvation, at age 48. My health history, so far, seems to track the good and bad of my mother’s health record. But I’ve been exposed to chemicals yet uninvented when my mother was growing up. So who knows?
DeleteNo doubt that chemo changes you. Or knowing someone who died of cancer.
DeleteThe oral chemo I get is like 6 weeks of infused treatment spread out over 20 years. But there are some people who can't tolerate even these little doses, and over time doses do have to go up.
The best place to have this type of cancer is Italy. Since this cancer is incurable, their protocols look at both effective maintenance and palliative care. It's taken 10 years for American clinicians to catch on.
I was very lucky to have a doc from India who was plugged into the Italian protocols, so my chemo was upped gradually and my age and mutation type were factored in. The American way was to hit people with huge doses right out of the gate, which led to terrible bone pain, fevers, and vomiting.
We approach everything with a sledge hammer, and that's prob another reason people resist conventional treatment.
A retired colleague of mine was getting oral treatment for a form of lung cancer. Even the metastases disappeared. But it definitely had some sort of health tradeoff since COVID Omega ( the “mild” version) got him. He was unvaccinated but probably would’ve gotten vaccinated if recommended by his doctor. Not a MAGA type. So many types of cancer. So many treatments. So many strategies.
DeleteThat's sad. Chemo reduces immunity and makes vaccines less effective, so might not have made much difference. I still get vaxxed up, and if I feel cruddy I assume there's still enough of an immune system to stimulate, so yay that. My cousin had a similar cancer to mine and had stem cell transplant which involves permanently frying your immune system. He's in the hospital at least once a year with something that's turned to pneumonia. Family is half MAGA, but they do get vaxxed up so he doesn't get sick.
DeleteMy uncle died of leukemia when he was @bout 42. His only child is my cousin. Her son died, his grandson, died two years ago at age 39 in the same hospital that his grandfather that he never knew died in. He had a stem cell treatment. It was from his brother and was only a half match. They thought he would make it but a year later it was in his brain. The stem cell treatment was possibly too little too late. This is my Irish side. A perfect match was found in someone in Ireland but he didn’t want to fly to LA to donate. My cousin was heartbroken. All the cousins including our sons were tested too, but no match. The hunt for a perfect match may have taken too long. We will never know.
DeleteOne of my husbands closest friends died of prostate cancer a year ago.He was diagnosed 15 years earlier and chose to not have surgery. A few years ago as it advanced he was taking something given in Italy which did seem to work for quite a while. But it finally got him. He was 84. I knew three women who died of breast cancer in their early 40s and 50s. They had all the treatments, non- smokers etc. one of my closest friends now had a recurrence of breast cancer 20 years after surgery, radiation and five years of daily drugs. It’s stage 4 though this time - in her bones. She had two different regimes of oral chemo every day, and blood tests every two weeks. Her most recent bloodwork wasn’t good and she had a PET scan. She’s been getting those every three months. They have again changed her chemo drugs. It’s been about 3 years since she learned the cancer had come back and spread. She is 73. She said this time she is going to lose her hair. My sister and a friend both had the most aggressive form of breast cancer. Surgery, chemo and radiation. Both were bald and wore wigs until the chemo ended. My sister was 72 when diagnosed and is now 86. The friend was about 60 with hers, and that was about 5 years ago. None of these people tried alternative therapies, The harsh chemo my older sister had was stopped early because of a severe reaction that damaged her heart and caused heart failure.Her heart issues have gotten worse and her cardiologist referred her to a specialist in advanced heart failure last year.
ReplyDeleteCancer is no fun. I’m glad mine wasn’t aggressive, was caught very early and only required a lumpectomy and ten radiation treatments.
Some cancers are caused by spontaneous mutations, but clinicians have noted "family clusters" in some cancers. They think that you may inherit a predisposition to mutate, which happens when exposed to certain carcinogens.
DeleteI think there may be a genetic component for susceptibility - maybe a weaker immune system. My husbands parents both died of cancers — in their 80s. He had 3 aunts and uncles die of cancer on his father’s side, and has had 3 first cousins die, all younger than he is. The cousins were in their 50s and 60 s. But mostly different cancers - lung (an aunt, a cousin and an uncle), brain, prostate ( his dad), colon, and ovarian ( his mom).
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is able to watch the Netflix show, would be interested in what you think it reflects about Western culture's attitudes about illness and death.
ReplyDeleteFrom the 20th century on, humankind has been able to cure things with vaccines, antibiotics, and (in some cases) surgical advances. But we've also developed a sense of disconnection from sickness and death that isn't entirely healthy for the sick, the dying ... or the well who are repelled by them.
It is God's plan for us to live a mortal, finite life, and that means a short or long period of dealing with a body that is failing and shutting down. If there is consciousness and a perfect body waiting for us in the Hereafter, great, but that still means that there is a leave-taking from this life, and a wrestling with what our lives have meant in a family and community.
I think you are right about the sense of disconnection. Part of it is that we got so used to being spared from some diseases by the vaccines and medications that some of us forgot that the diseases can come back if we fail to take the necessary precautions. The anti-vaxxers seem to have a sense of invincibility. Sometimes reality can bite hard.
DeleteIt is also true that that the feeling of disconnection can extend to being disconnected from those who suffer from illness and disability; forgetting that we are all in some stage of deterioration.
There are many things going on behind this discussion
ReplyDelete1. Placebo effects: these can be very strong so strong that new drugs are tested against placebo effects. Sometimes these may be dramatic. One case reported in the literature was a man that took an experimental drug to cure his tumor. It was effective. Several months later he read that the drug had not passed clinical trials. His tumor returned. Then the drug company offered a new form of the drug; his tumor disappeared. Then another news report said the improved drug had also failed clinical trials. His tumor returned resulting in his death.
2. Palliative care effects; giving people comfort care often gets them through illnesses. Rodney Stark, the agnostic sociologist who wrote The Rise of Christianity, maintains one of the reasons for the success of the early church was its care for its diseased members and others. Over time Christians and the people whom they befriended were more likely to survive.
3. People in nursing homes who are given plants that they care for vs plants that the staff care for end up being healthier. So mental activity like physical activity is good for us.
4. In a classical experiment which became the movie, Counter Clockwise, social psychologist Ellen Langer had older people spend a weekend at a retreat location where they relived the 60’s They became healthier in comparison to the control group who went on the retreat without reliving the sixties.
5. Langer in her book, Counter Clockwise, begins with this disclaimer: This book could be read as anti-establishment medicine. It is therefore important to state that if I personally were to experience extreme health symptoms, I would go to my doctor, but there is little else I would do that is traditional.
6. An article I read many years ago in a medical journal argued persuasively that each of us is our own primary diagnostician, i.e. we decide whether or not to take our symptoms to a doctor, and whether or not we accept the doctor’s opinion. We are also our own primary physicians deciding whether or not to comply with a physician’s treatment plan or do our own thing.
7. Computers do a much better job of predicting diagnosis and outcomes than clinician judgement. Even when clinicians have the computer prediction in front of them, they don’t do better. As we get more and more data and better databases AI will increasingly be making the medical decisions.
8. Langer takes a different approach. She does not think much of statistical decision making, rather she is using science to treat the individual case. Whether it is diagnosis or treatment she is looking at data in the individual case. Do symptoms get better or worse when the environment or the person’s behavior changes. In other words, she is building on the fact we are our own primary diagnosticians and physicians.
9. In a way Langer is going back to the beginning of clinical psychology. Psychologists got PhDs not because they were supposed to conduct research studies but because they were supposed to use data to study the individual case, e.g. tests. Of course, now we have PsychD. because psychologists are doing what physicians do, namely apply average protocols on the basis of the evidence.
10. Personally, I have found it helpful to collect a lot of data on myself: weight, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep episodes, steps etc. It has been far more helpful than the data that physician’s collect on office visits.
11. About a decade ago I was diagnosed as having sleep apnea on the basis of an overnight test. After having a lot a difficulty with using a CPAP machine, I managed to get another test because I had lost weight. That time the sleep apnea was completely gone. The doctor said it was because I had lost weight. I decided it was because the second test was done on an elevated hospital bed rather than a flat bed. I bought an elevated bed and sure enough I snore when it is flat and do not snore when it is elevated. You have to be your own scientist in these matters.
My cancer was waved away as a "menopausal complaint" for five years until a cardiologist did some pre-op blood tests and compared them with past tests. Why weren't elevated blood levels flagged? Because the GP looked at my age and complaints and decided it was caused self-inflicted stress. He offered benzos, which I declined.
DeleteSo I have little faith that AI, fed by conventional medical wisdom, won't just spit out the same cultural biases about women. Over 55? Just another old biddy complaining about migraines, fatigue, and night sweats.GIGO.
I take nothing to a doctor unless it's swollen, bleeding, lumpy, red, rashy, or can otherwise be detected with the naked eye. They won't believe you otherwise.
Sure mental activity is good. So is a positive outlook, exercise, and attention to diet to the extent that they contribute to quality of life and independence. If you can maintain those things in the face of serious disease, you'll have more good days. Self-discipline and mental training will contribute to all of those benefits.
DeleteBut most of us do not stay in tip-top condition to age 80 and then die peacefully in our sleep.
Chronic illness that goes on for years has a way of grinding away physical stamina, mental well-being, and a sense of purpose.
As a culture, we have little patience with, if not outright revulsion for, disease, weakness, and those who suffer them. That attitude affects the care we get from family, friends, and the medical community.
I haven't seen it but I will try to watch it.
ReplyDeleteI should add: I'm not a regular watcher of Netflix but sort of semi-watcher or semi-demi-watcher; we go in there every couple of weeks when trawling for something to watch. I haven't seen this show recommended before, so most likely Netflix's blankety-blank algorithm doesn't think I'd be interested in this kind of a show, so it never feeds me the fact that it exists. Hate the algorithm.
DeleteHope it's of interest.
DeleteI just watched the first episode . I’m hooked and will finish the series. Thanks for the recommendation.
DeleteSorry I have never watched Netflix.
ReplyDeleteIs it something on cable TV? I don't have cable TV.
Is it on the internet like YouTube? Where you either pay to watch it without adds or put up with the ads.
(I do YouTube with adds, except if you embed YouTube material on your blog you don't get advertisements).
Netflix has two levels, one with ads, one without. You can watch it on an app on your computer or smart phone. You can watch it on TV, if it’s a smart TV with embedded software, or if you have an Amazon firestick (plugs into an HDMI port on tge TV). or a Roku box. I think you have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to use the firestick. I’m thinking of dropping Amazon Prime (approximately $150 per year with free delivery) because I am sick of billionaires. I am getting rid of satellite TV ($1300 per year) to be frugal in anticipation of the Trump economy. I will probably continue with Netflix (approximately $200 per year) for now. I especially like the Polish films.
DeleteNo Netflix, no TV, no Amazon firestick, No Amazon Prime, no satellite TV. Just the internet, Blogger and YouTube, a simple life.
DeleteBetty and I really like the YouTube webcams from the Hamptons and Myrtle Beach. They come free of distracting advertisements, and you can rewind them. So, if I get up at 7am I can rewind them to sunrise as I have coffee and breakfast, then later when I go down for my treadmill exercise I can watch them again as play the music on my website for Lauds, then Betty can watch sunrise as she eats breakfast. By the way they come with a background of ocean waves and bird sounds.
Besides the sunsets on the East and West coasts we still have beautiful sunsets many evenings here on the Northcoast over sometimes frozen Lake Erie.
At this time of the year the beaches on the East Coast are not crowded. Just a few brave people walking the beach sometimes with their dogs.
Sometimes we play classical music. Betty is usually busy with her artwork, and I with my websites. So, it is kind of like living at a hermitage retreat house year around. We sing Vespers with the Benedictines each evening. We garden in the summer. We help each other with our health problems. We don't pay much attention to what is going on in the world, except for the discussions here. We don't go out much, except for doctor's appointments and to pick up groceries. We go to church and shop in stores only doing low Covid times in the spring and early summer. We are both very mentally active, although physically we have deteriorated somewhat. Computers help to create a visual and aural world that we desire with the minimum of other junk.
I do see why many people would want to live in their own little happy world with a minimum of outside contact right now. People who run cool probably live longer than those who run hot and overheat frequently like me.
DeleteI may be headed in that direction myself. However, I may be participating in protests against Trump and against Israel’s aggression. I went to Wilkes-Barre yesterday for an anti-Trump march. 250 people showed, not a bad number considering the cold, windy weather. One elderly lady was there with her walker. A mixed bag of causes. But everyone there opposes Trump. No counterprotesters but people driving by were honking horns in support. This was part of a national protest in all 50 states, excluding Canada. We’ll need bigger protests and they may increase in size as Trump’s putsch continues. People can protest in other ways. I hear of February 28 as a Buy Absolutely Nothing day. I will be participating.
DeleteThe Boy has gone to some antiTrump things. Since the Social Security Administration has fallen to MAGA, everybody with elderly parents needs to raise hell if they don't want Ma and Pa will movin' in.
DeleteSome progressive Democrats are acting up. Bernie Sanders will be in Omaha and going on to Iowa on the 21s for a "resist Trump" tour. Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury of NM, and AOC are speaking out. I don't always agree with their politics but I love their guts. I think they are taking the attitude that freedom is another name for nothing left to lose. I don't know what some of the others think they have to lose.
DeleteAOC has attracted the ire of Tom Homan. He said she was dumber than a box of rocks and wants her to shut up. He's sounding like a grade school playground bully.
I watched the first episode. I found Gibson so repellant that it could be difficult to watch sometimes. I think my wife was hooked, so we'll keep taking it forward.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, it was in my feed this time. I don't actually have my own profile on Netflix, I just use my wife's. Since we share a profile, we get kind of a mixture of stuff targeted to me and stuff targeted to her. If we're perplexing the algorithm, I'll savor that very minor victory. Quite a bit of our television watching is together so we sort of put up with each other's tastes to some extent. She likes sci-fi and supernatural stuff (e.g. ghost-hunter shows) and Hallmark Channel content. I like detective and police-procedural stuff. I can put up with more traditional guy fare (e.g. the Mission Impossible film series) if it's well-done, but a lot of that stuff is pretty bad these days.
Most everybody's pretty repellent in it, if you ask me. It's supposed to get people worked up, I guess, and does so by making no one wholly sympathetic.
DeleteIf you prefer a more factual, measured take on the cancer biz, Barbara Ehrenreich's "Bright-Sided," about her first bout with breast cancer is beloved of many patients.
I think you said that ministering to the infirm is not in your diaconal bailiwick, so maybe none of this is germane for you or anybody else here. Possibly people get sick of me talking about cancer. Or anything, really. I've always been somebody people can only take in small doses.
I rotate between Hulu, Netflix, and Apple. Can't afford to have umpteen streaming services on hand at one time. I make a list of things I want to watch on each service and switch out after a few months. I don't really pay attention to whatever they're hawking in the "for you" feed. Left to his own devices, Raber's tastes run to The Rifleman, football, and old sitcoms, which he can watch free on Roku.
I think I'm not alone in being an advocate for "more Jean!" on NewGathering :-)
DeleteI don't do hospital visits as a ministry because of the day job. But I have a list of cancer patients I pray for. Also a list of Parkinson's patients, a list of abuse victims, a list of people experiencing depression and anxiety...got a lot of lists! So I am interested. I don't suppose there is a family anywhere which cancer hasn't touched. Both of my parents are survivors. My brother lost an arm to cancer when we were growing up. My niece, who is a teenager, was already a three-time survivor by the time she was six. I expect it's just a matter of time with me. I try to appreciate my relative good health and try (in very moderate doses) to take care of my health, but of course most of these habits simply reduce the probability.
Oh, your brother and niece! It just hurts to to hear about young people with cancers like that. Are they ok now?
DeleteYou sound like a very organized pray-er. I don't have lists. I try to say prayers for people whenever I see their names on a post or message. Or I ask St Rocco to watch over everyone with the flu, covid, or RSV if I read cases are spiking.
Update on Belle Gibson.
DeleteI hope the actress who played Belle isn’t as smarmy in real life as her character. If she’s actually a decent person she deserves an acting award. The smarminess of Belle from the very beginning is stomach turning. Her son is apparently 14 now but I can’t find easy to find information on him. Poor kid.
https://apnews.com/article/belle-gibson-netflix-apple-cider-vinegar-australia-influencer-2c683dea3b06e204b261ba3d83919ad2
Milla does seem to have been copied with few changes from the other wellness guru at the time. I had heard of the place in Mexico which of course has a different real name than the one in the movie. The founder of both the fictional and real “wellness” retreat center are essentially the same. Sad that her mother bought into the lies too and died.. breast cancer has a pretty good survival rate these days if treated early.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Ainscough
Jim, how sad that your brother lost his arm at such a young age.And that your niece was so sick. I do think that some families have a predisposition . My husbands extended family and nuclear family have had a lot of different cancers. Both his parents, his brother and his sister as well as all the cousins, aunts and uncles I mentioned previously.
DeleteJean, I think all of us have an interest in cancer and you know more than any of us. So please post as often as you want. Thus series was very interesting and I had never heard of it.
As somebody with a chronic cancer, I've become interested in how people cope. One of the things I see often in my cancer group are people obsessed with what gave them cancer, especially among young women who report that they are in tip-top shape and are very angry about their diagnosis. Research into environmental causes of non inherited cancers is very sparse, so many patients latch onto a pet theory. A popular one is stress caused by a problem family member. That's not my pet theory (I grew up in a rich stew of atmospheric nuclear test fallout and pre-EPA chemicals like dioxen and benzene from living near the Dow Chemical plant from birth thru high school). But the cancer-causing-family-member theory is a popular one right now and provides a ready-made guilt-trip for some patients to wield. It's a very sad thing to see (and maddening) when patients use support groups to keep their grudges and anger going.
DeleteI should also add that there is a significant number of folks blaming the COVID shot for their cancer. We usually give them a link to the adverse reaction reporting page online. Then, as they learn more, they usually stop freaking out on their conspiracy jags, and some start bringing really good info and insights to the group.
DeleteI look at the family history connection as being a heads up to get screenings on schedule. Not to cause a guilt trip. A Jewish neighbor whose mother died of breast cancer in her early 50s knew she was at high risk too because she’s an Ashkenazi Jew and her mother’ cancer. So she was screened every six months. Sure enough at around 50 she was diagnosed at a 6 month screening. Two years later it was in the other breast. She had two mastectomies, and chemo and radiation. She’s in her early 70 s now. I have no genetic cause - since both of my sisters also had breast cancer two of us were screened for one of 14 known genes. Neither of us have it. But I knew I had some personal characteristics that put me at higher than average risk. A family history is one of the risk factors. But I know of nobody in my direct line who had it - not my mom, hurt mom, or any aunts etc. Until my eldest sister was diagnosed. I think Jim should be on time for screening appointments given his family history.
DeleteI had a baseline at 39 and multiple false positives until I had a real positive at 74 when it was caught very early. I feel no personal responsibility or guilt for my cancer especially since a couple of risk factors were beyond my control.
When my first born son was born I belonged to a new moms group of babies born around the same time. One woman was from Michigan near one of the lakes. You mentioned something about the toxins. Her OB told her to bottle feed instead of breast feed because of her likely exposure to carcinogens in the water supply.
I do hope your support group provides real support at least some of the time!