71. Breast Health (5) Point-of-Care Ultrasound

The Alberta Cancer Foundation purchased a Point-of-Care Ultrasound recently.  As a portable piece of equipment (roughly the size of a laptop), patients can be visited at home rather than in emergency clinics.  I don't know what brand they bought, but here is an example of one: how it works and what it can deliver (in a nutshell):

"Lumify portable ultrasound app brings diagnostic capabilities to your compatible smartphone or handheld device.  Built for versatility and flexibility the compact and durable solution facilitates ultrasound whenever and wherever.  The solution enables staff newer to ultrasound to capture images accurately while educating at a distance, even for a consult right from the patient's bedside, enabling physicians to make fast, accurate and timely care decisions for shallow and in-depth applications including soft tissue, cardiac, muskoskeletal, superficial, abdominal, FAST (?), OB/GYN, and lung examinations.  The quick workstream tool currently evaluates lungs in patients with COVID symptoms and beyond and generates a report based on the findings.  Lumify's ultrasound imaging capabilities, connectivity and ease of disinfection offer a uniquely safe solution, reliably available for first-time-right diagnosis and symptom tracking.  It eliminates wait times.  (Does that ring a bell?)  Cost, training and access are the usual suspects hindering POC ultrasound adoption."      Source:  frost.com   Phillips 2020 Global Integrated Telehealth Solution in POC Ultrasound  Customer Value Leadership Award

There are several other brands available.  I chose this one at random.

Lastly, but I will not elaborate on this, scientists are always working on tumor markers to detect certain cancers in blood or in saliva samples.  I am sure that goes for breast cancer as well.

So, that's my ranting and raving about breast health.  I just needed to "get this off my chest", because it is so near and dear to our hearts.😊 And yes, men can get breast cancer too!

Back in a few days with another anecdote from my younger years.  I need some frivolity to kick off my last chemo week! Till then!  SanTeh!

70. Breast Health (4) DITI Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging

I go for regular mammograms every second year, religiously, faithfully.  I haven't ever skipped to my recollection.  My aunt (Mom's sister) died of breast cancer in the early 70s.  So did her daughter, my cousin.  Her daughter in turn underwent treatment for breast cancer and thankfully survived.  I am always relieved when my letter comes back saying that everything is A-OK.  Lately however, I have been thinking that I should have a yearly check-up.  (Wonder why?)  But how?  The screening program only allows for screening every 2nd year. Then I found a clipping tucked away in a drawer and I was intrigued.  It talks about Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging.  It works on the principal that, where there is an inflammation on the surface of your body, the digital apparatus will pick up on that inflammation and provides an instant image of the area involved.  Now it is not a good idea to believe everything you read 😏 and I prefer to talk about personal experiences.  So I phoned up the clinic where this service is being offered and tried to get an appointment for a breast DITI.   But when I told the naturopath, who handles this procedure, that I am currently taking chemotherapy, she replied that in order to get a good baseline (i.o.w. you should be nearly perfectly healthy for the first scan) I would need to wait at least 6 months after I finish chemo.  Otherwise it would really mess with the results.  Fair enough.  Any subsequent scans get compared to the healthy baseline one.  So if you have problems to start with it is not the perfect time to be doing this.  And there is a cost involved of course.

I did some more digging on this matter and found that the conventional medical profession is against this procedure because it had women going "in droves" to get unnecessary mammograms and thus "clogging up the breast screening program for other women who really needed to be screened".  But excuse me, my husband had yearly FIT tests ordered by his physician and no one squawked about that.  And also "More than 95% of men and women referred for colonoscopy do not have cancer." (source: Screening Program for Colorectal Cancer)  Does that not clog up the system with a certain amount of unnecessary colonoscopies being performed also?  Having said all that, I do not know of anyone who ever has been through this process to see if it actually works.  I am just putting it out there as a possibility.  And you do have to pay out of pocket.  No free medicare here!

Next: Is there perhaps another method available? 

69. Breast Health (3) Self-exam

 

68. Breast Health (2) Lois

Lois lives to tell her story.

Like a lot of women 50 and over, Lois participated in the screening program for breast cancer.  But lo and behold, she found an egg-like lump in one breast in the interval (in between 2 screenings 2 years apart).  She discovered it herself.  There had been no mention of any abnormality in the mammography prior to the discovery.  How did she find it?  She did a breast self-examination.  Now if you are like me, I would not know how to do this properly or how to distinguish it from normal breast tissue.  She says it was a hard, rigid lump, not painful to the touch.  It was not a squishy, moveable one that makes slushing noises when moved and that hurts.  That could be a cyst.  She was sent for a mammogram and an ultrasound immediately after.  It was confirmed that she indeed had a malignant tumor at the Stage 2 level, that it was an aggressive tumor which needed to be promptly removed.  And she had 16 chemo treatments over a period of 6 months.  

Lois also stipulates that every woman should know her breast density.  The screening program should inform you about that.  The denser the breast tissue, the more difficult it is to detect any lumps.  The same goes for large busted women: the larger the breasts, the more difficult it is to detect.

Now Lois is a nurse herself so she knows what to look for.  You and I might need a bit of training in this regard I think.  

It has been 8 years since Lois found the lump.  She continues to do regular breast self-exams but is no longer in the screening program.

"Traditional mammography has an accurate rate of around 75%.  Breast Cancer Scout is a new breast cancer detection test currently in clinical trials.  Pre-clinical test results show that Breast Cancer Scout has an 87% accuracy rate".  (source: Alberta Cancer Foundation 2019 Spring Progress Report)

I wonder if there are any other detection tools?  Preferably for early on?

67. Breast Health (1) Jasmine

Jasmine and I were colleagues at the same elementary school.  A royal 10 to 15 years my junior, she was everything a person would want to be at that age: young, pretty, smart, sociable, you name it.  On the last day of the school year, as I was loading up my car with numerous gifts from generous parents, I decided to stop in at the principal's office and offer her a big bouquet of freshly cut flowers, because we were heading out camping the next day and I did not know what I should do with them.  Jasmine and the principal were in the midst of having a conversation.  When offering the bouquet, Jasmine quickly jumped up exclaiming it was gorgeous and asked if she could have it.  I am glad she ended up with the gift.  Later that summer we ran into her in the beer gardens of an outdoor country music festival.  She was living it up and having a really good time.

She did not start the next school year in fall.  There were rumors that she was not feeling well, but no explanation was offered.  By mid April the following year, she was gone.  Just like that.  She died of breast cancer at the age of 45.  She was not yet eligible for participation in the provincial breast screening program.  

Her tragic story unfortunately is not unique.  I have heard similar stories, as I'm sure you have.  And I have met young women at the cancer clinic with advanced breast cancer who were "not yet eligible."

A spokesperson for the breast screening program tells me that if you are less than 50 years of age and you find a lump or you have discharge from your breast, you should go see your physician immediately and get a referral to be screened through the program.  You need to insist if your doctor refuses! 

Might be of interest:  There is a drug called Myocet liposomal that has been approved in Europe and in Canada for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in combination with cyclophosphamide, another cancer medicine.  In the USA, the FDA has granted "Fast Track" status to Myocet as first-line therapy for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

66. Chemo Yesterday (all my troubles seemed so far away)

I did not have a good day yesterday.  But then again Saturdays at the end of each chemo week are my worst days.  It is then that detoxing begins.  It is hard to explain.  I just don't feel right in my own skin and I do not know what to do with myself.  I do not have any energy.  My legs feel like lead.  I get chilled easily, but above all, I suffer from that dreaded neuropathy, especially in my hands.  Lotion barely alleviates the burning sensation in the palms of my hands.   I am wondering if this might become permanent after chemo is finished.  I know of 2 ex-chemo patients who are still suffering three years after their last chemo treatment.  I would like to avoid that if at all possible.  I will ask my oncologist at the next appointment what can be done.   I would also like to have a consultation preferably with a neurologist.  And/or have my last chemo dose reduced.  That would be nice.  Today I am better though!  Yeah!

65. Chemo What About the Young Ones?

This should come as no big surprise...

Day guards in Finland built "forest roads" and changed children's immune systems.  Within 30 days of playing in forest soil and leaf litter, Finnish pre-schoolers had increased the number of T-cells and much more varied gut bacteria.  In a fascinating experiment, Finnish researchers had recreated the environment of a forest floor on the playgrounds in 4 urban nurseries.  They covered the playgrounds with forest soil, moss, meadow grass, heather, blueberries and crowberries and installed planting boxes for annual garden crops.  Childcare workers instructed the pre-school age children to play in the greenery and the soil for an hour and a half each day for a month.  Their gut and skin microbes were analyzed before and after the experiment and compared to children from normal urban nurseries with regular sterile playgrounds.  After just 28 days the diversity of their bacteria increased dramatically, as did their T-cell numbers and other important immune markers in the blood.  The findings support the hypothesis of biodiversity and the concept that low biological diversity in the modern living environment can lead to an uneducated immune system and thus increase the incidence of immune-borne diseases.

Back tomorrow with 1 or 2 posts and then I am taking a break till mid-week when I will post what I found on breast health.