Are you going through breast cancer or have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer and need some hope and inspiration to keep you going on the right track to health and wellness? We share how to get help with talking to your family, figuring out which questions to ask, and more about the surviving breast cancer.

Talking to Your Family

We know that speaking to your family and friends about your diagnosis can be scary:

• What do I tell them?
• How do I tell them?
• Do I say anything to my kids?
• What will my children think if mommy loses her hair?
• How do I talk to my employer about it?
• Will I lose my job?

The list goes on and on. We hear them in the daily calls at our offices. And for many of these questions, they are hard to approach and take some time to cultivate the right words.

Contact our offices so we can send you an Educational Survivor’s Kit that will help you with many of these topics and the steps that will be happening in your journey.

Also, read some of the survivor stories here on our site to see how other patients have learned from their experiences. We’re here to help you. You can make it!

Questions to Ask

It is critically important for you to clearly understand your diagnosis and the proposed treatment. Start by seeing your family doctor or a general practitioner if you notice any unusual signs or symptoms that worry you. If your doctor thinks you may have breast cancer, you may be referred to a doctor who specializes in treating cancer (oncologist).

Because appointments can be brief, and because there’s often a lot of ground to cover, it’s a good idea to be well prepared. Here’s some information to help you get ready and what to expect from your doctor.

Write down any symptoms you’re experiencing, including any that may seem unrelated to the reason for which you scheduled the appointment.

Make a list of all medications, vitamins or supplements that you’re taking.

Consider taking a family member or friend along. Sometimes it can be difficult to remember all the information provided during an appointment. Someone who accompanies you may remember something that you missed or forgot.

Write down questions to ask your doctor including:

• Has the cancer spread beyond the primary site? If so, where?

• What tests did you use to determine the diagnosis?

• Is there any indication that a second pathology report is needed?

• Are you recommending additional tests?

• How certain are you that the tests and the resulting diagnosis are accurate

• What are my treatment options? Which one(s) do you recommend?

• Whom would you recommend for a second opinion?

• Will you put me in touch with patients whom you have successfully treated?

• What is the stage of my cancer?

• Has my cancer spread beyond the breast?

Download our Questions to Ask Guide!

Contact our offices so we can send you an Educational Survivor’s Kit that will help you with many of these topics and the steps that will be happening in your journey.

Diagnosis Process

Know the Typical Diagnosis Process
If breast cancer is suspected, your doctor may conduct a number of diagnostic tests and procedures such as:

• Clinical breast exam. During this exam, your doctor uses his or her fingertips to examine your breasts and the areas around your armpits and your collarbone for lumps or other changes. Your doctor assesses how large the lumps are, how they feel, and how close they are to your skin and muscles.
• Mammogram. A mammogram is an X-ray of your breast tissue. To assess your breast tissue, your breast will be pressed flat as much as possible. During a mammogram, you stand in front of a machine with your shirt off. Two flat plastic plates come together to compress your breast tissue. A radiology technician takes the X-rays. The compression of the mammogram can be uncomfortable. Ask the technician what to expect and speak up if you’re feeling pain.
• Ultrasound. Ultrasound uses sound waves to create pictures of a suspicious breast mass. Your doctor may recommend an ultrasound in certain situations.
• Using a needle to remove cells for testing. A biopsy procedure involves removing a sample of suspicious tissue for laboratory testing. A breast biopsy is commonly done by inserting a needle into the breast lump and drawing cells or tissue from the area. When analyzed in a laboratory, your tissue sample reveals whether you have breast cancer and, if so, what type of breast cancer you have.

Understand “Staging”
If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, your doctor will work to determine the extent (stage) of your cancer. Your cancer’s stage helps your doctor determine treatment options. Staging tests include blood tests and imaging tests, such as X-ray and computerized tomography (CT).

The stages of breast cancer are:

• Stage I. The tumor is no more than 2 centimeters (cm) in diameter (3/4 inch) and hasn’t spread to the lymph nodes.
• Stage II. The tumor may be up to 5 cm (about 2 inches) in diameter and may have spread to nearby lymph nodes. Or the tumor may be larger than 5 cm and no cancer cells are found in the lymph nodes.
• Stage III. The tumor may be larger than 5 cm (about 2 inches) in diameter and may involve several nearby lymph nodes. Lymph nodes above the collarbone may also contain cancer cells.
• Stage IV. Cancer at this stage has spread beyond the breast to distant areas, such as the bone, brain, liver or lungs.

Treatment Options

To determine your breast cancer treatment options, your doctor considers your cancer’s stage, your overall health and your preferences. Breast cancer treatment often involves surgery and may also include other treatments.

Surgery
The number one treatment for breast cancer is surgery. The goal of surgery is to remove the tumor and surrounding breast tissue. Surgical procedures used to treat breast cancer include:

• Surgery to remove breast tissue and surrounding lymph nodes. Most men and women with breast cancer undergo a modified radical mastectomy. In this procedure, a surgeon removes all of your breast tissue, including the nipple and areola, and some underarm (axillary) lymph nodes. Your lymph nodes are tested to see if they contain cancer cells. Removing your lymph nodes increases your risk of serious arm swelling (lymphedema).
• Surgery to remove one lymph node for testing. During a sentinel lymph node biopsy, your doctor identifies the lymph node most likely to be the first place your cancer cells would spread. That lymph node is removed and tested for cancer cells. If no cancer cells are found in that lymph node, there is a good chance that your breast cancer hasn’t spread beyond your breast tissue.

Radiation
Radiation therapy uses high-energy beams, such as X-rays, to kill cancer cells. During radiation therapy for breast cancer, radiation comes from a large machine that moves around your body, directing the energy beams to precise points on your chest.

In breast cancer, radiation therapy may be used in an attempt to eliminate any remaining cancer cells in the breast, chest muscles or armpit after surgery.

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy treatment often involves receiving two or more drugs in different combinations. These may be administered through a vein in your arm (intravenously), in pill form or by both methods.

Your doctor may recommend chemotherapy after surgery to kill any cancer cells that may have spread outside your breast. Chemotherapy may also be an option for men and women with advanced breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast.

Hormone therapy
Some breast cancers rely on hormones for fuel. If your doctor determines that your cancer uses hormones to help it grow, you may be offered hormone therapy. Most men with male breast cancer have hormone-sensitive tumors. Hormone therapy for male breast cancer often involves the medication tamoxifen, which is also used in women. Other hormone therapy medications used in women with breast cancer haven’t been shown to be effective in men.

Complementary & Alternative Treatments
Alternative treatments may help you cope with feelings of anxiety and distress, which many people diagnosed with cancer experience. You may experience anxiety and distress from the shock of your diagnosis and from worrying about your future. If you have anxiety and distress, you may have difficulty concentrating and sleeping.

Consider complementary treatments, such as:

• Vitamin D. Clinical trials of vitamin D in women have shown a reduction of breast cancer incidence of up to 77-percent. There is also excellent evidence that shows vitamin D assist in breast cancer treatment. Supplement your diet with 5,000 IU of vitamin D each day. Visit our Vitamin D page for more information
• Exercise. Gentle exercise may help boost your mood and make you feel better. If you haven’t been exercising regularly, ask your doctor if it’s OK. Start slow and work your way up to more exercise on more days of the week. Visit our Exercise page for tips.
• Stress Management. If you believe in the mind/body connection, meditation and meditative prayer is a quiet activity that helps you clear your mind of distracting thoughts. You can meditate on your own or receive guidance from an instructor.
• Relaxation exercises. Relaxation exercises help refocus your mind and help you relax. Relaxation exercises include guided imagery and progressive muscle relaxation. You can do relaxation exercises on your own, with an instructor or by listening to a recording that guides you through the exercises.

Surviving Cancer

One of the goals of BCCA is to promote ‘integrated cancer care’. We provide accurate, up-to-date information on mobilizing the ‘whole person’ in cancer prevention and recovery. We believe that it takes the whole person to prevent and treat breast cancer.

Integrated Cancer Care
For more information and our Create Wellness plan of action, click here. This step by step workbook will allow you to document common questions you should ask your doctor, the emotions you’re going through and your journey through breast cancer.

We encourage you to take our Commitment Card below and print it out, remind yourself every day you are a survivor. Share your Integrated Cancer Care Wellness Pyramid with your family—put it on your desk or mirror in your bathroom—make this your daily creed to getting well and staying well.

Download our Commitment Card

Another great tool we recommend in your survivor lifestyle, is our Healthy Grocery Shopping list. We all know it takes more than medicine to stay well and a lifestyle change is normally required to some degree by most when going through breast cancer. This may be as simple as focusing more on drinking eight 8oz glasses of water a day to stay hydrated during treatments, to making a complete overhaul in your daily diet/food eating patterns. But we’re here to help. This grocery shopping list is a great starting tool for your at home wellness…take a look at how many great and delicious cancer fighting foods there are on this list! You too can make a difference in changing your health and your life!

Download our Grocery List

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