Here Comes The Sun

London Regional Cancer Clinic

I must say that it has a nicer environment than the South Street hospital. I still feel out of place though. When we sat down in the waiting area, we were surrounded by people in their 60s, 70s and 80s. I’m not wishing there were more young people with cancer, but it would just be nice to see the younger cancer patients once in a while.

Steve and I met my primary nurse first; she’s very nice, in her late 50s. Then, we met my chemo doctor, Dr. Potvin. She’s around my age. It was sooooo nice to see a younger person, someone who I can relate to…someone who also has a young family.

Dr. Potvin explained that chemo and hormone therapy would be an option. Steve and I have always considered it a given, but Dr. Potvin said that some people just don’t want to go through these therapies. If you look at 100 women my age, with the same kind of breast cancer, who elect for no further treatment after surgery, 47 of them will be alive and without cancer in 10 years. If you take those same 100 women and give them chemotherapy and hormone therapy, 89 of them will be alive and without cancer in 10 years. The decision seems straightforward to me.

I will go over my treatment regime in a future blog. (I have to spread out my ‘material’.) I will tell you though that I will lose my hair and I’m told that when it comes back it will be even curlier…how can that be…I guess poison will do that to you.

Last night Steve and I went to Orchestra London’s ‘Jeans and Classics – The Beatles Abbey Road’ with the GoodLife group. For those of you that don’t know, in the Lincoln household, as soon as you could walk and talk, you learned the lyrics to every Beatles song. My Dad carries on that tradition whenever the boys stay at my parent’s place. Sean has been known to breakout into his own rendition of Yellow Submarine for his classmates. Anyway, listening to the music last night took me to that comfortable and relaxing place I had hoped to find with the support group and the massage. Steve and I both thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Back to the massage issue… I talked to Dr. Potvin and she said that a massage can not spread the cancer. In fact, she suggested that if that was the belief of the spa, then cancer patients should, in fact, have massages after chemo treatments to increase the circulation of the chemicals throughout the body. Mark, Karla, Sharon…please do not egg the spa! I hold nothing against the massage therapist or the spa; I just think that they are misinformed. I have thought of writing them a letter to provide them with the correct information so another cancer patient doesn’t have to go through the same thing. Steve thinks I should write a letter to the paper; we’ll see.

me