Thursday, December 19, 2013

LUMPECTOMY - THE SEQUEL . . . Yesterday and Building My Arsenal

Day three was entirely different from Day two.  Everyone was in a good mood, and things went smoothly, except I left my crime novel in the locker.  (No, I still don't like the machine so close to my face, so I still close my eyes.)  After ward, Therapist Roy told me that they even have a George Strait CD to play during treatment!

I did my silent war cry once, still not ferociously.

Research :  Okay, so radiation is my silent arsenal, and we're putting it to work.

 And research is supposedly part of our arsenal.  This brings us back to my worn and treasured book The Immune Power Personality, by Henry Dreher.  It features research over many years into who gets well.  The specifics of cellular immunity are over my head; what I care about is who got well in the studies.

One story, the work of Stanford psychiatrist David Speigel, focuses on certain kinds of supportive therapy on breast cancer patients.

My appointments have been changed to noon, so I have to hurry.  When I get home, I'm going to look up Speigel  or get a librarian to help me.

I just sneaked a quick  look on line for Dr. Speigel, and found a 2010 Newsweek article that said he was still studying effects of supportive-expressive group therapy on the survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer.  The article, however, was mostly an interview with him on keeping our new year's resolutions.

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