Flap breast reconstruction

Flap breast reconstruction involves taking skin, fatty tissue and sometimes a thin layer of muscle from elsewhere on the body and moving it to the area on the chest wall where the original breast was removed.

In Marjory's case she waited a long time after the original mastectomy operation before she decided to go ahead with a flap breast reconstruction procedure. This was partly because she wasn't fully sure that reconstruction was the right thing for her as an individual - and partly because she had undergone fairly extensive radiotherapy treatment and wanted all that to settle down before any further operation.

One of the concerns some surgeons have about doing breast flap reconstruction at the time of the original mastectomy is that radiotherapy can make the new flap contract or shrink - spoiling the desired cosmetic result. If you don't need radiotherapy then going ahead immediately might be a good option for you - but even then it might make your recovery period more prolonged and could leave you more at risk of short term seroma problems.

The word "flap" is used because the surgeon will take some skin, fatty tissue and muscle from another part of your body but will keep it attached to its blood supply. This "flap" can be taken from your back over your shoulder blade or it can be from your tummy area just below the umbilicus.

You can read a good article about breast reconstruction after mastectomy here.

Breast cancer blogs

People write blogs about breast cancer for all sorts of reasons.

For us it was part desire to reach out to others and offer support, part a kind of need to write in the hope of making some sense of it all. Others write blogs to keep friends and family up to date, some write for political reasons - and some are just purely personal explorations of what it means to deal with breast cancer in today's complex world.

We've got a list of our own favorite breast cancer blog sites to the right of this page - but you'll find another good list here.

It's easy to set up and publish a blog .... but not always easy to keep it all active and up to date because life has a habit of getting in the way at times ! If you're going through a breast cancer journey - either personally or in your family, then you should give some serious thought to doing a bit of blogging about it. What started off as just a journal for us has provided support to thousands of others all over the world.

Go get started - let us know what you're up to and we'll give your blog a mention on the site.

Good luck - and enjoy

G & M

Bitter melon fruit and breast cancer

Stories about fruit, plants and cancer seem to come around every week or so don't they? Bitter melon extract is the latest one of interest ....

Bitter melon is not really a melon at all - more like a gourd and sometimes called the wild cucumber. It's a strange and knobbly looking thing.

However, true to form, scientists have looked at it's so called healing powers and found key ingredients of the bitter melon fruit interfered with chemical pathways involved in cancer growth - well, in the laboratory at least. They also think it can help lower blood pressure.

The research suggested that the melon fruit extract turned off signals telling the breast cancer cells to divide and switched on signals encouraging them to commit suicide. Experts told Cancer Research journal more trials were needed. Well (said with a wry smile) - they always do don' t they.

Now - don't get me wrong, I'm not being a huge cynic about this. There could after all be something in it - but we really do have a long way to go on this one.

Even the study author is pouring cold water on the stance that some press reports are taking. Although promising as an anti-cancer agent, trials in animals and then humans are still needed and there is of course absolutely no proof whatsoever that eating the fruit has any effect once it's digested. It's a big step from using an extract on raw cells in a test tube, to eating it in our diet and expecting a benefit.

Thousands of plant extracts seem to be able to influence cancer cells in the lab but only a very few make it through research into actual use for patients.

For the moment it seems better to focus on getting the message across about things we know to be true. Drinking less alcohol, being more physically active and keeping a healthy weight can all reduce the risk of breast cancer - and these are solid hard facts, not speculation.

Makes you think - doesn't it.

Gordon

Four years on ...

Well - here we are.

It's nearly four years since Marjory was diagnosed with breast cancer and all in all it's been quite a journey. We're sorry if the blog posts here became intermittent and the trail went a little cold but hey ... normal life intervened :-)

We both feel we wanted to get this site going again, not because of any new problems - but in response to your many requests for updates. So the old place has had a lick of paint with a new site layout and there'll be a new drive to bring you up to date information and support.

The last four years have been an adventure all ways up really.

Marjory's about to celebrate her 45th birthday - and it's four years now since diagnosis. Touch wood - all's well.

She's had experience of just about everything breast cancer can throw at her:

Mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, more chemotherapy, herceptin, zoladex, oophorectomy, arimidex, letrozole and then bilateral TRAM reconstruction with a second mastecomy just for good measure - I guess that's what you might call "throwing the book at it"

Anyways - it's good to get to know you all again.

Please keep on visiting - and keep on leaving your comments.

If you'd like to share your experiences or to ask a question that us or others could help you with then go right ahead and leave a comment here.

Be well - and be happy

Gordon

Oh - should have said - that's Anna in the picture with her favourite of the labradoodle puppies we were (ahem) blessed with just before Christmas last year. We had seven .... made for a busy holiday season ........ :-)