Cinco Vidas

You’d think with all of our advanced technology and medicines, cancer patients wouldn’t have to experience high-level pain anymore. But according to a recent survey commissioned by the American Pain Foundation, many still are—with some being told by their physicians that they just have to tough it out.

“I see patients who are seriously under-medicated and do have pain,” says Colleen O’Neil, RN, breast cancer survivor, and peer counselor to cancer patients. “It makes me very frustrated. There are many approaches to pain control and they should all be considered in an effort to ease the suffering of cancer patients. People shouldn’t have to be in pain just because they have a cancer diagnosis.” (more…)

It’s one of the most common and most painful cancer-treatment side effects: mouth sores. You may be rinsing with salt water, but is there anything else you can do to prevent these things, or at least alleviate the pain?

Since mouth sores can affect how much you eat, and in severe cases, even lead to malnutrition, we gathered some information to help you deal with them. Try these steps to lower your risk, avoid making them worse, and relieve the pain. (more…)

Everyone says you look great in your wig. Or your scarf. Or that adorable peach fuzz. But maybe you don’t feel so great.

“I noticed that when neighbors stopped in…I would forget I was naked on top and start conversing,” says survivor Michele Corey. “It wouldn’t be until I saw their eyes talking to my forehead that I remembered I was bald and wanted to run in and get something to cover myself.”

Baldness can be one of the most emotionally difficult cancer-treatment side effects to deal with. According to research published in Patient Education and Counseling (Issue 3), “Chemotherapy-induced alopecia is one of the most distressing side effects of chemotherapy.” (more…)

It’s like a blister, puffy and uncomfortable, that may form after you’ve had a mastectomy. In fact, it’s the most frequent postoperative complication after breast-cancer surgery, especially if the lymph glands in the armpit were removed. It’s called a “seroma,” a nice-sounding name for a condition that can cause discomfort, pain, and extended hospital stays.

“I had a bilateral mastectomy last week and came home with drains on both sides,” says fighter Louise414. “Shortly thereafter the drain on the right side stopped working. I saw the surgeon again thinking he would somehow fix the drain. Instead he removed it. I immediately developed seroma.” (more…)

Dr. Frederic J. Vagnini, author of The Side Effects Bible and medical director of the Cardiovascular Wellness Center in New York City, calls it “nutrient robbery”—the fact that many drugs and medications deplete the body of important nutrients and other helpful substances. “In a sense,” he says, “the drug acts as an ‘anti-vitamin’ pill, taking away the substances you need for good health.” Naprosyn, for example, a well-known painkiller, depletes the body’s stores of folic acid, a shortage of which can make you feel tired or upset your stomach. (more…)

Once hair extensions took off in the fashion world it wasn’t long before eyelash extensions came along. Silk and polyester threads designed to mimic natural lashes are dipped into glues and then applied (using sharp tweezers) to the root of the individual lashes on the upper eyelid. If you’re going through chemotherapy and losing your eyelashes, you may be thinking about extensions. Can you guess what we’re going to tell you? Uh-huh. Avoid them!
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It grows wild in a lot of locations. Many people think of it as a pest encroaching on their yards and gardens. Allergic reactions to its spiny thorns can be serious. But hiding inside this spiky plant is a substance that may help treat inflammation of the liver in cancer patients going through chemotherapy.

The liver works as an efficient processor of toxins in your blood; a “purifier,” so to speak, that sends clean blood back into your system, and toxins out through bile or urine. Unfortunately, some chemotherapy drugs—because they are, in essence, toxins that the liver struggles to get rid of—can overly stress the liver and cause damage (called “hepatoxicity”). In other words, toxins accumulate in the body faster than the liver can process them, and it breaks down—forcing patients to delay or stop their chemotherapy treatments. (more…)

Seems mascara just isn’t enough to accentuate the windows to the soul, so cosmetic manufacturers have come out with products that actually stimulate the growth of our natural lashes. The question is, are these products safe, especially for people going through chemotherapy?

These serums actually came about when patients using glaucoma eye-drop drugs noticed a happy side effect—longer lashes. When the drugs were applied to the lash line, lashes grew. Now, the drugs were supposed to be applied into the eye to help reduce the pressure of glaucoma, but of course the side effect of longer lashes caught everyone’s attention.

Since then, several eyelash-growing formulas have hit the market, many having nothing to do with the original glaucoma drug. The Ardell Brow and Lash Growth Accelerator, for example, is mostly extracts, proteins, and vitamins. Other brands use peptides, amino acids, and other nutrient combinations to help fortify lashes. However, the most popular brand—Latisse—is sold by prescription only, and uses “bitamaprost,” a glaucoma drug. (more…)

Too many women know how stressful it is to wait for the results of a breast biopsy. For most, the waiting is harder than the experience of the biopsy itself.

“I know the waiting is the worst part,” says caregiver cluckle, “as I have experienced it with my wife.”

“Cancer is a waiting game, we’ve learned,” says caregiver katcadwallader. “A tough waiting game.”

Fortunately, scientists have added some weight to women’s concerns with a new study that argues for faster relaying of results to patients. “For a long time,” said Dr. Elvira V. Lang, author of the study, “there has been the recognition that women should find out sooner what they have, but there was just not much effort put into it. When women just say they’re stressed, there’s a tendency to put it aside as psychological. But once you can show there can be adverse effects on the immune system…then this gets a completely different light on it.” (more…)

Did you know that in 2005, as a result of a lawsuit, Proctor & Gamble conceded that its Crest brand of toothpaste contained high levels of lead?

“The research demonstrated that almost all toothpaste products contain significant levels of lead,” said the American Environmental Safety Institute, “a heavy metal known…to be hazardous to human health by causing cancer and birth defects.” (Toxic Beauty, Samuel Epstein, p.164) (more…)