If you have your health & love, you have everything!

It has been 16 months since mama was diagnosed with IBC.  She had her last chemo. treatment December 6th and is doing GREAT!  She has some lymphodema problems with swelling of her left arm due to the large numbers of nodes that were removed...but, she is cancer free and feeling good!  2013 is going to be a wonderful year   : )
  And hey, she wanted to point out all that hair!  Last year she was bald and now she has curly growing hair!  Women,.... shesh, they will never have hair like me!

We are going to re-post this for the folks out there who did not see it.  Think we will post it every year about this time.    Perhaps this information will save a life.
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This is information everyone should know about and so many don't.  Seems everyone I talked with at work or going about my daily activities knew nothing about IBC, Inflammatory Breast Cancer.
Inflammatory breast cancer is the rarest and most deadly of the breast cancers.  It strikes young women as often as older women, breastfeeding mothers as often as grandmothers, and women with and without a history of breast cancer in their family.  It does not always form a lump in the breast and did not in my case.  In fact I had had a mammogram in June that looked normal.  Instead, it forms in sheets and nests in the lymphatic system of the skin, appearing only after it clogs the lymph system with cancer, causing skin changes. Mine were very subtle, just a deeper pink crescent of skin about 2" by 5" that appeared suddenly and did not go away.  It did not itch or hurt, just pinker that the rest of my skin.
 Sometimes, the texture of the skin changes first, becoming tough, hard, or with little dimples like an orange peel.  Sometimes, it feels thick to the touch, or hot, or just … different.
 Luckily I headed to the Dr. in a timely manner and we diagnosed it early.
Inflammatory breast cancer is often misdiagnosed as mastitis, especially in nursing women.  The important thing to know is, if you are diagnosed with mastitis and it doesn’t clear up with 10 days of antibiotics, SOMETHING ELSE may be wrong.  Please, please go back to your health care professional and talk  again.  Ask for tests to rule out inflammatory breast cancer. Insist on further tests and a skin and/or core biopsy.  Because each week that you delay is a week that this cancer will grow and expand and be just that much harder to eradicate.
Survival rates for women diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer are grim.  Only 25 to 50 percent of women will survive five years.  Believe it or not, this is a HUGE improvement over the survival statistics of just a few years ago — when only 1-2% could expect to be alive five years after diagnosis.  Even with chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, 70% of women will suffer a recurrence. 
For more information, please visit:

• The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation
• The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Association
• The Inflammatory Breast Cancer Foundation

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My doctors feel I have a much better outlook due to the face that I got diagnosed and treated early and then had such a favorable response to the treatment, (I think it was all those prayers).

So as we are about to enter a brave new year I want to thank all of you for reaching out with your love and support.  Each person has changed my life in some way through comments and photos, sharing the love they have for their pets, family and others. It has helped me heal, laugh and learn.  I look forward to the coming year of our blogging friendships!
~Sandy

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