Prostate Cancer Diagnosis - 3 Reasons Why You Must Not Give Up

I know how you might feel now after being diagnosed with the deadly prostate cancer condition. I know you might feel the world has ended for you. I know you might want to start preparing to say your "good byes". But guess what? It's not over until you WIN against this condition. Yes, keep reading and you will learn 3 important reasons why you shouldn't give up but instead fight to win against this cancer.

1 - Others have survived it so you can survive it too: It's a fact that not everyone who is diagnosed with this condition die of it. Many people have survived and lots of more people keep surviving this cancer, even those that their cases were dire. The fact that they have survived it means that you can survive it too. You should find out what they did to survive it and start doing the same things.

2 - You owe it to your loved ones to fight and survive: Your loved ones still want you here. There are still many things you haven't done with them. They need you around for many more years. So, you should fight to survive this cancer so that you can be with them for as long as possible. If you have that DOGGED and DETERMINED mindset that you will do everything possible and find every way possible to survive this prostate cancer, this will really help you, more than to have a resigned mindset. The fact is that you just don't know what lies in front of you. Tomorrow might just be the day of breakthrough for you when you will finally get a workable solution to the condition, so you shouldn't give up. Instead, you should stay positive all day and continue looking for ways to survive this cancer.

3 - You owe it to yourself to fight and survive: I am sure there are still lots of important things in your life that you haven't done yet, so why give up and wait to die just because of the diagnosis of prostate cancer? You still have your life to live and there are still lots of things you have to do in this life. So, you shouldn't give up. You can win against this disease if you really fight it. Like one motivational speaker used to say, you should LIVE FULL and DIE EMPTY!

Seriously, if you really do all you can to fight this condition, you can survive. Lots of people, not just in the United States of America, but all over the world, have survived this condition. Like I always say - if they could survive it, you can survive it too. So, stay open and keep looking for ways to survive... and you will find the ways necessary to survive!

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How to Deal With a Cancer Diagnosis

I am a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed in March 2005, and it is now nearly two years since I underwent treatment.

As I was getting good test results last week - my CAT scan was all clear - I received emails from two friends. One was also diagnosed with cervical cancer with additional tumours in her ovaries. She is having her tubes and ovaries removed and being scheduled for radiation and chemotherapy treatment. My other friend let me know her mother has been diagnosed with cancer on her gall bladder that has spread to her liver and intestines. She is undergoing surgery at this moment.

What struck me was that even though I am out of the woods with my own cancer and feel fit and healthy, others are just starting their journey. I realised what I went through and what I learned might be of use to others.

If you have been diagnosed with cancer recently, or have a loved one who has, then this article is for you.

My story

I was diagnosed in March 2005 with cervical cancer, just 4 days after getting engaged. The treatment recommended initially was a full hysterectomy. Luckily there was a new surgery called a radical trachelectomy available to younger women who wanted to maintain fertility. This involved the removal of the cervix, but left the uterus and ovaries - most of the reproductive equipment. Of the 100 or so women who have had the surgery about 70% were able to conceive and deliver, through caesarean section. So baby-making is still possible for me, though I am not yet out of the 2 year clearing time the doctor recommended.

After surgery they discovered additional tumours in the lymph nodes they removed. The doctors recommended four courses of chemotherapy, cysplatin to be precise, just to be sure that they knock any remaining cancer on its head. Cysplatin is a pretty heavy drug, and had some serious effects - I felt nauseous and horrible for a good ten days after each round. My last treatment was on August 8th 2005. I ran a marathon 7 months later. This sounds surreal to me now, but at the time, running a marathon was exactly what I needed for a new focus on living and life.

However, dealing with a diagnosis was the first step. It is my intention that this article and the accompanying audio helps anyone else who is facing a diagnosis get through the first few weeks.

Here is a whole bunch of stuff you can do and think and experience to help you - pick what feels right to you. The first thing to do is to try and reduce all the stress in your life as much as possible. You need to be calm, relaxed to cope with what is ahead of you.

How to cope?

First of all, know that as long as you are breathing, you are OK. Start from there. Breathe. Affirm you are alive and you are OK. Breathe.

Eat right. I saw a nutritionist very soon after my diagnosis. I already had a pretty good diet: I was a vegetarian and a runner, but knew that I wanted to do everything I could to promote healing. It also gave me some sort of control over the process as my life got taken over by medical appointments, test results, and treatments.

Eat plenty of fresh fruit and veggies. Eliminate anything that is a stressor on your system - reduce or eliminate alcohol, sugar, cigarettes, and caffeine. See a nutritionist or go to a health food store for which vitamins to take. Extra doses of Vitamin B, C, selenium, were all good for me. Make sure you consult a professional for the correct dosages.

Exercise. Keep your body moving gently as much as you are able with your surgery and treatments. Gentle stretching is good - keep connected to your body. Exercise helps the lymph system to operate, helps the lungs and heart to do their jobs and pump out toxins. It also helps you connect with your body, to feel alive. Movement gives you energy as well.

Meditate. Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I always knew that meditation was supposed to be good for you, but I never did anything about it. Willing to give everything a go to promote my healing, I started meditating. This was such a blessing -it helped me release a lot of emotional stress and I felt so calm and relaxed and peaceful afterwards. You can use relaxation tapes, or meditation CDs, whether this is just nice music, or a guided visualisation, or just lying down and relaxing. The idea is to center yourself and calm yourself down - feel connected to the source of life energy that is in all of us, in all of the world around us.

Visualise. This was a great way to stay focussed. After surgery I could barely walk two steps, whereas the week before I had run 38km. This could have discouraged me, but instead I chose to focus on what I wanted my body to do for me. I imagined myself running again, feeling fit, free, and full of energy. This helped me get out of bed every day and shuffle a few more feet down the corridor. Even though my current body was not capable of much, in my mind's eye I felt myself running and bounding about the hills, feeling full of life. Every day I got stronger, and every day I visualised my body the way I intended to be. Like I said, 7 months later I ran a marathon.

Read some good books. One of the first things I did was go to the bookstore. I wanted to educate myself about my disease and learn from people who had gone through similar experiences. I bought a ton of books on how to heal yourself, cancer journeys etc. The best ones I found were Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike," Brandon Bays's "The Journey," Louise Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life," Paul Kraus's "Living with Cancer," Petrea King's "Quest for Life," Petrea King's "Your Life Matters." Each of these had something different to teach me. Just go to the bookstore and go the health section or self-help section and buy the books that appeal to you.

Get a massage, often. Massage is another way to relax and helps the body to heal itself by moving fluid, lymph, and releasing stored emotional energy. You can also use another type of healing energy practitioner - maybe a kinesiologist, or cranial sacral therapist, or reiki practitioner. Find someone you trust and enjoy. The whole point is to feel good.

Use a Journal. There is so much that goes on in your head and heart with a cancer diagnosis. Some of it you may want to share, and a lot you probably do not. In any case, purging your head and heart of the all the thoughts that are going around and around and screaming at you inside your head allows you to release a lot of energy and turmoil. Write everything you feel and think down. The worst thing you can do is let it all run around in your head - this makes everything worse. Writing gives a relief and a release to your thoughts and emotions. Get them out - let them go.

Let people know what is going on. People who love you want to help. They really do. Tell them how to - to call you if you want to talk, to visit. Let their love in to your life - let them bring flowers, cookies, books - whatever - feel their love and appreciation of you. Be grateful for all of this.

Feel Gratitude. The moment I started to look around and appreciate what I saw and experienced, then my cancer journey started to change for me. It happened when I was going through chemotherapy. I had a lot of time at home on my own. I looked out the window every day and just watched the sunlight on the trees. Then the sky. Then the birds. And I started to feel grateful for seeing them, and having the time to appreciate them. Then I started to think about all the wonderful things that happened to me, all the beautiful people in my life, all the great adventures I had had. And I started to feel this amazing flood of good feelings. I started to realise that cancer had opened me up to all this wonderful good stuff that had been there all along, but I had not necessarily appreciated before. Then I started to feel grateful for all the things cancer was doing for me: it allowed me to slow down and take a time out for six months, it allowed me to really choose how I wanted to live going forward, it helped me clarify what was most important to me. I realised that it was a terrific gift. The process was arduous, and yet the gifts were golden.

Practice and feel grateful for the little and big things. Notice the beauty around you. Notice the sunlight on the trees. Be grateful for that. Find joy and delight in the life around you.

Stop doing anything that does not support you. Stop doing things that are 'shoulds' in your life. Do only what gives you pleasure and joy.

Watch funny movies. Laugh your guts out. Rent all the Leslie Neilsen (Police Academy) etc. you can handle. Laugh laugh laugh! Laughter actually produces some chemicals in your body that promote healing. It also feels really really good.

Get yourself a copy of the Secret DVD - available at www.wildlywealthy.com in Australia and at amazon.com elsewhere. This is a VERY powerful movie. There is a woman on it who healed herself of breast cancer through self-love.

Don't give up your doctors. As you embrace the healing journey you are on, take their form of healing along with the spiritual side of things. All forms of healing have a place and can help you to return to health.

It is OK to be scared. It is OK to be sad. It is OK to be angry. Let yourself feel all of this and more - just let yourself feel. Let it pass through you and drain from you. It will leave you feeling purged and cleansed. Get in touch with who you really are - you are love and pure energy at the core. Feel that. Love that.

Cancer is not a death sentence - it is a call to live. It is a call for you to love yourself and to feel yourself healed from all your past wrongs, all your past regrets, all your past mistakes. Cancer gives you permission to let go of all the crap in your life and acknowledge all of the good things.

Cancer can be a gift for you, if you choose it to be so. Give yourself permission to take a break. Give yourself permission to slow right down, to pause, and to just simply be.

It is my sincere wish for you that you discover once more your joy, health, and love of life. I don't know what will happen on your journey; no one knows how long each of us has, with cancer or without. The most important thing is that we savour it. Remember, life is for living.

All good wishes for you.

Leadership Coach, Speaker, and Author Zoe Routh works with women in business to enhance their personal effectiveness and leadership capacity for global effect. For free tips on how to become a more effective leader that will save you time, money, energy, and stress, go to http://www.innercompass.com.au

How Can You Go About Getting the Proper Breast Cancer Diagnosis?

Breast cancer is something that no one wants to face in life, but getting the proper diagnosis early is best. The earlier you catch it, the better chance you have of stopping it before it gets too bad. Here are a few things you can do to go about getting the proper breast cancer diagnosis.

The first thing to look for is any symptoms at all. If you feel you have any of the symptoms that are related to breast cancer, it is vital you schedule a doctor's exam. During the exam, expect to be asked questions about personal and family health history that may be related to your cause.

The doctor will check the general signs of health at first, and then will perform a breast exam. They may perform just one breast exam, or they may look at a few different tests. There are three tests they may look at; palpation, mammography, or ultrasonography.

A palpation allows the doctor to learn a lot about a lump. Everything from the size, texture and how easy it moves can be identified by palpation, which is when the doctor feels the lump and the tissue around it. Benign lumps will feel different than cancerous ones.

Mammography is simply X-rays of the breast that can give the doctor important information about the breast. If something looks suspicious or does not look right, additional X-rays will be performed.

Lastly, ultrasonography uses high-frequency sound waves that can often show whether a lump is solid or filled with fluid. Typically, doctors will perform a mammography with an ultrasonography.

After receiving one of these tests or a few of them, the results will determine whether the doctor feels further tests are needed. However, often the doctor will have to remove fluid or tissue from the breast to make a proper breast cancer diagnosis.

An aspiration or needle biopsy is when the doctor uses a needle to remove fluid or a small amount of tissue from the breast. If the lump is filled with a fluid-filled cyst, it is not cancerous. But if it has a solid mass, it may or may not be cancerous. If tissue is removed, it is sent to a lab to be checked for cancer cells.

There is a lot that goes into making a breast cancer diagnosis. This is a very serious matter and doctors work hard to make sure they make the proper cancer diagnosis. If the results do show you have breast cancer, the doctor will sit down with you and put together the proper treatment. Learn more about breast cancer diagnosis and cancer in general at www.Cancer-Tumor.com.

Reaching and Reassuring Your Children After a Cancer Diagnosis

Give credit where credit is due. Children are much smarter than we imagine. They watch us like hawks, absorbing our thoughts without necessarily expressing themselves. As a cancer survivor and mother of three boys, I offer tips on interacting with your children when you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer:

1. Be up front about the cancer. My husband informed them of my breast cancer diagnosis as soon as they got home from school.

2. Give the children lots of physical affection and tell them at least once a day that you love them. Hugs, kisses, or less embarrassing pats on the back go a long way to ease tension and worry.

3. Be with the children as much as you can. Because I was a working mother, I didn't see much of my children until I got home after a busy day. With a cancer diagnosis I had no idea how much time I had left to be with my sons. So I made sure I volunteered for every field trip possible. I missed those trips only if I had a chemo or radiation day. My employer was very sympathetic and by that point I had many vacation days built up. We also made the most of our weekends: together we watched movies, read books, bicycled around our community and played board and card games.

4. Be open to questions about the cancer and give age-appropriate answers. My youngest boy asked me if cancer was contagious. I was able to reassure him that I could not give him cancer the way I could give him a cold or stomach flu. At four, he understood me in those simple terms.

5. Laugh together. Therapeutic humor is catching, in a good kind of way. It's the one alternative therapy to which no one objects. We always laughed at our cockatiel's antics and at the two mutts we owned who howled at sirens and balked at swimming. We also got a kick out of watching Abbott and Costello classics, as well as the slapstick humor of the Three Stooges. And the movie "Patch Adams" was a huge hit with our family.

6. Ask their teachers to report to you any unusual behavior that they observe with your children. My boys didn't express much angst about my condition. Two of them acted up in school, but I attributed it to "boys-will-be-boys" antics. But one never knows.

7. If you can afford it and it is appropriate, get tested for any genetic predisposition to your cancer. At my oncologist's urging I was recently tested for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations because of the relatively young age at which I was diagnosed and because of my recurrence. I felt I owed to my children the knowledge of their propensity to inherit the genetic mutation. As I suspected, I tested negative, but I was glad to be able to reassure my boys.

8. Write letters to the children that they can open later. I wrote a letter to my three-year-old after I was diagnosed and gave it to him to read when he was 18. He loved discovering what impressed me most about him at that age, and I'm sure he was touched by the sentiment expressed.

9. Check out from the library, buy or create your own children's book about what it's like to have cancer. One mom in my support group wrote and illustrated her own personal book so that her sons would understand at their level what was happening in their mother's world.

10. Write in a journal any thoughts and musings you have about your children's emotions at the time so you have a record. They may be interested later in your thought process and share with you how your cancer diagnosis and treatment affected them.

11. Be prepared for surprises later on! I recently discovered from a radio interviewer how deeply my cancer had affected one of my sons. He was encouraged by a youth pastor to take up music as a diversion from his feelings of helplessness over my cancer. Now he is an accomplished keyboardist in a large worship band. All because of the cancer!

I'm sure many ideas can be added to this list. Be creative. And be aware that children are very perceptive, flexible and forgiving. Give credit to them for their understanding, and they will return the favor many-fold.

A patent attorney for over 32 years, the author retired in May 2008. She has written patents on myriad chemical, biotechnology, and device inventions, including the Nobel-prize-winning polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique used in medical, forensic, anthropologist, and other fields.

Upon retirement she wrote a personal memoir on her breast cancer experience, "Mourning Has Broken: Reflections on Surviving Cancer." Her second book takes a fanciful poetic look at her cancer journey, and is entitled "The Pebble Path: Returning Home from a Forest of Shadows."

To learn more, please visit her website at http://www.janhasak.com/.

Breast Cancer - Diagnosed at 32, My Story Part 3 - Recovery

In my previous articles, I discussed how I discovered the cancer, my initial treatments, and the chemo. Now, I will discuss how it all came to an end. It was a yearlong battle, and now I can look back and say what really happened.

Follow Up Visits Galore

You would think that after all the surgeries and chemo, I would be done. However, this was not the case. My reconstruction doctor alone wanted to see me every few days then every few weeks. I had to do exercises to make sure the reconstruction went right. It was time consuming and very demanding.

After Chemo Drugs

There are two main drugs given to women after breast cancer, Tamoxifen and Arimidex. I started off on Arimidex because years earlier I had a hysterectomy. However, I needed to get a bone scan because Arimidex could cause bone loss leading to osteoporosis. Turns out, I have severe osteoporosis and I was only 33! (I had a birthday since my original breast cancer diagnosis at 32.)

The oncologist switched me to Tamoxifen but couldn't take that either. It turns out it made my heart race. This meant no after chemo drugs for me.

I Quit

Against all the medical advice, I got tired of seeing doctors. I could not handle seeing another doctor one more time. So a little over a year since my original diagnosis, I quit seeing doctors. That was about 8 months ago.

Some question how I will know if the cancer comes back. Others ask me if I am concerned. Frankly, at this point, I do not care. If my cancer were to come back, it would automatically be stage 4. It would mean that it had metastasized and spread somewhere else.

I am now 34 years old and I know that I cannot do that again. If I get cancer again, so be it. I am not going to spend my life wondering if it will come back. I am not going to waste time going to doctors. It is my choice. It is not a popular choice and it is not a recommended choice. It is, however, my choice.

Final Thoughts

To anyone going through breast cancer, you will get through the treatment and your life will return.

To all those that know someone going through treatment, be patient. Remember, that after it was all over I felt bad about what I had said and done. My aunt, who was diagnosed two days before me, felt the same way. She got mad at my mom and did not speak to her through the whole treatment. After it was all over and she was back to normal, she called my mom.

When we go through this, it affects our heart, our mind, and our emotions. Please ride out the storm and wait for us on the other side.

Sherri has been writing articles for nearly 2 years. She is always up to something new. Come visit her latest site at http://womensworkoutclothes.org/ where she shares her knowledge of Womens Workout Clothes.

Any Lobular Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Diagnosis

Using mammogram or BSE (Breast Self Exam) to diagnose lobular breast cancer, also known as lobular carcinoma, may not be easy. This is because it spreads in a weblike manner and the tumors are yet to be solid. A breast ultrasound is more effective, but its size is often underestimated. This involves a biopsy followed by a CT or MRI scan to determine the actual size of the lobular breast tumor and the extent of its damage. During biopsy of lobular breast cancer, the cancerous cells are removed to determine its stage. Hormone receptors will also be tested to determine the treatments that are effective.

Treatment

Lobular breast cancer usually develops in both breasts and spreads slowly. It spreads from the breast to other parts of the body such as the abdominal lining, GI tract, and the ovaries causing secondary tumors. This makes the prognosis more positive. The treatment usually includes surgery with additional treatments, such as radiation, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy.

Surgery for the removal of lobular breast cancer may be a simple process if the tumor is small. If the tumor is big, complete mastectomy may be necessary. During surgery, the lymph nodes are tested to determine whether the cancerous cells have spread into the lymph nodes system. If the lymph nodes are infected, they are removed during surgery as well.

Before surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormone therapy may be used to reduce the tumor size. They are also used after surgery to ensure that any remaining cancerous cells are killed and prevented from being spread.

Shockingly, invasive lobular breast cancer sufferers have better survival rates although it is usually discovered at a later stage when the tumor size is big and more difficult to detect. Many are declared to be cancer free for at least 10 years after treatment.

Felicia does health fitness and women's health medical researches. To win the fight against breast cancer, find out how you can eliminate it and not your breast while developing a healthy body that will take care of you for years to come.

Obesity Makes Hard Your Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

I am not sure that you are aware that Obesity and cancer of all kinds are related to the extent that experts believe that the death rates of the two health problems are associated. Yes, studies have proven that there is a valid relationship between cancer death rates and obesity estimated at about 100, 000 deaths every year in the U.S.

Having revealed that to you; be further inform that overweight, according to experts, makes it very hard to detect early prostate cancer putting overweight men in the greater risk of getting help very late and thus have less chances of surviving prostate cancer affliction, reports a recent scientific study that looked at the relationship between obesity and cancer death rates

So please take care of your weight, eating the right calorie and exercising properly. Nutrition is very important in maintaining your weight. If your job makes you sedentary, you have to establish a routine of exercise to help you burn fat and remain in the right Body mass that makes prostate cancer screening an easy task for your Urologist.

The study in question found that the prostate gland increases in size as body mass index (BMI) increases. BMI refers to the evaluation formula based on the comparison between your weight and your height. Because of the effect of obesity on your prostate, doctors get thrown 20 to 30 percent off mark on your prostate cancer diagnosis.

Finally, note that if you are obese, your prostate will be hidden in your body fat and identifying a cancerous tumor will be like looking for a needle in a haystack causing you to run the risk of carrying a cancerous prostate gland without proper diagnosis till too late.

Charles Nehsah writes for your good health and recommends Prostate Cancer Resource Center for useful links for solving your prostate cancer problems once and for all.