***Opinions????***6 Lessons for Handling Stress/Cancer related????

[RhondaH]

I found the following article interesting in that there were several parallels made regarding stress and the "physical damage" it does to your body AND in my opinion how stress can "aid" in the cancer process. I know I myself was so stressed out for the year prior to my dx while caring for my terminally ill father that I was having panic attacks and feel this helped the cancer. Other opinions? Take care and God bless.

Rhonda

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580401,00.html

[caya]

Hi Rhonda,

My GP and I have talked about the "stress issue" - My husband suffered a brain aneurysm on Jan. 30, 2006 - My Her 2/neu+++ BC was discovered by my plastic surgeon when I had a breast reduction, on October 16, 2006.
My husband is fine - but let me tell you, the stress was unbelievable on our entire family, but mostly me - I work in the same business with my husband, and I had to take over all his work (which involved extensive travelling across Canada), do my own work, take him for doctor's appointments, MRIs etc. worrying constantly, calming down two teenaged daughters - Ativan (lorazepam) for the anxiety -and my mother, and some very devoted friends and family got us through the ordeal with my husband. Now the breast cancer for me - with no history of any cancer on either side of my family. STRESS is my middle name.

My GP has had several patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer after a particularly stressful year or episode - definitely not a coincidence.

Caya
Stage 1
ER+PR+
Her 2+++
node negative
no mets
all scans clear
48 years old
premenopausal
Hysterectomy (uterus only May 2004)

[cafe1084]

Hi,

My name is Stephanie and I am a stress junkie.
It is amazing how much stress we can endure and not even realize the damage it is causing. I am a 3rd generation professional "worrier". I wear my heart on my sleeve and never learned how to tell anyone NO. I never learned to relax and even at rest, I feel stressed. In a matter of five years, I buried my dad, my grandmother, the father of my 2 oldest sons, my ex (and father to my youngest son), moved 3 times, completed 3 years of college, took on a demanding and stressful job, never took vacations, was the primary support to my sis during a very complicated pregnancy, then kept my nephew 4 nights a week so she could work. I'm a single mom of 3 athletic, active boys. If there was an idle moment, I could feel the adrenaline withdrawal. There is a chart that rates life changes in numbers and according to numbers, I should've been dead 3 times over.....if this breast cancer wasn't a wake-up call to change my life and reduce my stress, I don't know what is! The stress I have now is a deep, quiet urgency, focused inward...as detrimental as the previous stress, I assume, only now I'm worrying about me....and still worrying about things that I cannot change.

I take it as God's (or my body's) subtle way of taking me gently by the shoulders and waking me from my stress coma.

Just a thought,
Steph