Hi again. Sorry I did not respond earlier to some of your posts. First to answer your questions Martha. My Mom's situation was a little unusual. I found the lump in her breast while helping her bathe, one of her strokes left her having difficulty using her right arm. After racing her to a women's imaging center, her mammogram and ultrasound showed a 1.6 cm mass, with a satellite mass of 1.8 cm. Immediately after her surgery (lumpectomy with 2 mm clear margin) I was told by her surgeon, much to my dismay, that he/she resected the masses and the single enlarged axillary node on the same side, WITHOUT having done a sentinel node biopsy, or any further axillary dissection. I have stressed this point in past posts, as it left us without a clear or accurate staging. This came back to haunt us, as I feared it would, because the incomplete information followed us wherever we went, i.e. radiation therapy and oncology. The doctors from each of these arms of treatment always asked of course, what STAGE is she, to which I shamefully replied, "We're not really sure." Then there was the disheartening pathology that showed the cells were ER-/PR-/HER2+++.
Mom's age being 81, the oncologist was reluctant (properly so) in ordering any sort of traditional chemotherapy. Additionally, Herceptin was not prescribed at the time, as it was still being used in an adjuvant setting only in clinical trials, though I did request it. Thus, when some eight months had passed, and I found another enlarged axillary node, her node biopsy revealed additional ER-/PR-/HER2+++ malignancy in her axilla. A full 12 of the 20 nodes removed during the subsequent LEVEL II axillary dissection were positive as well, and showed evidence of extra-vesicular invasion. That bit of information was like getting a sharp stick in my eye. The oncologist and radiation oncologist both agreed that this cancer was there from the beginning, but went undiscovered. I am still trying to defuse my anger at the whole staging debacle. Subsequent bone scans and MRIs seemed to indicate no further substantial metastatic disease immediately prior to the second surgery. She will have a PET scan as soon as the required healing from the surgery and radiation therapy is complete. She began receiving Herceptin weekly even before her radiation treatments had been completed, as she then met the new protocol criteria for it's use.
With regards to the flaxseed and some of Mom's other supplements, I will tell you that I give her 1 TBS of flaxseed oil daily that is manufactured by "Health from the Sun" in Canada. The flaxseed oil is cold-expeller pressed and contains rosemary extract, mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin Es), and ascorbyl palmitate (vitamin C). It provides 7,700 mg of alpha-linolenic acid (Omega-3), 2,100 mg of linoleic (Omega-6), and 2,800 mg of oleic acid (Omega-9). Flaxseed oil of other brands can be found in many stores now, even Walmart. It should be refrigerated to keep it fresh. A small note of interest: Flaxseed oil is also known as linseed oil. I found it amusing that I am having Mom drink the same oil that I use downstairs in the woodshop as a finish on the 18th century furniture reproductions I make. YUCK ! It does smell funny, but it may be working miracles. God surely did have a sense of humor when he was making all these fascinating things for use in our daily lives.
The flaxseed I give Mom is ground organic flaxseed from a company called Spectrum Essentials, and is available from
www.VitaminShoppe.com , which has many retail stores as well. I chose this particular brand as it is processed using a unique method that slices the seed rather than crushing it, which prevents the loss of nutrients due to excess oxidation. Two TBS of this flaxseed contains 2.5 grams of alpha-linolenic acid, 0.5 grams of linoleic acid, 1 gram of oleic acid, and 250 mg of lignans. I must confess that I sneek it into or onto almost everything that I give Mom to eat. I sprinkle it in her oatmeal, mashed sweet potatoes, cold cereal, any steamed vegetables, tuna or chicken salad, and even on her fresh spinach salads. Hey, so it's like eating Purina Canary Chow, no big deal. You hardly know it's there. Like the flaxseed oil, it too should be kept refrigerated to maintain maximum potency.
The green tea extract that I am always flapping my gums about on this site, is ordered from a well known company called Life Extension, at
www.lef.org. It is decaffeinated, and each capsule contains 246.5 mg of EGCG, which is the most important polyphenol in green tea. They also contain 427.75 mg of various other polyphenols. Of course, Mom also gets buckets of freshly brewed decaffeinated green tea force-fed to her through a rubber hose, like a French goose in the making of "fois gras"...lol. I'm kidding of course, as Mom loves green tea served cold or hot. Don't forget that the EGCG in green tea has been shown to be a powerful natural tyrosine kinase inhibitor, that helps block the nasty cell signalling that is part of the diabolical HER2/neu overexpression process.
And finally to you Mamacze. This fight is too hard to wage without a little treat now and then. I wouldn't give a second thought to those brownies. As a matter of fact, I'm gonna take a page from some of the Marijuana aficionados from my high school days, and bake some flaxseed right into my next batch. Better to be high on oleic acid and lignans, than nothing at all.
A note of thanks to all who were so kind in complimenting my personal photo is in order. That was taken a few years ago by a friend, when I was working as a commercial photographer. I will say only one thing about it...Lighting is everything, if you know what I mean. I have since put a few years and a few more boxes of See's candies under my belt. Oh, if only See's had a dark chocolate flaxseed product in their bag of tricks. I can always dream, can't I?
Good night,
and may God be watching over all of you