SAVE THE BOOBS!! HELP SAVE SECOND BASE!!

now that i have your attention.

that is actually a breast cancer awareness slogan that i have on a t-shirt. it also says "big and small, we support them all."

you can't talk to any female who has not been effected by breast cancer. if you don't have a personal experience, you probably have a relative or a friend who has faced breast cancer (or at the very least, you are aware of celebrity gossip- survivors like olivia newton john, christina applegate, and sheryl crow). there's a lot of awareness (and pink paraphernalia) out there, this being breast cancer awareness month.

and this is good. breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second most deadly cancer in women (behind lung cancer). we continue to make great strides in diagnosis and treatment. (for your info: current recommendations say that from age 20 on, monthly home breast exams and yearly (or at least every 3 yr) clinical breast exams are important in early detection. and after age 40, annual mammograms in addition to those screenings already mentioned). treatment is less invasive than it used to be, and is tailored to each patient depending on the tumor size, involved lymph nodes, pathology of the tumor, genetics, etc. mastectomy with chemo/radiation is often times still the most effective combo.

we do a lot of mastectomies at the hospital. i'm scheduled to do a few tomorrow. as you can imagine, they are often very emotional for the patient. even with the progress that we're making with breast cancer treatment, it's a terrifying process and losing your breasts can often be synonymous with feelings of losing your dignity and femininity. again, hopefully with the public interest, there's now somewhat less dread and hopelessness associated with a diagnosis of breast cancer, but it is still an awful ordeal.

mastectomies and reconstructive surgery is really interesting from a surgical perspective. often times, if the patient knows they'll want to go with prosthesis eventually, they'll put retainers in at the time to start stretching the muscle slowly to allow for the eventual implant. the patient will go in periodically to the plastic surgeon to have more gel inserted to make the retainer bigger until it's of satisfactory size and the tissue is healed and all radiation is done and everything...

the plastic surgeons i work with are artists. the natural shape of breasts is kind of an obsession with them. they're goal is to make the implants fit the patient's figure, have both breasts look equal and have them settle gracefully. one MD explained to me that if you inflate the balloon into a perfect circle (both top and bottom full and round), you end up with very artificial looking jugs like this. once the actual implants are in and the tissue is healed, the last step is nipple tattooing. the patient picks their shade and the doc re-creates a nipple and areola by injecting ink into it to create a nice, natural look. (and no, no one has requested paisley or bright orange areolas. i already asked).

this is not just a disease for women. although it happens a lot less often in men, breast tissue is breast tissue, so men are not safe either and if having symptoms (pain, nipple leakage/bleeding, lumps and bumps, swollen lymph nodes), need to be examined.

there's a lot more information out there, and please, please research it or post me a question and i'll find answers for you. some good places to start are emedicine breast cancer article and the american cancer society.