More news from Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer conference
The gang from Saturday night dinner
Whew! I’m finally coming up for air after being out of town, then a solid week of editing my book.
I am still coming down from the excitement of attending the Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer conference. As a Pink Ribbon Girls scholarship recipient – and new board member – I have the task of sharing what I learned.
In a previous post, I shared my first day there. The second day was chock-full of information. The first keynote was a medical update from Julie R. Gralow, MD, from University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. She shared some hopeful developments, such as more targeted treatments for various cancers, especially HER2 nu and triple negative varieties.
As someone who’s neither (I’m ER/PR-positive), I found it a little disheartening that there wasn’t more for people like me, which make up the majority of breast cancer cases. She did share they have found a way to make Taxol and other drugs water-soluable, which would eliminate the need for anthihistimines or steroids and also make them more effective for metastatic patients. As someone who has suffered through the puffiness and insomnia of steroids, this was welcome news.
She talked a lot about trials for PARP inhibitors for triple negative cancers, which seemed promising. If proven effective, she predicted it could be approved for advanced breast cancer.
After Dr. Gralow, Pink Ribbon Girls (PRG) president, Tracie Metzger gave a brief presentation. All of the PRG contingent sat up front to support her. We were so proud! Then, Julie Rowland, PhD, Director of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, spoke on lifestyle factors related to breast cancer. A lot of her presentation seemed pretty obvious to me: good nutrition, exercise and stress management all improves quality of life and survivorship. What I found really fascinating though was that many of her recommendations mirrored the common attributes of survivors I interviewed for my book:
- Being an active participant in your care
- Relying on a support network
- Having a sense of purpose
- Seeing the positive gifts of cancer and living more fully
My final breakout session, Let’s Talk About Sex, was interesting. Why wouldn’t it be? Sharon Crews, a psychologist from Atlanta, talked about the struggles we survivors can face and how to overcome them. There was talk of vibrators and mindfullness meditation, using the mantra: “My body is alive and sexual.”
She was very clinical about all of it, but at several points, people got up and left. One woman admitted she left because she was uncomfortable and came back. After attending the PRG Pure Romance fundraiser Friday night, this all seemed very benign to me!
The night ended with a very fun and moving dinner with PRGs and other survivors we invited to join us. Andrea Bashor, our host for the evening, even invited the speaker Michael Baime, MD, who presented the Mindfulness Meditation breakout. He held up well, despite being the only male among almost 20 women!
It was a great time and I look forward to attending next year. For more information, visit www.youngsurvival.org
Sam Elliston says:
Interesting and useful information. Thanks – I didn’t see your one male member in the photo or was that a different night?
tamilb says:
Sam, he was the one taking the picture!
Evan Mattingly says:
I find that my own sexual life has changed as we dont have sex as often as before, but then again, I dont think it is from Cancer, I think it is just that we are getting older and we would rather sleep. but I must admit, when we do have sex, it is better than ever before. It is pure love. (Then the sleep)