My Year of Cancer: Part I - Too young for cancer

Kindle Carpp is a 2000 graduate of Shorewood High School. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, she shares her story.

By Kindle Carpp

In October of 2011 I was told by a geneticist that I had a genetic defect called BRCA-2. BRCA-2 inhibits cells that repair damage from x-rays, mammograms and other exposures to radiation. People with BRCA are particularly vulnerable to certain kinds of cancer. I found out that I was a BRCA only a few months after my 30th birthday when I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. I underwent chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and I am now cancer free.

So far I have spent my thirties dealing with cancer and cancer treatment and I have learned a lot.

Just because it is scary do not let the doctor scare you stupid.

Pertaining to your life, cancer is one of the most terrifying words you can hear.

Just because you have an illness that scares the bejesus out of you does not mean you have to go with the first doctor you find.

• Make the time to check out a few places.
• Don't let the first doctor you see make you believe that they are the only one that can save your life.
• Unless you have a very rare type of cancer, doctors pretty much use the same treatments no matter where you go.

So choose your location based upon how much you like and trust the doctors as well as what treatments they offer. You are going to be stuck with them for a long time.

Learn to trust your doctor because they have a wealth of knowledge; they went to school for this.

A friend I met at my cancer center told me that when she found a lump in her breast she responsibly went to her general practitioner. Her doctor checked her over, didn't think it was anything but just to be safe sent her to a specialist who also didn't think it was anything. The doctors conferred and her primary care physician contacted her and told her “we think you might just have a cancer phobia.” Six months later my friend went back to her primary care physician with a swollen breast. That same primary care physician checked her over again and realized that, yes my friend had been right all along and now her “cancer phobia” had manifested into stage 3 breast cancer. She had a double mastectomy, aggressive chemotherapy and aggressive radiation. She is now ok.

Learn to trust yourself. Just because your doctor went to school doesn't mean they are always right. If you think something is wrong and they don't believe you, don't let them talk you into something you feel is not right.

Understand that science isn't an “exact science.”

I love my port!

A “port” or Port-a-cath is basically a built in IV tube that a doctor surgically implants underneath your skin. Don't be afraid of getting a port, they are amazing! Your port is your friend. It makes it so easy to get chemo treatments, get fluids and have blood taken. It sure beats a nurse digging in your arm for a vein any time they want blood, need to give you fluids or need to do anything that goes in or out of your blood stream. Make sure you are given a prescription for lidocaine and don't be afraid to use lots to numb the skin over the port. I use about a nickle size blob over my port about an hour before it needs to be accessed, then cover it with “press and seal” to keep it off my clothes and to keep the cream from being rubbed off. 

A Naturopath will focus on you, not just your cancer.

Get a Naturopath with an ND degree and Board certification in cancer treatment and don't let your MD make you feel stupid for having Naturopathic support. In general the worst that Naturopathic medicine can do is nothing, the best it can do is relieve your symptoms or make them more bearable. With all the poisonous medication you are putting in your body, nothing bad to something positive is a great option.

Learn about your cancer.

There is a lot of information on the Internet, but there is also a lot of stuff that is just terrible and completely worthless.

Ask your doctor questions.

But don't pepper your doctor with every question that you have. Figure out what you are most worried about and ask those questions. Write your questions down, because the minute your doctor comes in the room you will forget most of them and you don't want to be the “door handle” patient, you know the one who asks the most important thing just as the doctor has their hand on the door.

Continued:

Part II - Your body is a loaner
Part III - The things you learn along the way
Part IV - Every one gives you hats