Transcript BBQ4 powerpoint

WHAT’S WRONG WITH
MOMMY?
What Factors Influence How Breast Cancer is
Treated?
By Rachel Polizzano and Erin Hoyt
• The Wilson’s were a cute little family of four. There was
Judy, the mom, Hank, the dad, Lucas, the son, and Katie,
the daughter.
• One day, Judy and Hank sat
down their kids and said they
had something serious to tell
them. Their sad faces worried
Lucas and Katie.
• “Kids, your mom is sick. We just
found out she has breast
cancer.” Hank said with a frown.
• “What’s breast cancer??” Lucas
asked.
• “Breast cancer is a tumor, or a lump, that starts in the
breast and can spread to other parts of the body. This is a
disease mostly women get.” Judy explained, putting her
arm around Lucas. “But don’t worry honey, there are
different stages of breast cancer and the doctors caught
this pretty early.”
• “She’s has Stage 2A breast cancer which means the
tumor is small, less than 2 centimeters, and hasn’t really
spread yet.” Hank added in as Katie crawled in his lap.
• “Well what can we do to get rid of it?” Lucas questioned,
still worried.
• “There are different treatment options we’re looking into. A
few are radiation, chemotherapy, and mastectomy. Let me
explain what those are to you Luke.” Hank said.
Chemotherapy
• “Chemotherapy is the use of cancer-killing drugs. These
drugs can be put into a vein, given as a shot, or taken as
a pill or liquid. Doctors give chemotherapy in cycles, with
each round of treatment followed by a resting period. You
might get chemotherapy to shrink a cancer before surgery
or radiation, or after to stop it from coming back.”
Radiation
• “Radiation therapy is using high-energy rays (like X-rays)
to shrink tumors and get rid of cancer cells. The radiation
might be delivered by a machine outside the body or it
may come from radioactive material placed in the body
near cancer cells. Radiation therapy kills cancer cells by
damaging their DNA.”
Mastectomy
• “A mastectomy is a surgery
to remove all breast tissue
from the breast. A doctor
would recommend a
person to get one if the
tumor is larger than 5
centimeters.” Judy added.
• “But there are three options and they all seem good! They all
get rid of the cancer! How do you choose one and not the
others?” Lucas asked and Katie nodded.
• “Good question honey. You’re so smart.” Judy said with a
smile. “There are things called side effects which are bad
things that might happen after the different treatments.”
• “Some side effects to chemotherapy are hair loss, easy
bruising or bleeding, abdominal pain, appetite changes,
and a higher risk of infection.
• “Short term effects for radiation include skin irritation or
damage at regions exposed to the radiation beams,
fatigue, and nausea. Later side effects are memory loss,
infertility, and damage to the bowels.”
• “Aside from pain after the surgery and the change in the
shape of the breast, the possible side effects of
mastectomy include wound infection, build-up of blood in
the wound, and build-up of clear fluid.
• “But Lucas, just know that these bad things might not
happen and they aren’t as important as what the
treatment will do for me, which is get me all better. It’ll be
okay” Judy said, sniffling.
• “Judy, what are the social and ethical choices that you
have to consider before choosing treatments?” Hank
asked. “We never talked about that before.”
• “Well there’s a lot of talk now about radiation therapy. It’s
shown to actually cause other cancers when trying to get
rid of breast cancer. I don’t want to go through radiation
with the risk of something like that happening. It’s not
right.”
• “I also don’t want to go through surgery. My tumor is less
than 2 centimeters so it’s not necessary and if it grows or
gets worse, then I’ll consider the option. I know there are
people getting mastectomies to prevent breast cancer
from spreading or even occurring but I don’t want to
remove my breasts if I don’t have to. I give women a lot of
respect for going through that though, it’s a brave act.”
• “I think I want to go through chemotherapy. I’m aware of
the side effects but I think it’ll be my best bet to shrinking
and getting rid of the cancer. I don’t care about losing my
hair, I care about getting better. Also most breast cancer
patients choose chemotherapy as their option. I want to
think of my family, and this seems like the best choice.”
• After this talk the Wilson’s had, there were a couple hard
weeks full of chemotherapy, tears, and hugs. But, Judy
chose the right treatment for her! The chemo killed all the
cancer in her body and she was back to her normal life.
THE END