Elizabeth Edwards, Author of Resilience, on Her Breast Cancer Experiences
Elizabeth Edwards, Author of Resilience, on Her Breast Cancer Experiences
Elizabeth Edwards talks with WebMD about her breast cancer, treatment, and more.
Apart from the aches and pains, the drugs and scans, the fears and stresses, there have been little things about breast cancer that came from out of the blue -- like losing her nose hair.
"Nobody ever tells you that. And of course you're sneezing all the time because you've got nothing to stop things from going up and nothing to stop things from coming down."
And some of the details of the disease can get lost in the sea of tests and appointments. Edwards says she has blood tests all the time, but she isn't always told if that day's test is to check on a tumor marker or whether the results would be available while she gets her drug infusion.
"It would have been great if a nurse had sat down with me and opened up my medical records and said, 'Here's what this is; this is what we're finding.'" But Edwards says she tries not to ask "a thousand questions ... because you know they're not going to get recompensed" for extra time. "That doesn't happen that often, and it would be really helpful if it did."
Edwards also says being more active during her treatment might have helped her feel better.
"I was so achy that I wasn't active in any way, and I might have actually found that I would have given myself more good days ... had I been active as I should have been during the actual treatment. It's just too easy just to lay back down and say, 'I'm just too stiff; I don't want to do it.'"
Edwards says the personal stresses in her life, including her husband's infidelity, didn't make it harder to deal with her breast cancer recurrence. That's partly because she'd already weathered a searing loss, the death of her son, Wade, in a car accident years earlier, when Wade was 16.
In the wake of Wade's death, Edwards says, "I'm not as afraid of death" for herself and that cancer is "not in the ballpark of the worst things that have happened to me. His death was so huge."
Elizabeth Edwards: Her Breast Cancer Experience
Elizabeth Edwards talks with WebMD about her breast cancer, treatment, and more.
The Things No One Tells You
Apart from the aches and pains, the drugs and scans, the fears and stresses, there have been little things about breast cancer that came from out of the blue -- like losing her nose hair.
"Nobody ever tells you that. And of course you're sneezing all the time because you've got nothing to stop things from going up and nothing to stop things from coming down."
And some of the details of the disease can get lost in the sea of tests and appointments. Edwards says she has blood tests all the time, but she isn't always told if that day's test is to check on a tumor marker or whether the results would be available while she gets her drug infusion.
"It would have been great if a nurse had sat down with me and opened up my medical records and said, 'Here's what this is; this is what we're finding.'" But Edwards says she tries not to ask "a thousand questions ... because you know they're not going to get recompensed" for extra time. "That doesn't happen that often, and it would be really helpful if it did."
Edwards also says being more active during her treatment might have helped her feel better.
"I was so achy that I wasn't active in any way, and I might have actually found that I would have given myself more good days ... had I been active as I should have been during the actual treatment. It's just too easy just to lay back down and say, 'I'm just too stiff; I don't want to do it.'"
Life Today
Edwards says the personal stresses in her life, including her husband's infidelity, didn't make it harder to deal with her breast cancer recurrence. That's partly because she'd already weathered a searing loss, the death of her son, Wade, in a car accident years earlier, when Wade was 16.
In the wake of Wade's death, Edwards says, "I'm not as afraid of death" for herself and that cancer is "not in the ballpark of the worst things that have happened to me. His death was so huge."