Gaining Perspective as a Cancer Survivor
- Melissa Etheridge is a rockstar determined to live her truth. And she says it was cancer that helped her realize the type of musician she wanted to be as her career advanced.
- Many cancer survivors like Etheridge say that the disease helped them gain perspective. Another survivor told SurvivorNet that cancer helped her learn the importance of taking care of herself and being “more respectful to [her] body.”
- Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump in her breast. For treatment, she had a lumpectomy to remove a 4-centimeter tumor from her breast, surgery to remove 14 lymph nodes after discovering the cancer had spread, dose-dense chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
- Signs and symptoms of breast cancer may include a breast lump or thickening that feels different from the surrounding tissue, a change in the size, shape or appearance of a breast, changes to the skin over the breast such as dimpling, a newly inverted nipple, peeling, scaling, crusting or flaking of the pigmented area of skin surrounding the nipple (areola) or breast skin and redness or pitting of the skin over your breast like the skin of an orange.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Etheridge showed us, once again, a touching display of vulnerability as she navigated difficult topics.
Read More“I'm really glad I got to go through that in my life and know all these people… This was a beautiful, golden time when we all had our dreams of what we wanted, and then we saw each of us just explode in our lives and careers. It was really nice."
Etheridge even revealed that her pool parties even served as inspiration for lesbian drama series “The L Word.”
"Oh, ‘The L Word’ was written about all that happened!" Etheridge said laughing. "I knew (show co-creator and executive producer) Ilene Chaiken. She was part of that group.
“She was very, very much inspired by all of us. I stopped watching ‘The L Word’ because I lived it!"
As far as her music goes, Etheridge has many classics to her name like I’m the Only One and Come To My Window. But Etheridge has admitted she initially struggled with her decrease in fame over the years.
"You get to the top, and think, 'Oh, I think I want to stay here.' Then it starts to wane,” she said. “You think, 'Oh, wait a minute. I need to stop trying to be a hit to 18-year-olds. I'm getting older. I need to be true to myself and make music. I want to be legendary, so I have to live my life and create the music that will entertain and inspire people.'”
For her, it was cancer that really opened her eyes.
"It was difficult for a few years until I got cancer," Etheridge said. "After cancer, I resolved that I was never going to think of 'Is there going to be a hit?’ I am going to create music I want to play live. I want people going to my concerts and performances to say, 'Oh, this is on my bucket list. To see Melissa Etheridge in concert is an experience everyone should want to experience.'
“Legacy is very important to me. I look to my inspirations, like Bruce Springsteen. He has kept on becoming what he wanted to be. I have made 18 albums or something. That amount of music: I want to hold on to that catalog, revere it, love it, and create what I can after it.”
Etheridge was on tour in the summer of 2004 when she discovered a lump in her left breast. She received her breast cancer diagnosis after a biopsy, and her treatment was extensive. She had a lumpectomy to remove a 4-centimeter tumor from her breast, surgery to remove 14 lymph nodes after discovering the cancer had spread, dose-dense chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Thankfully, her course of treatment proved to be successful and she's still commanding stages everywhere. In her most recent album from 2021, One Way Out, the rockstar celebrates a trip down memory lane and exults in the person she's become since the songs were written in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And the next time to see her on tour will arrive in April 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Perspective after Cancer
It's apparent through her interviews and messages to fans that Melissa Etheridge has a positive outlook on life. And many cancer survivors, including Etheridge, tend to say that their cancer journeys helped them gain perspective.
For breast cancer survivor Fernanda Savino, her experience with the disease forced her to slow down and gave her a whole new appreciation for her body and loved ones.
"I'm a lawyer, and I used to be such a workaholic," Fernanda previously told SurvivorNet. "I would work for long hours, and I would never make room for doctor appointments or anything like that.
"I started to take care of my health and be more respectful to my body, to me. I started to exercise more."
Like so many others, Fernanda also said she relied on a lot of support from her loved ones something she'll always be grateful for.
"I had all the support … my family, my friends, even the ones that weren't so close, they always were present," she said. "I don't know how I would have gotten through all of this without them."
Understanding Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is a common cancer that has been the subject of much research. Many women develop breast cancer every year, but men can develop this cancer too though it is much more rare, in part, due to the simple fact that they have less breast tissue.
Signs and symptoms of breast cancer may include:
- A breast lump or thickening that feels different from the surrounding tissue
- Change in the size, shape or appearance of a breast
- Changes to the skin over the breast such as dimpling
- A newly inverted nipple
- Peeling, scaling, crusting or flaking of the pigmented area of skin surrounding the nipple (areola) or breast skin
- Redness or pitting of the skin over your breast, like the skin of an orange
It's important to keep an eye out for these symptoms while remembering that having one or many of them does not necessarily mean you have breast cancer. Regardless, you should always speak with a doctor promptly if anything ever feels off or you're experiencing one or more of the signs listed above. You never know when speaking up about your health can lead to a very important diagnosis.
When Should I Get a Mammogram?
Screening for breast cancer is typically done via mammogram, which looks for lumps in the breast tissue and signs of cancer. The American Cancer Society (ACS) says women should begin yearly mammogram screening for breast cancer at age 45 if they are at average risk for breast cancer. The ACS also says those aged 40-44 have the option to start screening with a mammogram every year, and women age 55 and older can switch to a mammogram every other year, or they can choose to continue yearly mammograms.
It's also important to be on top of self breast exams. If you ever feel a lump in your breast, you should be vigilant and speak with your doctor right away. Voicing your concerns as soon as you have them can lead to earlier cancer detection which, in turn, can lead to better outcomes.
There are many treatment options for people with this disease, but treatment depends greatly on the specifics of each case. Identifying these specifics means looking into whether the cancerous cells have certain receptors. These receptors the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor and the HER2 receptor can help identify the unique features of the cancer and help personalize treatment.
"These receptors, I like to imagine them like little hands on the outside of the cell, they can grab hold of what we call ligands, and these ligands are essentially the hormones that may be circulating in the bloodstream that can then be pulled into this cancer cell and used as a fertilizer, as growth support for the cells," Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a medical advisor to SurvivorNet, previously told SurvivorNet.
The Unique Features of Breast Cancer: Deciding the Right Course of Treatment
One example of a type of ligand that can stimulate a cancer cell is the hormone estrogen, hence why an estrogen receptor positive breast cancer will grow when stimulated by estrogen. For these cases, your doctor may offer treatment that specifically targets the estrogen receptor. But for HER2 positive breast cancers, therapies that uniquely target the HER2 receptor may be the most beneficial.
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