dcis

An encounter with "the 'c' word"

I am quite ambivalent about how to handle my experience with breast cancer.

First, I have generally been a private person and it seems like being as public as having a webpage about it is entirely too egocentric and tons of other things that I hate.

Second, I know that I am not the same person that I would have been if I hadn't had that experience; and I think I'm a better person for having had the experience.

Third, I hope that in some way I might help someone else who's having a run-in with the c-word, so, here it goes.

Perhaps I'm willing to share because the thing I had (past-tense) was a ductal carcinoma in situ (dcis). This is, according to my understanding,

a cancer that hasn't gotten out of the milk duct yet. Which means it's not malignant -- no chance. There's a very good drawing of it (at least there was in early 2000) on the Susan G. Komen website, www.breastcancerinfo.com. So, at this point, I have no greater risk of recurrence than any other woman in the state of Vermont.

After the lumpectomy, from which the dcis diagnosis was determined, I had 6+1/2 weeks of radiation therapy at the Radiation Oncology Department

of Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT. .

I feel lucky that I have the BEST health care practitioners in the world --

Dr. Tim Bicknell and Deb Hallien O'Hara, CAP from Little City Family Practice in Vergennes.

Dr. Carl Petri, based at Porter Hospital in Middlebury, was my surgeon

Dr. H. James Wallace, III (from Fletcher Allen's Radiation Oncology dept) is very thorough, patient, and attentive.

It is also important that I thank a special woman on the Middlebury College campus who gave a speech at a public speaking workshop in 1998 or so. She's had a couple of bouts of breast cancer (which Dr. Susan Love suggests one might regard as a chronic disease). Her speech about the importance of getting a mammogram if you're over 40 was the main reason I got a mammogram. She saved my life!

This page last updated June 26, 2003.

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	I am quite ambivalent about how to handle my experience with breast cancer.
First, I have generally been a private person and it seems like being as public as having a webpage about it is entirely too egocentric and tons of other things that I hate. Second, I know that I am not the same person that I would have been if I hadn't had that experience; and I think I'm a better person for having had the experience. Third, I hope that in some way I might help someone else who's having a run-in with the c-word, so, here it goes.
	Perhaps I'm willing to share because the thing I had (past-tense) was a ductal carcinoma in situ (dcis). This is, according to my understanding,
a cancer that hasn't gotten out of the milk duct yet. Which means it's not malignant -- no chance. There's a very good drawing of it (at least there was in early 2000) on the Susan G. Komen website, www.breastcancerinfo.com. So, at this point, I have no greater risk of recurrence than any other woman in the state of Vermont.
	After the lumpectomy, from which the dcis diagnosis was determined, I had 6+1/2 weeks of radiation therapy at the Radiation Oncology Department
of Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT. .
	I feel lucky that I have the BEST health care practitioners in the world -- Dr. Tim Bicknell and Deb Hallien O'Hara, CAP from Little City Family Practice in Vergennes. Dr. Carl Petri, based at Porter Hospital in Middlebury, was my surgeon Dr. H. James Wallace, III (from Fletcher Allen's Radiation Oncology dept) is very thorough, patient, and attentive.
It is also important that I thank a special woman on the Middlebury College campus who gave a speech at a public speaking workshop in 1998 or so. She's had a couple of bouts of breast cancer (which Dr. Susan Love suggests one might regard as a chronic disease). Her speech about the importance of getting a mammogram if you're over 40 was the main reason I got a mammogram. She saved my life!