#Breast Cancer Survivor Stories

[ramyadevi5201]

Embark on an emotional journey with Kadheer Unissa's Breast Cancer Survivor Stories, a heartfelt series amplifying tales of resilience and victory over Breast Cancer. In this impactful video, we dive deep into the realms of Breast Cancer in Kannada, shedding light on symptoms, treatment, and the inspiring survival stories that have emerged from the battle against this formidable adversary.

Breast Cancer :ನಾನು ಉಂಡೆಯನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಲಕ್ಷಿಸಿದೆ! | Breast Cancer Survivor Stories 💪| ಸ್ತನ ಕ್ಯಾನ್ಸರ್ | Punarjan Ayurveda Kannada

[hiskinkywifey]

I don't care to cover up. I am perfection to ME.

[thriveuprising]

“Our lives are a collection of stories…”

[officialthebodycan]

Breast Cancer Symptoms Treatment Diagnosis Survivors Alternative Cancer ...

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Blue Cross of Louisiana doesn’t give a shit about breast cancer

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH on May 15 at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE. More tour dates here.

A jury has ordered Blue Cross of Louisiana to pay $421m to a hospital specializing in a much sought-after type of breast reconstruction, primarily for cancer survivors. The insurer "preapproved" surgeries for thousands of patients, but then held back 92% of the payments it owed, with CEO Steven Udvarhelyi insisting that "authorization never says we’re going to pay you":

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25882446-steven-udvarhelyi-deposition/#document/p1/a2630959

In a characteristically brilliant and deep investigative story, Propublica's T Christian Miller explains how Blue Cross of Louisiana colluded with other Blue Cross franchises around the country to steal hundreds of millions of dollars by denying claims they'd already approved:

https://www.propublica.org/article/blue-cross-blue-shield-louisiana-insurance-lawsuit-breast-cancer-doctors

The hospital at the center of this controversy is the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery in New Orleans, founded by two surgeons, Frank DellaCroce and Scott Sullivan. DellaCroce and Sullivan are pioneers of an advanced form of breast reconstruction called "autologous tissue reconstruction," which eschews implants in favor of the patient's own fat to construct new breasts. While other surgeons perform this surgery, DellaCroce and Sullivan are acknowledged as national leaders, having invented many innovative techniques and trained many of the other surgeons who perform the procedure. As a result, patients travel from all over America to the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery.

DellaCroce and Sullivan's procedure is extremely precise and labor-intensive, and it comes at a high cost. Accordingly, patients seek pre-approval from their insurer before undergoing the procedure, and in Louisiana, that usually means calling up Blue Cross, the state's largest insurer. Despite pre-approving the procedure, Blue Cross of Louisiana has held back over 90% of the payments it owed to the hospital.

Rather than throwing their patients into the Blue Cross meat-grinder, DellaCroce and Sullivan carried the unpaid balance on its books, repeatedly suing Blue Cross for the unpaid amount. Finally, last week, the a jury ordered Blue Cross to pay $421m to the hospital (Blue Cross is appealing).

The case dragged Blue Cross's sleazy behavior – normally confined to bureaucratic memos and telephone denials – into the public, and boy is it ugly. Blue Cross's official excuse for denying the claims was that it was acting in the best interest of the millions of Louisianans it insures: DellaCroce and Sullivan are simply too expensive – it's not realistic for people in an insurance pool to expect that kind of care. However, Blue Cross executives repeatedly signed one-off, "single case agreements" so that their own wives could get the procedure from DellaCroce and Sullivan.

In addition to this argument, Blue Cross insisted that the fact that it had pre-approved all of these procedures did not oblige it to pay for them after the fact. Rather, an "approval" is a bureaucratic, heavily disclaimed term of art that means, maybe we'll pay for this and maybe we won't. In court, however, the company was forced to admit that an "approved" procedure has to be paid for in all but the most exceptional instances, for example, when the patient cancels their insurance between getting approved and going in for surgery.

The insurer also claimed that there were checks and balances to prevent arbitrary claims denials, but then Blue Cross executive VP Paula Shepherd acknowledged that "an appeal is not available to review an underpayment." As Miller writes, "The insurer simply issued an edict — the payment was correct."

Meanwhile, Blue Cross didn't just save money by denying the claims it had approved – it made money. Other Blue Cross organizations in different states would pay 16% kickbacks to the Louisiana Blue Cross, splitting the take every time it denied a payment.

All of this added up to means, motive and opportunity to engage in unbelievably sleazy – and fraudulent – behavior. Overall, Blue Cross paid $43m on $500m worth of invoices from the hospital. In 60% of claims, it paid nothing.

Blue Cross is one of the nation's largest health insurers, and Blue Cross's argument for stiffing this hospital is the argument for letting insurers buy one another up and grow to unimaginable scale. In David Dayen's amazing 2020 book Monopolized, he lays out the procession of America's morbid health care monopolization:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

First, we allowed pharma companies to merge to monopoly, which gave them the power to screw hospitals with sky-high drug prices. So the hospitals defensively merged into regional monopolies with the power to negotiate those prices down, but this also gave them the power to overbill insurers. So the insurers also merged until they could resist the hospital chains' pricing power and force rates down.

And indeed, 97% of doctors and hospitals have a negotiated rate with Blue Cross of Louisiana (remember, it's the state's largest insurer). But DellaCroce and Sullivan haven't joined the Blue Cross network, because the rates the insurer offered wouldn't even cover the costs of the surgeries.

The theory that monopolies will defend us from other monopolies is a disastrous example of "the old lady who swallowed a fly" strategy. For the strategy to work, everyone has to be a monopolist, otherwise they'll get steamrollered – on their wages, their care, or their compensation.

And of course, patients don't get to merge to monopoly (that's what governments are for, and we know how Blue Cross feels about single payer care). Workers don't get to merge to monopoly either (that's what unions are for, and no one hates a union more than a health care monopolist).

Blue Cross's position – the position of the entire for-profit health industry – is that they should be able to grow as large as they can, at the expense of us, the patients. In other words, they are economic tumors – so no wonder they're on the side of breast cancer.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/12/pre-authorization/#is-not-a-guarantee-of-payment

[wellhealthhub]

How long can you have breast cancer without knowing?

Curious about the timeline of undetected breast cancer? Dive into the intricacies of silent breast cancer development, its potential duration, and the crucial significance of early identification. Breast cancer stands as a prominent health concern, demanding timely recognition for effective treatment. Yet, the question remains: how long can breast cancer remain concealed, evading discovery? This…

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

"Just a cold" that could potentially cause cancer.

By Jo Cavallo

It’s not news that some viruses, including human papillomavirus, human immunodeficiency virus, Epstein-Barr, and hepatitis B, can cause or accelerate the development of cancer. But a recent story in The Washington Post about rare cancers being diagnosed in individuals who had previously been infected by the coronavirus has raised the specter of whether acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS–CoV-2) could also be an instigator in the initiation of cancer.1

Although the devastating short-term severe impact of SARS–CoV-2 is evidenced by the more than 7,000,000 reported coronavirus-related deaths worldwide since the outbreak of COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, in 2020,2 the long-term implications on health are just starting to be investigated.

According to Afshin Beheshti, PhD, President of the COVID-19 International Research Team and Professor of Surgery and Computational and Systems Biology, Director of the Space Biomedicine Program, and Associate Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, it is hypothesized that SARS–CoV-2 may have long-term, life-threatening complications, including the acceleration of cancer, but these cancer-related effects may take several years to manifest. In this interview with The ASCO Post, Dr. Beheshti discussed how SARS–CoV-2could be a risk factor in cancer development.

Mechanisms of COVID That May Lead to Cancer Development

Reports are starting to emerge about a possible link between the coronavirus and the acceleration of the development of cancers. Is severe SARS–CoV-2 an oncogenic agent? Could the virus be implicated in causing cancer?

All we have right now is preliminary and indirect evidence of a potential causal link between SARS–CoV-2 and cancer. When there is an injury to the body or an infection, there may be short-term cancer-related signals that go up, but they dissipate quickly. What we are seeing in some patients with long COVID is that these cancer-related signals, such as inflammatory factors and mitochondrial dysfunction, are persistent. This makes us hypothesize that SARS–CoV-2 may be an oncogenic type of virus. But if so, we don’t know whether it is an initiator of cancer or a driver of cancer progression.

There is a good study in preprint showing a connection between respiratory viral infections and the awakening of dormant metastatic breast cancer cells in the lungs.3 In this study, the researchers infected mice with SARS–CoV-2 or the influenza virus to understand the mechanisms that disrupt the quiescence of dormant disseminated cancer cells that may lead to metastatic progression. What they found is that both the influenza virus and SARS–CoV-2 increased breast disseminated cancer cell expansion in the lungs after infection. When the researchers expanded their findings to human observational data, they observed that cancer survivors who had contracted SARS–CoV-2 infection had a substantially increased risk of lung metastatic progression and cancer-related death compared with cancer survivors who had not developed SARS–CoV-2.3

So, in a sense, maybe SARS–CoV-2 creates a different landscape in the lungs, in this case, to make the cancer more susceptible to progress or for the dormant cells to become active. My colleague, Kashyap Patel, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, is seeing rare and lethal cancers popping up in his patients after they have contracted the coronavirus, so he has a strong suspicion—but no hard evidence—that there is a link between the virus and the development of cancer.1 We are working together to figure out whether the virus is causing dormant tumors to become reactivated, or it is causing an initiation. We want to bring attention to this issue before it’s too late.

Lingering Coronavirus Fragments and Long-Term Immune Responses

Is it possible that the coronavirus, rather than disappearing from the body after it infects an individual, lingers, potentially initiating cancer?

That is one of the concerns in patients who have had long COVID infection. So far, we have not seen the virus replicating in the body 15 or 20 days after infection. But researchers studying the impact of long COVID on the body have found that fragments of SARS–CoV-2 left behind after infection may continue to trigger immune responses.4 Whether that triggers cancer mechanisms is a hypothesis we should look into.

Focusing Research on SARS–CoV-2 and the Risk for Cancer Development

What are you learning about how COVID, especially long COVID, impacts the body in terms of prematurely aging tissue? Could that process spark the development of cancer?

We don’t know the answers to those questions. Emerging evidence has pointed to mitochondrial dysfunction or mitochondria suppression as a potential underpinning mechanism contributing to the persistence of long-COVID symptoms.5 That could mean there is a long-term impact on how cells transform energy.

In cancer development, malignant cells produce energy in a unique way that supports their rapid growth and spread. Known as the Warburg effect, this process could potentially play a role in the increased risk of cancer in patients with long COVID, because their cells may experience changes that make it easier for cancer to develop and thrive.

There is also long-lasting immune activation present in patients with long COVID, which can go on for 2 to 3 years after active infection. We know that consistent upper respiratory inflammation in the body can cause cancer progression.

A lot of the research underway now in long COVID is not yet focused on cancer development and the potential for SARS–CoV-2 to cause cancer, but it’s a question researchers should investigate.

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Beheshti is on the advisory board for Tevogen Bio.

REFERENCES

1. Cha AE: ‘Unusual’ cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if covid is to blame. The Washington Post, June 6, 2024.

2. Worldometer: Coronavirus Death Toll. Available at www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll. Accessed November 18, 2024.

3. Chia SB, Johnson BJ, Hu J, et al: Respiratory viral infection promotes the awakening and outgrowth of dormant metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs. Res Sq [Preprint] rs.3.rs-4210090, 2024.

4. Doctrow B: SARS–CoV-2 fragments may cause problems after infection. National Institutes of Health, February 27, 2024. Available at www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/sars-cov-2-fragments-may-cause-problems-after-infection. Accessed November 18, 2024.

5. Molnar T, Lehoczki A, Fekete M, et al: Mitochondrial dysfunction in long COVID: Mechanisms, consequences, and potential therapeutic approaches. GeroScience 46:5267-5286, 2024.

[fluff-lover]

If you're receiving this, it means I enjoy your writing and appreciate you sharing it with us! To celebrate, use this as an opportunity to talk about your favorite fic(s) that you have written. Uplift yourself, and then pass this along to your favorite fic writers to uplift them! 🩷

This is so sweet! thank you!!

I only have 2 fanfics posted on Tumblr, but I used to write A LOT for Klaroline, and I did OKAY I guess haha they're on AO3 and ff.net

I think that out of all of them, my fave of Flowers on her skin, classic flowershop owner meets tattoo artist, and it was SO cute! Plus I got to touch on a sensitive subject which is breast cancer and the response I got was amazing, lots of survivors shared their story.

Another fave of mine is Babe on wheels, which is a Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader AU where Reader is Dustin's sister and also rides a motorcycle. I come from a family of riders and I dream of becoming one someday (Sometimes I think I'm too old for it now, but my dad got into it in his mid fourties so who knows?). I LOVE bikes, and I think Eddie would love a bad(but good) girl on a bike.

And of course, I can't leave out my beloved fics with Logan/Wolverine.

The one that got away is how I kinda wish things had worked out for a girl that posted on Reddit the horrible story of how her boyfriend left her for his ex. I hope she's doing fine now. No one deserves that, and I wanted someone (even if it's fiction) to get a happy ending.

And finally, Healing touch... you know how in some dating apps (yeah, I know *sigh* I've been there) there are questions you can use to fill in your profile? One I got that stood out to me was "What superpower would you like to have?". And for me there's only one good answer: Healing powers. If I could heal any would and cure any disease I would, I would travel from one town to another curing people, especially children. So I just thought "Wouldn't that be an amazing mutant power? Could be an X-Man." and that's how Angel was born.

This ask made me go down memory lane! Some of my fics are really old!

Thank you @rosenclaws for the ask!

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Be Prepared for MEgain's Pink Grift

Catherine cannot be the only daughter in law of Saint Diana to survive cancer. I hate to break it to the ladies in this community, but get ready for MEgain to identify as a breast cancer survivor.

No one here wants to see this happen, but we must prepare ourselves for it. She needs a new victimhood shield and what better grift ----to sink even lower---than to fake a cancer diagnosis.

Thus far, she has lived up to the most outrageous predictions including: mythcarriage and threats to unalive herself.

With the help of Sparry and her actress friend (accomplice), her mythcarriage story has changed three (3) times, 3x!!! Why hasn't the press called out their ever changing mythcarriage story? Or the obvious holes in her unaliving lie.?? Or the INVISIBLES whom they have NEVER ever seen? They are content to sell her brand of crazy even when she contradicts herself.

What do you mean, she could never pull THAT off!! This woman inflated & deflated her belly right before our very eyes! The entire world has photographs and video footage of her megnancy fraud but she's the victim.

pap walk outside of pink lotus at least once to raise suspicion

appear on a morning chat program to announce her diagnosis and how she'll be stepping back, not down

steal portions of Angelina Jolie's story and pay to print it in the New York Times

staff will be told not to ask her about treatment but they'll witness her zooming w/holistic healers and a raw food diet

promote herself to charity walks and "celebrity" pink ribbon groups

write a book about how she thrived in the midst of the cold BRF who never acknowledge her illness

"She's capable of anything. "-Sparry

[yaskie]

I’ve also posted this update on X/Twitter and here. If anyone has Bluesky(I don't have one yet), I’d appreciate it deeply if you could help share my story there as well.

🌟 X/Twitter Post: https://x.com/jaskiemiqo/status/1908107420439589220 🌟 Ko-Fi Fundraiser: https://ko-fi.com/miqojasky/goal?g=12

🌟 Discord Server: https://discord.gg/hS6YQ9vUN6 Hello dear friends

I hope you're doing well. Thank you for taking a moment to read this update. I truly appreciate your time, kindness, and support.

I just returned from another doctor’s appointment, and despite seeking a second opinion, the results remain the same. Alongside my primary breast cancer, doctors have now confirmed cancerous tumors in my colon and reproductive system. They want to proceed with further procedures, but more confirmation is needed before any decisions are made. This news has been incredibly difficult to process, especially as I still hold onto the dream of having children someday.

In the coming days and weeks, I will need a surgical biopsy and further treatments, requiring me to stay in the hospital for at least two weeks to a month. As I navigate this battle, I’m also still searching for a job, trying to balance survival with hope.

The cost of my treatment is overwhelming, $2,500 every two weeks. There is no free cancer treatment where I live, and even government aid has its limits. On top of that, my previous hospital bills continue to pile up. I don’t know how I’ll manage, but I refuse to give up.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for every prayer, donation, share, and kind word. You have no idea how much strength your support gives me. I’ll continue streaming on Twitch before my next hospital stay to stay connected with you all and hopefully raise more toward my treatment goal.

💛 Upcoming Streams (Batman Series 🦇) 💛 In honor of Val Kilmer, a cancer survivor who recently passed away after battling pneumonia, I’ll be dedicating this weekend’s streams to him too. His portrayal of Batman inspired me so much as a child.

🦇 Friday: 8:30 PM ET 🦇 Saturday: 7:30 PM ET 🦇 Sunday: 5:30 PM ET 🦇 Monday–Wednesday: 6:30 PM ET (AFK !Kukoro streams will be live as well—feel free to drop by anytime!)

I know many of you have already given so much, and I am endlessly grateful. If donating again isn’t possible, I completely understand. But if you could share my story, it would mean the world to me. Every share brings hope and the chance for a miracle.

Lastly, my friends and I are working on a Ko-Fi shop and an Etsy store to sell items and help fund my treatment. More details on that soon.

Thank you, truly, for standing by me. No matter what happens, we smile and laugh always. 💛

With love and gratitude, Jaskie @measurelessdreamer @signalboostr @signal-booster-blog @signal-boost-my-blog

[hiskinkywifey]

Breast cancer took away my concept of a perfect body and reminded me that beauty is so much more.

[thriveuprising]

I refuse to sink

[supermanandloisverse]

Elizabeth Tulloch via Instagram: Thank you again to @saturnawards for such an amazing night. And to @andremakeup & @hellohairbear for glam, the most sparkly dress ever @aliceandolivia @staceybendet, heels @toryburch, skin @theskingirls @vancouvermedicalaesthetician. @suzanne1 for taking great #behindthescenes photos. One of my ride-or-die besties @realbreeturner for being such a fun date. To our FANTASTIC writers and producers and crew without whom this show would never happen. And a special shout-out to our showrunners Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher who trusted me with the breast cancer storyline last season. And to all of the women I spoke with who were SURVIVORS - I couldn’t have done it without the inspiration and strength I got from hearing your stories. Every single one of you broke my heart and then the stories of your resilience healed it again.

❤️

@jetslay @lostsoulincssea

[survivorgirlpodcast]

Episode 9 with Ronda B from Survivor Girl on Vimeo.

Survivor Girl Podcast welcomes Ronda who shares her incredible story of battling breast cancer and the work she's doing to spread awareness and support. Read more about her great work at tatatuesdays.com

[wellhealthhub]

What is the very first stage of breast cancer?

Introduction: Unveiling the Complexity of Breast Cancer Breast cancer, a multifaceted ailment affecting numerous individuals annually, stands as a formidable medical challenge. A profound grasp of its various stages is indispensable for accurate diagnostics and efficacious treatment. Within the confines of this discourse, we shall embark on a comprehensive expedition into the intricacies of the…

[pentuppen]

Pay No Attention To The Mad Brit Behind The Curtain. (This is just an angsty get it off my chest post in the void of nobody knowing who the heck I am and never being able to make my irl friends understand)

So all this week, I've been feeling a bit...off, unsettled. I've been having trouble sitting down and writing my fics with no earthly idea why. Then it kinda hit me.

This time last year I got diagnosed with breast cancer. Last year was a doozy, I'm a socially inept hermit who had to drag their ass to hospital 4 times a week, an assault survivor who had to grin and bear being poked prodded and exposed to strangers. Chemo was about as much fun as you might expect, and radiotherapy was yet more exposure, discomfort and all around ball achingly boring.

The only thing that gave me any relief was copious amounts of weed and Baldur's Gate 3 finally having a full release. I played that motherfucker like it owed me money, fell in love a couple of times, laughed till I nearly peed and even sniffled a little. It was cathartic as hell and once I was finished I knew I wasn't done!!

I was still feeling pretty sick from chemo and I's just had the remains of my waist length hair shaved off, I was in one of the worst physical and mental places I had been. Then I started composing scenarios in my brain, starring everybodies favourite Vampire. This brain-porn, started to grow substance and meaning to me so much so that I did something I hadn't done in around 7 years. I started to write fic again.

I cannot describe to you, the complete catharsis of finishing that first chapter, and coming back in the morning to find out that people had not only read the words that came out of my mad mad head, but liked it enough to leave comments that made me grin till I felt the top of my head was going to fall off.

It was just meant to be a one shot. But through encouragement and enthusiasm, it turned into a 50 chapter saga that I still can't believe I completed.

That game, and the lovely community that showed love for my work and support for myself were invaluable in getting me through perhaps one of the shittiest diseases in existence. I went from just 'hanging in there' 24/7 and barely feeling human, to being able to get out of bed in the morning and take care of myself, because I had everyone's enthusiasm and love for the story in my head and I had to write!

That meant a lot. More than even my weird words can say.

So, to end this self indulgent ramble that is basically me lancing the still somewhat stingy wound of remembering where I was this time last year...

Thank you Baldurs gate, for inspiring a spark in one sick motherfucker who needed a distraction and got a story that will live on amongst others in my heart.

And thank you to every single person who let me know my writing was worth something to them enough to comment or leave kudos or even make fanart. You guys only have a small idea of how powerful all those small gestures were in getting me through the battlefield and i'll never forget.

Fuck you Cancer. I Won.

And I love you all x