Skip to main content

TMJ Male Breast Cancer Story Hits Home

Milwaukee TV station TMJ4 recently did a story on 'A candid look at male breast cancer' covering 620AM radio personality Jim Peck's personal encounter with a breast cancer scare. We always try to increase men's health awareness, and the men's cancers always take a prominent place in awareness and fundraising efforts, but this story is different. Not only is it an atypical cancer, usually thought of only for women, but it is personal since I had a breast cancer scare myself.

Wait, we don't have breasts so how can we get breast cancer you ask? Well, here is what Cancer Treatment Centers of America reports:
Men have breast tissue that develops in the same way as breast tissue in women, and is susceptible to cancer cells in the same way. In girls, hormonal changes at puberty cause female breasts to grow. In boys, hormones made by the testicles prevent the breasts from growing. Breast cancer in men is uncommon because male breasts have ducts that are less developed and are not exposed to growth-promoting female hormones.
Because of the fact we have less developed breasts, but still have them, male breast cancer represents less than 1% of all breast cancer cases, but we can still get it. Jim's mammogram came up negative, it doesn't state what follow up was done for him, but they mention another man who was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Larry Norman, a deacon for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. The closest thing to a ‘standard of care’ for males with breast cancer is to have the mass removed by what's called a ‘modified radical mastectomy’. Larry had the procedure done, and opted to take a drug called Temoxafine.
Thankfully my story was somewhere in between Jim and Larry's. I was in grade school yet when I noticed a lump forming in my chest, behind my left nipple. As a young boy it was embarrassing that I seemed to be forming a breast, but odd that it was just one side. Gym class and showers weren't fun as I tried to hide it under my arm for a while. Eventually I let my parents know and we saw the doctor. Back then no initial tests were done but surgery was scheduled right away. They performed a mastectomy, removing not only the growth but also a portion of muscle with it. To this day I still have a depression in my left chest where muscle was cut out. Luckily tests on the growth that was removed came back negative, it was benign, and over 30 years later nothing else has come out of it. But had it been cancer, and had we waited, who knows...

As with all illnesses and health issues, the earlier is always better but as we know men are not known for following up on our health, especially when it may be 'embarrassing'. But how or why should it be embarrassing when you have no control over it? And even if you could, like your weight, isn't it more embarrassing to 'let yourself go' than to take care of yourself? This is just another example of why we need to be more proactive with our health and get ourselves checked out.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do We Even Understand What A Billionaire Is?

In today's world, we marvel at billionaires, yet very few actually understand what it means. I know its a ridiculous number we cannot fathom, but the more I looked into it, the more it shocked me how much these people really are worth.  Among the general populace, making 'six-figures' or $100,000 is a benchmark of success and wealth. Millionaires are truly wealthy. But what is often misunderstood is how exponentially large adding another, let alone 3, or 6 a number becomes.  The wealthiest aren't just billionaires either, they are hundred billionaires. Elon Musk is worth 265 billion. That is 265 with 9 zeroes after it. 265,000,000,000. It would take someone making six-figures 2,650,000 years to amass that wealth with no expenses. 2.65 MILLION years. To reach Jeff Bezos' wealth would only take them 1.77 million years. Even someone who makes a million dollars a year (which is wealthier than a millionaire which is just a net worth not annual salary delineation) would ...
Post a Comment
Read more

DEI Creates Opportunities, Doesn't Lower Requirements

Companies have been being attacked recently for DEI initiatives, such as boycotting, to force them to undo those efforts. These attacks are typically dog whistle coding to cover up discrimination against minorities including women and people of color. The narrative is typically that hiring standards are lowered to include a wider range of employees and that it is a form of reverse discrimination - disadvantaging one group (people that are one or more of white, male, and cisgender). But not only is this not the case, in fact, DEI initiatives are proven to strengthen companies' performance across many metrics - even financially. Someone recently brought up lowering standard for airline pilots as proof that DEI is a radical far left practice that supposedly in this case makes pilots less qualified and flying more dangerous in order to fulfill DEI quotas. A similar case has been made recently regarding the Secret Service and issues with at least one high-profile recent event that is - ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Five O'Clock Steakhouse's The Milwaukee Man Dinner Benefits Milwaukee Rescue Mission

On Friday, September 11 2015 at 6pm, Milwaukee's iconic Five O'Clock Steakhouse will host the first annual Milwaukee Man Dinner - Beef, Bourbon & Brandy Benefit. A portion of the night's proceeds will directly benefit the  Milwaukee Rescue Mission "Safe Harbor" Program ,providing refuge and hope for local men seeking to transform their lives through emergency assistance,  shelter, counseling, education & job resources.
Post a Comment
Read more