Men Can Have These Women's Diseases

A few of us were meeting to discuss other problems, but Ben made sure that Sue and Brenda were there. After we had finished the topic for the meeting, Ben asked Sue if she was concerned about getting breast cancer since their mother had passed from it. Sue said that her mammograms were always negative and she had one this last spring.

Ben then surprised all of us when he blurted out that he had breast cancer. He would be having surgery this coming Wednesday and radiation the following Wednesday. If necessary, he would have chemotherapy in September. Sue crossed the room to give her brother a big hug and Barry joined her. Tim asked him if he wanted to keep it quite or should we talk about it. Ben said he would prefer not keeping it a secret and then Brenda said we would provide support if and when he wanted it.

Ben turned to me and asked how I had managed finding a lump on my breast? I said I had an operation to remove the lump and it was benign which made it much easier for me. I still check myself and have a mammogram about every three years and last year I had a biopsy of another lump, which was also benign. It was then removed also. None of my family has had breast cancer, so I am hoping that will never happen.

I told Ben that I had blogged about this about six years ago and I would write about it again. I said one man could get cancer for every 108 women. Since it was already in his family, it was good that it had been discovered and that he was being treated.

Jason then asked if men had thyroid cancer as often as women did. I said I have no information about that. Jason said that he was having his thyroid removed also the following Wednesday and it was cancerous. He was not sure what the follow-up treatment would be, but he suspected he might have some radiation from his research. He knew that he would be on synthetic thyroid medication and the doctor had told him the prognosis was good.

Tim commented that the older we become, the more likely some of us will have more problems. If we out live our parents in age, we may encounter health problems they did not. This is the reason we need to continue to support each other beyond type 2 diabetes. Ben said this was what I was hoping to hear, as I feel very scared right now.

Sue asked if he needed transportation on Wednesday and Barry said he was already on board and they would call her over when they were back home. Barry admitted he was not looking forward to being checked, but with his brother having been diagnosed, he would be sure that he was checked. Tim asked me what the prior blog was and I directed him to this blog.

Tim said we had a lot of material for September and even with the voting on dues, and how the dues would be spent, we should cover the information about these diseases and make people aware of what can happen if the symptoms are ignored. We all agreed and we left Ben and Barry's home.