Dear Judy,
My son who is 30 fell in love with and then got an engaged to a very nice woman who is a bit older than he is (she is 35). She’s had breast cancer, first before the engagement, when they were just living together. Then it recurred recently and she had a second mastectomy.
I am told [...]
Dear Judy,
I notice you have a number of letters about ovarian cancer lately. They hit home. Our mother was recently diagnosed with the illness, in an advanced stage.
I know that there’s sometimes (often?) a genetic component to the disease. I have a sister who’s had breast cancer. I am 33 and I want my ovaries removed.
My [...]
Dear Judy,
I am pregnant for the first time — 7 1/2 months pregnant in fact — and I’m really excited. It’s a boy, apparently, and I’m naming him James after my oldest brother who helped raise me. That’s a long story, and I won’t go into it now.
The problem is: my significant other. His mother has breast [...]
Dear Judy,
Everything is crashing down on me, so I’m writing you at 4 AM. My wife is very sick with breast cancer, her second bout and it’s spread. We have 2 kids, 9 and 6.
Our question (mine really, since my wife doesn’t know I’m writing): do we have to tell the children she’s not likely to [...]
Dear Judy,
I’m writing because I don’t know what to do. My younger sister has breast cancer. She is 36 years old and her type is a very aggressive kind.
I’m with her a lot, at chemo sessions, at her kid’s school (if my sister has to miss a parent-teacher meeting or something), everywhere. As a result, I [...]
Dear Judy,
I’ll make this short. My breast cancer has recurred, third time; I am 37. We thought we had it beat the first time around. My oncologist has told me to “get my affairs in order.”
One of my “affairs”: My kids, 10 and 9. What do I tell them? Can I not tell them? What do I [...]
Dear Judy,
Lately everyone who writes you seems to feel really guilty — usually not those who are terminally ill, but their so-called friends who are still very healthy. I have the opposite problem. My breast cancer has recurred, twice, and this time it seems more aggressive than ever. I figure I don’t have a lot of [...]
Dear Judy,
My best friend died of breast cancer at 40. Her husband’s latest hobby — if you can call it that — is to surf the web for information on a million different horrible diseases and their supposed prevention or cures, and then share this information with everyone he knows. Naturally I’m on his list. In fact, [...]
Dear Judy,
My mother is dying of breast cancer. This is her third bout, and on top of it she has emphysema and COPD from 40 years of smoking. She is living with me until she passes.
When she was first diagnosed she had a doomsday attitude, twisting every word the doctors told her. For instance, telling [...]
Dear Judy,
An acquaintance who has breast cancer, now in remission, is doing what I’ve noticed you always tell your readers to do: planning everything about her final days and months long in advance. In this instance, she’s also planning her funeral, which is the one planned event I haven’t really seen you recommend.
Anyway, she obviously thinks we’re far [...]
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Posted on January 24th, 2009