Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Damn, this story keeps reminding me that I need to get my first mammogram. I’m not putting it off I swear, I just need to get a new Gyn and the one I called under my insurance had a super bitchy receptionist that I talked to for a while and got the worst impression of. I know that shouldn’t deter me, but it made me put it off and not bother to make an appointment, so maybe I’m looking for excuses. Anyway E! host Guiliana Rancic was diagnosed with breast cancer this summer after she had a mammogram at the insistence of her fertility doctor. The beginning stages of cancer were found in both of her breasts, and Giuliana underwent a lumpectomy and radiation as well as had some lymph nodes removed. Now Giuliana has announced that she’ll be getting a double mastectomy, because the lumpectomy wasn’t able to clear all the cancer from one of her breasts. Giuliana explained that it was the best course of treatment and that she and her husband weighed the options carefully.
If I had chosen to just do another lumpectomy and then do radiation, and then do estrogen therapy, which is two to five years of medication, that basically puts me into early menopause and then I would have to put off having a baby for several years. That was actually something we took into account. But to be honest, at the end all it came down to was just choosing to live and not looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.
It could have come back more aggressively next time. For me it was just more important to get the cancer out. Basically with the double mastectomy I have less than a 1% chance of getting it back. With another lumpectomy, radiation and medication, I could have seen a 20-40% chance in my lifetime. [of the cancer returning]. To me it just wasn’t worth it.
Bill said that if Giuliana opted for another lumpectomy as treatment she would have to get mammograms every six months for the rest of her life. I actually started tearing up when Giuliana recalled what Bill told her about getting a mastectomy. He said “I just need you around for the next fifty years. I don’t care what you look like… I just need you around for the next fifty years so let’s just get you healthy.” What a great guy Bill is.
In a later segment they had a breast cancer doctor on and she said that women usually have reconstruction almost immediately after the mastectomy surgery. As opposed to 20 years ago, the reconstruction options are much more advanced and natural looking. Plus I don’t mean to sound callous, but so many women have fake boobs. It’s not like Giuliana will be out of place in Hollywood.
I hope that Giuliana has a swift recovery and that she and Bill are able to realize their dream of having children. It could happen for them. Christina Applegate had a double mastectomy in 2008 and she welcomed a daughter in 2011.
These photos are from 11/19/11 and 11/5/11. Credit: WENN and Fame
Now have a handful of friends who’ve gone through this–so scary and painful. I feel for her, and wish her the best.
Doesn’t G already have implants … Anyways best of luck to her
yes she does, but the reconstruction is much more complicated….
She looks so much like Trini off of 3-2-1 Contact (circa early 80’s) it is unreal.
Yes, she does! I forgot about that show until now.
Hope it all works out for her, I know so many women experience this, it just reminds me that I need to start getting tested.
God bless her in her recovery. That pink cancer bow bitch needs to be eradicated.
Egads. Devastating. I wish her luck…her husband seems sweet. Jeez.
That black and turq shift dress is gorg. She has style. Hang in there lady!
I have that turquoise/black shift dress. It’s from Anthropologie. It’s a very stiff dress, so any problems with your anatomy are masked by the structure of the dress, which is great, by the way.
On a related note, I just had part of one of my breasts removed and I’m going on Monday to talk to a plastic surgeon about reconstruction. Weird.
Best of luck to you. God bless!
I hope all is well with you. Good luck at your appointment. (hug)
I’m glad the worst part is over and you seem to be doing well. God bless, good luck!
Hoping the best for you and wishing you a speedy recovery!
I wish her a speedy recovery. She and Bill are a great couple….beat wishes to them.
Poor G, she’s been through a lot.
Prayers for her. This cancer stuff is just indescribable. We are dealing with our own scare (brain cancer). You hear other people dealing with it but you just can’t be prepared ever for your doc to sit you down and say that this tumor could be cancer.
Prayers for you and yours, Girl. I went through a cancer crisis last year and came out of it just fine. It really is scary…hang in there, will pray for you.
Geez, everyone has cancer. I guess it’s the price of getting to live so long these days, but it’s always so awesome to hear people telling cancer, ‘you’re not the boss of me, you troll bitch from hell!’
Prayers to you all.
Theyre so sweet together. I love them as a couple.
Hopefully the Cancer doesnt come back later. She’s making the right choice.
God bless!
I wish her a speedy and painless (as much as possible) recovery. Hopefully, they will be blessed with a child in the next few years.
I thought she was already pregnant??? Seemed that way from the commercials for her show?
I went through a b/cancer scare this year. The stress alone almost made me crazy. Wishing her all the best for a full recovery. And all you ladies out there over 35, please, please start your mammograms!
Happened to me last year. Turned out to be a false alarm. The relief and euphoria on finding out were almost overwhelming.
CB, do not fool around with this. Go see your GYN now. And be sure to tell him about that receptionist so he can fire the bitch.
Yeah, just go. Cancer’s a bigger pain than any receptionist. At any rate, every office has a ‘this bitch’ in the wings, go over her head and maybe her superiors can reprimand her into behaving like a human. But do not wait for every jerk in your midst to evaporate before you fulfill your responsibilities to yourself, because by then you’ll be so old that even the cancer won’t even want you anymore.
My mother had a double mastectomy and reconstruction using the GAP flap technique. http://www.breastflap.com/reconstruction-techniques/gap-flap.cfm
She had it done a while ago before it was as perfected as now, so she was left with terrible scarring, and her “breasts” look like sideways footballs. But who gives an F when their loved one is given the “All clear” for health???
Still, my <3 goes out to her. So young to have to be making this decision:(
I wish her well, I’ve had two sisters-in-law both have and survived breast cancer and my daughter husbands sister is going thru treatment for it now…and a family at church has had every female 4 sisters in the family develop breast cancer and sadly one of the sisters didn’t make it..Its a terrible thing and every woman over 30 not 40 should be check at least once every two years if not once a year..I know I hound my own daughters to do it… and she really needs to gain a few pounds to after this is over so she has a better chance of getting pregaent..If the body thinks your in starvation mode its best defence is not to let you get pregeant…and she is also 40 abd super skinny to no nos for having a baby….I will say a prayer for her and all women in her shoes….
For better or worse is what they signed up for and it seems they meant it. Hope this makes them stronger and God’s speed in recovery.
Best wishes to G & B. And CB, please do get checked. Everyone else too, for that matter. I had breast cancer when I was only 28 (and that’s with no family history to speak of). No one knows why I got it. I’ve been a survivor for 10 years now so early detection really is key.
hang in there….love the show…he is really supportive and seems like a great partner…love that.
I wish her well. People rip on her for her eating disorder, when she needs support more than anything else. I hope this puts her on a healthier path.
Hopefully she’ll be able to look back on this experience as the bracing tonic that gave her some clarity and give her realistic expectations. As is, she’s wasting a ton of time, money and energy on a fruitless chase and sees that when you fight your body you will never, never win. If she’s so bent on having a baby the traditional biological way, it’s time to learn that you can’t burn its house down. A baby can’t live in an abused body, I hope this horrowing experience imparts that to her before it’s too late for her to get what she wants.
Best of luck and best wishes to her for a complete recovery. What Bill said was precious. She’s very blessed to have such a supportive husband to hold her hand through this. She’ll need him.
I could’ve sworn that she already had that done, from another post on here that I read.
Edit: Yes, there’s another article on 10/20 that says this too.
*** NOTE: Don’t put off your scans, gals. The only treatable cancer is one caught through EARLY DETECTION. This &h!t grows very fast usually.
Not to mention, a mammogram also showed me that I had advanced Non-Hodgkins Lymphona, as a lymph node had grown so much it creeped into the mammogram image frame. Otherwise, I had no idea I had Stage IV cancer. Now I’m through chemo and well and cancer-free.
Get tested, ya’ll.
Good luck and God Bless to her. Thats alot for any woman to deal with. Seems like she has a nice, supportive husband which will help alot.
Im better go get checked asap!!
I hope she has a quick recovery and that her dream of becoming a mother can come true. They are such a loving couple, I wish them much happiness.
I wish Ms. Rancic well. However, to the poster who said that this “shit grows very fast usually”, which shit do you mean? DCIS? While Ms. Rancic’s case apparently is of an aggressive nature, many many cases of small DCIS calcifications not only do NOT grow fast, they are among the slowest growing cancers out there. Please keep a balanced picture about bc and do not state medical things that are not accurate. Each case is different. It is NOT one size fits all. Also, screening is NOT routinely recommended for women under 50, and Ms. Rancic only got screened under age 40 due to invitro treatments which put her at higher risk of breast cancer. Please do your homework and your reading on this subject. I have.