National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

9/14/07
I get so confused when I see people like Sheryl Crow and Melissa Ethridge who look great after their breast cancer. My mom is cancer-free but she is almost a completely different person now.
My mom was diagnosed a little over 2 years ago. She had a partial masectomy and underwent months of radiation and chemo. A woman who barely even ever had a cold, didn't even have a doctor, is now literally falling apart!
All of following happened only after the chemo:
She put on some noticeable weight and her hot flashes are almost unbearable. She got some sort of nerve disorder in her legs (I don't remember the name) that causes her swelling, pain, and limited mobility. Her scar tissue from her masectomy causes her pain as well. She got hypothyroidism. She had to get dentures because the chemo made it so she didn't produce enough saliva and her teeth started breaking all the time.
After her surgery to have the other breast reduced to regain symmetry, she got a HORRIBLE flesh-eating bacterial infection. The surgery didn't even give her symmetry, the reduced breast is now smaller than the other one! She had symptoms of shingles but I don't think that ever fully manifested itself. She is healing from the infection. but now, most recently, she has a blood clot in her leg. This blood clot is due to the post-cancer medication she is taking, and must take for the rest of her life (so the doctors say).
She used to be so active, a single working mom running a house and 25 acres while taking care of my brother and me.
The cure is worse than the disease!!!! Has anyone else had a survival that has been not such a happy ending?? Is this normal?? Why do so many others bounce back with vitality? My mom will be 53 this month. Someone once told me "you can only stack sh** so high" but it keeps getting higher and I worry about her strength, physically and emotionally. Please please let me know if there is someone else out there who is suffering similarly.