'JUST IN CASES ' MOVES

On April 15, 2009, this appeared on the Internet.  "If you have invasive breast cancer, your surgeon will probably remove some of the lymph nodes under your arm during your lumpectomy or mastectomy. Examining your lymph nodes helps your doctors figure out the extent of cancer involvement. Cancer in the lymph nodes is associated with an increased risk of having cancer cells in other parts of your body."  Most surgeons just removed a lot of the nodes, tested them, and if they were clear remained satisfied with the gamble that the cancer hadn't spread.

The pain left to the woman was deemed a necessary precaution and consequence.

Richard Knox, writing for WBUR, on 2/9/11 says:  "
For years standard practice in breast cancer treatment has gone like this: If a biopsy of one or two "sentinel" lymph nodes near a breast tumor shows cancer has spread, surgeons should cut out other nearby lymph nodes to prevent it from spreading further.
The old conventional wisdom made sense. But a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association says standard practice is wrong — for tens of thousands of women with a new diagnosis of breast cancer.".

Like so many things, publicizing that even the doctors do not agree throws the choice for the cancer stricken woman into another gambler's choice.  It seems that all of life depends in the metaphoric toss of the dice.