I Had Never Even Heard of Male Breast Cancer

Same treatment routine as women
We did a radical mastectomy on the left, and they took out 25 lymph nodes at the same time. Men don't realize, we have all the same breast parts that a woman has, like milk ducts—just not the extra fat tissue. But unlike for a woman, in a man a mastectomy is not super-noticeable. I just don't have the movement in my left arm that I used to. If I try to extend myself too far, it hurts. It's also totally numb under my left armpit and in my left chest. And I do not have a nipple on the left side. It'd be one hell of a bar bet—or a bar joke.

Then I did chemo. First I did AC. I had no vomiting, no nausea, a little fatigue—I was truly blessed. The next one was Taxol. I had bone pain—it felt like someone was twisting my fibula like it was a licorice stick. After the Taxol, I got a little reprieve for a couple of weeks, then I started seven weeks of radiation.

Later they put me on tamoxifen. Like most men, my cancer is estrogen-receptor positive. I had so much estrogen in my body—I'd get hot flashes and was moody. Watching a movie, tears would pour off my face. But the tamoxifen was causing me headaches, depression, hot flashes.

Now, I'm taking indole-3-carbinol and DIM instead—natural estrogen suppressors found in broccoli and cauliflower. I learned about these from doctors at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium last December in Texas. They're working great. I feel amazing, back to normal.