About 200 cancer survivors, their families and friends, and Mount Sinai faculty and staff, recently attended the 20th annual luncheon celebrating National Cancer Survivors Day®. At the event, held on Sunday, June 11, in The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Annenberg West Lobby, attendees enjoyed a performance by Ami Rogé, a concert pianist and breast cancer survivor who was treated at Mount Sinai Downtown-Chelsea Center. Steven J. Burakoff, MD, Dean for Cancer Innovation, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discussed the state of cancer care. “Given our increasing success treating cancer, there are now more than 15.5 million cancer survivors in the United States,” he said. “We must focus more of our efforts on helping our patients cope as cancer survivors.”
“Botox is a brand name of which there are several different companies. The actual chemical is Botulinum toxin A. This is derived from Clostridium bacteria, so it is a toxin, but it’s been repurposed so that it doesn’t actually cause harm to your skin or to your body. What it does is it works at your neuromuscular synapse to prevent the release of acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that helps your muscles contract, so when you administer Botox that acetylcholine transmission is halted and you can’t contract those muscles to make wrinkles anymore. The right practitioner will not over do the Botox – that’s really important to do it with a gentle hand, to do it in the right places so that you avoid looking frozen. Sometimes people will ask well is this actually safe? Botox Cosmetic was approved for cosmetic use in 2012 and, so in all of this time, we have really excellent safety data, particularly for the amounts that are used in dermatology, it’s been shown to be safe. The only real side effects that you might experience are some injection site reactions, a little bit of bruising maybe, some temporary swelling, but otherwise it’s really well-tolerated. One thing to know about it is that it does last usually about three to four months, so it does require repeated office visits. The plus side of that though is if you’re not happy with Botox and it’s not for you, it’s not there forever.”
Make an appointment with Reena Rupani, MD
Reena Rupani, MD, is a board certified dermatologist at Mount Sinai Doctors, seeing patients Monday-Thursday. Trained in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Arizona, she is certified by the American Board of Dermatology. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, she was awarded her medical degree from Yale University’s School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Dermatology at Rhode Island Hospital and her fellowship at Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, where she studied under Andrew Weil, MD. She has written several publications, including two textbooks, on dermatology and has contributed to multiple peer-reviewed articles. She speaks regularly at the American Academy of Dermatology and has an extensive background in medical education. She has a particular interest in both adult and pediatric medical and surgical dermatology, as well as cosmetic care, including Botox, chemical peels, injectable fillers, and laser therapies.
When Jacquitta was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she turned to Woman to Woman, a program of The Mount Sinai Hospital, Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Social Work Services. Since its founding in 2003, the program has provided emotional support to more than 1,000 women undergoing treatment for gynecologic cancer. She met a mentor, Myrtice, a cancer survivor. Here is their story:
Jacquitta had surgery for a hysterectomy. When she woke up, the doctors told her they found cancer. “They said it was early stage, we feel that we got it all. But we need you to do six rounds of chemo. So I was devastated, to say the least,” she said.
The Woman to Woman program assigned her a mentor, Myrtice, a uterine and pancreatic cancer survivor who knew what to expect. “The chemo, of course, everybody knows it beats the hell out of you. It beat me up really bad,” she said. “But I had my sister and my daughters right there.”
When Jacquitta, left, was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she turned to the Woman to Woman program for support and got a mentor, Myrtice
Shortly afterwards, the two spoke on the phone. Myrtice could tell Jacquitta was frightened. Jacquitta was also puzzled. How did this happen to me? she asked.
When she learned that Myrtice would accompany her to her first chemotherapy appointment, she was amazed. “I said, for real? You don’t even know me. Are you sure? And she said, ‘Yes, that’s what we do. I’m going to be at all of them.’”
Several days later, when the two women met, there was an instant connection.
“I hugged her, because it was just such a connection right there,” Myrtice said. “And in my heart and soul I looked at her and I said, and I believed when I said it, ‘You’re going to beat this. And I am going to walk every step with you.’ And I meant that.”
It was empowering for Myrtice as well. “It’s important to me to help every woman that I can because this thing that they call cancer, we can’t let this take us down.”
Jacquitta was reassured. “She just talked to me and said everything’s going to be all right and asked if I needed anything. It was just incredible for someone who didn’t know you to just show up,” she said. “I felt that because she had beat it, and she was cancer-free, that she had two kinds of cancers, I thought, Wow, I can do this.”
After weeks of treatment, Jacquitta was cancer-free and her friendship with Myrtice had grown even stronger.
“We’ve become the best of friends. We’re like family,” Jacquitta said. “I call on her, and I ask her about life issues, about my job, about relationships. And she’s there for me.”
Healthy eating throughout the winter months can be challenging. After an indulgent holiday season filled with rich foods, returning to healthy eating may be difficult. And with colder, shorter days, the urge to roll up on your couch, order in your favorite comfort foods, and binge-watch a new TV show may outweigh hitting the gym. It is no surprise that these habits can result in unwanted weight gain, which we then resolve to lose come swimsuit season. (more…)
Dozens of pediatric heart surgery patients gathered at The Mount Sinai Hospital for a special Valentine’s Day party that reunited them with nurses and doctors who saved their lives.
After Licelot Mejia, a single mother of two, began to lose her vision, she went to the doctor, and she found out that she had a tumor growing in her brain. However, instead of an open-skull surgery, Licelot was able to have the tumor removed through her nose by a team of doctors at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. After a successful surgery, Licelot is home for the holidays with much of her vision restored. Watch the full story
Healthy eating throughout the winter months can be challenging. After an indulgent holiday season filled with rich foods, returning to healthy eating may be difficult. And with colder, shorter days, the urge to roll up on your couch, order in your favorite comfort foods, and binge-watch a new TV show may outweigh hitting the gym. It is no surprise that these habits can result in unwanted weight gain, which we then resolve to lose come swimsuit season. 
Dozens of pediatric heart surgery patients gathered at The Mount Sinai Hospital for a special Valentine’s Day party that reunited them with nurses and doctors who saved their lives.
After Licelot Mejia, a single mother of two, began to lose her vision, she went to the doctor, and she found out that she had a tumor growing in her brain. However, instead of an open-skull surgery, Licelot was able to have the tumor removed through her nose by a team of doctors at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. After a successful surgery, Licelot is home for the holidays with much of her vision restored.