Ladies (and Gentlemen), Get to Know Your Breasts!
While I love to weave humor into my writing, what you will read is serious and on an extremely personal level.
Way back, when I was about to turn 40, I asked for a hysterectomy for my birthday. What I got instead was a mammogram. And every year after, on my birthday, I got another.
In December of 2008 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I had a lump in my left breast. This lump had been there for a while; my doctor informed me it was a fibro adenoma. Basically, a mass that is benign (non-cancerous). He left the option of having it removed to me. While it was not bothersome when I first discover it, after some time I noticed it was becoming tender and decided to have it removed.
Behind this non-cancerous lump was a tumor… and it was cancer.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month but so many of us are aware of this disease every month and literally every day. Maybe that’s because we know someone who had or has cancer. Let me put this in a different perspective.
Do you know eight women? Well, one of them will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. It might be your mother, your sister, a friend, a daughter…it might be YOU. This disease does not discriminate. It does not care what color you are, how old you are (or how young). Here are some statistics: http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html).
It doesn’t even care if you are a woman or a MAN (from the Cancer Treatment Centers of America: “Male breast cancer is real and can be just as dangerous as breast cancer in women. It is expected that over 1,000 men will be diagnosed with male breast cancer each year. Because men often wait to report the symptoms of male breast cancer, the disease is more likely to have spread, leaving many men with less hope that treatment will lead to recovery.”)
Early detection is key in preventing and fighting breast cancer.
Simply put…get your mammograms yearly: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/mammograms.
Do self-breast-exams on a monthly basis:
http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/guide/breast-self-exam
It has been almost three years since my diagnosis. After several surgeries and treatments, I am happy to report I am cancer free. However, I remain vigilant because having had cancer and surviving it does NOT make me exempt, or less resistant, from getting it again.
Please pass this information along. Share it with your friends and family members. It is far too easy to get desensitized to what we hear and read about breast cancer. Too often the buzzwords (“early detection”, “self-exams”) become cliché. Take time to understand these words and then put them into action.
Way back, when I was about to turn 40, I asked for a hysterectomy for my birthday. What I got instead was a mammogram. And every year after, on my birthday, I got another.
In December of 2008 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I had a lump in my left breast. This lump had been there for a while; my doctor informed me it was a fibro adenoma. Basically, a mass that is benign (non-cancerous). He left the option of having it removed to me. While it was not bothersome when I first discover it, after some time I noticed it was becoming tender and decided to have it removed.
Behind this non-cancerous lump was a tumor… and it was cancer.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month but so many of us are aware of this disease every month and literally every day. Maybe that’s because we know someone who had or has cancer. Let me put this in a different perspective.
Do you know eight women? Well, one of them will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. It might be your mother, your sister, a friend, a daughter…it might be YOU. This disease does not discriminate. It does not care what color you are, how old you are (or how young). Here are some statistics: http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html).
It doesn’t even care if you are a woman or a MAN (from the Cancer Treatment Centers of America: “Male breast cancer is real and can be just as dangerous as breast cancer in women. It is expected that over 1,000 men will be diagnosed with male breast cancer each year. Because men often wait to report the symptoms of male breast cancer, the disease is more likely to have spread, leaving many men with less hope that treatment will lead to recovery.”)
Early detection is key in preventing and fighting breast cancer.
Simply put…get your mammograms yearly: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/mammograms.
Do self-breast-exams on a monthly basis:
http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/guide/breast-self-exam
It has been almost three years since my diagnosis. After several surgeries and treatments, I am happy to report I am cancer free. However, I remain vigilant because having had cancer and surviving it does NOT make me exempt, or less resistant, from getting it again.
Please pass this information along. Share it with your friends and family members. It is far too easy to get desensitized to what we hear and read about breast cancer. Too often the buzzwords (“early detection”, “self-exams”) become cliché. Take time to understand these words and then put them into action.
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