My Breast Cancer Awareness Month

by Loey Werking Wells
 
 
Ladies, today we are going to talk about your breasts. Men, you’re welcome to leave the room, unless you have a mother, sister, wife, daughter or girlfriend you care about. Then you might want to hang around. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a movement that coincides with the Race for the Cure, complete with its own color—light pink—and celebrity spokeswomen. 
 
Normally I don’t get caught up in recognizing “special” days or months, in fact I have a hair-trigger reaction that involves cringing whenever a “month” is proclaimed. Whether it be African American History (February), Correct Posture (May), Asthma Awareness (May) or Math Education (April) my first thought is what are they trying to sell me? My second is, does that mean the other 11 months of the year we shouldn’t care about these things?
 
However, life has a funny way of throwing lessons our direction. Last week I had an annual exam scheduled, which included a mammogram. Two days later I was called back to have another mammogram since there was a “questionable finding” according to the radiologist who interpreted the x-rays. Back to the clinic on Friday for another mammogram, and the technician showed me the reason for this return visit: the tiny white suspicious-looking spot on the film. 
 
Being a writer, I have a pretty healthy imagination, so it was no stretch for me to quickly run the worst-case scenario through my head. A breast cancer diagnosis could lead to surgery, radiation, chemo, baldness—a totally different universe. While I waited three days to get my results, the only comfort I could get, was that if I had cancer, it would be found early enough to treat it while it’s small. 
 
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer (skin is the first)in the United States. Over 182,000 women in this country will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and almost a quarter of them will die from the disease. Early detection has saved lives and has made breast cancer less of a death sentence that it was in the past. Early detection can be through any of the following:
Mammography
Digital mammography
MRI
Clinical exam
Self-exam.
 
The beauty of self exam is that it can be done at home. The self-exam consists of feeling your breasts for lumps, and checking them out to see if they look any different than normal.   There are a multitude of on-line resources for people wanting to get more information about breast cancer. Good websites include: Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure at http://cms.komen.org/komen/index.htm and the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month at http://www.nbcam.org
 
So please, make that appointment this month, even if you have to wait a couple of months to get into your doctor’s office. At this point, if a tumor is found, it’s detected early enough to be treated, which may make the difference between being a survivor and being a fatality. And men, get your loved ones to make that call. If they act like it’s too much to fit into their already busy schedule, than give them the time to go to their mammogram. 
 
Thankfully, while writing this I received a call from my doctor telling me that the white spot was a benign shadow, and to just return next year for another screening.  I guess next time I’ll have to tell my breasts to quit playing shadow puppets while they are being smashed in the machine.  Meanwhile I will be fixing a warm meal for a friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy today. This year’s breast cancer awareness month has certainly been an eye-opener for me.