Five is a good strong number. Very distinct and easily recognized and remembered. Why my fascination with "five" you ask? Because the number five could save your life if you are a woman or it could save the life of someone you love. Now you think I'm crazy....right? Trust me...I'm not!
Today is May 5th and today and on the 5th day of every month.....if you gave yourself a breast exam...you might just save your own life. And if you reminded those around you....you might help to save theirs. It is proven that through regular self breast exams...a woman becomes familiar with her breasts to the point that if there is an abnormality....she can detect it almost immediately. It is also proven that early detection is the key to fighting and winning the battle against breast cancer. And since this horrid disease is one of the leading causes of womens death, isn't a little prevention worth it?
Why do I care? Because number one I am a woman and number two I have watched this disease afflict and even kill family and friends of mine. I myself have found a lump thanks to regular self exams and thankfully it was nothing, but I knew my breasts well enough to feel the difference and detect it immediately. It could have been the difference between early detection and losing my breast....or worse.
Please don't think it can't happen to you or those you love....because my family is living proof that it can.
So if you are a woman....or there is a woman in your life that you love.... please remember "five" and on the 5th of every month, check yourself and be the best friend or family member you can be and remind those you love to do the same. After all....it takes such little effort and it can have such enormous results. So please...."Let "5" Save Your Life!"
This is dedicated to: Mary (my mother), Ruth and Grace (my aunts), Pam (my cousin), Andrea (my friend), and all those who have had to fight the battle against breast cancer.
Lisa, it's wonderful you're posting this. This single action may very well save another life! Another suggestion I would like to add, from personal experience, is in the event something unusual is found & after the mamo is done...is to also get a second opinion!!! I cannot stress getting that second opinion enough!
ReplyDeleteBack in July, when the tinniest something first showed up in my mamo (from a very nice, great caliber & perhaps town's leading imaging specialist)...both the tech and Radiologist reported it as "normal"/"fibrous". So, naturally, I believed my 'normal' findings/letter & went on about my way. THEN, around 5/6 months later, by the grace of God, a pain repeatedly emitted from the bottom base wall of a breast (almost like a rib out of alignment, very small & precise); each time lasting just a few seconds (which I'm told is NOT normal for cancer). This precise, short pain repeated about 4 more times in the same exact spot over a couple of weeks. Upon the doc's breast exam, I was exceptionally tender & the exam hurt. We then proceeded through another mamo (this time told 'Oh! It's grown a lot' & 'looks like just calcification's'), then to a sono (worthless in my case), followed by a MRI & biopsies. THEN, found out definitively what had previously been diagnosed (in the initial mamo) as fibrous, was actually high-grade (fast-growing) DCIS cancer.
There are no known breast or ovarian cancers (both are reportedly related) on either side of my family...so this was waaaay off the radar. Also, discovered MEN too, pass on genetic breast cancer predisposition to their sons & daughters. Last but not least, found 'we all have cancer cells in our bodies...(just not all of us will develop cancer.)'
The following link is a wonderful reference to risk factors: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_2X_What_are_the_risk_factors_for_breast_cancer_5.asp
God bless you & all that you do to help others Lisa!
Andrea....thanks so much for sharing all of that. I had always heard that usually when there is pain...it is not cancer.
ReplyDeleteAs for the men having breast cancer. My maternal uncle had it...along with a maternal aunt and my mother. Just last week another maternal aunt found out she has breast cancer and Monday will be undergoing a mastectomy. Because of all of this ad the fact that my mother had 4 primary cancers....my dr. had me tested for the "breast cancer gene." She felt that there was a better than 90% chance that I had it. Blessedly I did not...but because of family history...I must have mammo's and MRI's alternating every six months. Andrea...again...thank you for sharing your personal experience and the information. Just maybe they will help someone else.