The month of October has come and is almost over. Halloween masks and costumes are ready for trick-or-treaters eager to fill their buckets and bags with candy and toys. Before long, everyone will be focused on the upcoming holidays filled with joyous family get-togethers and Christmas festivities and feasts. Gone also, as if they too were just another holiday decorations, will be the reminders of breast cancer awareness month. The pink ribbons, cups, bracelets, backpacks and bags will either be stored away or sitting on the clearance aisle waiting for someone to notice them. They represent a sad and fading reminder of a very real threat that doesn’t go away just because the season or month of awareness is over. This threat is ongoing and affects the health and lives of more than 232,340 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.
According to Breast Cancer.org, roughly one in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the course of her lifetime. This is not a number to ignore. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States, and it is now the leading cause of cancer death in women ages 15-64.
Breast cancer is no respecter of persons and it doesn’t wait until Breast Cancer Awareness Month to spring up. It affects people of all colors, creeds, nationalities, religion, heights, weight and age. Many people think that breast cancer is a disease only for older woman. The truth is, men as well as woman of any age can get this disease. Although breast cancer in men is a very rare occurrence, it does happen in about 1 percent of all cases and mostly in men ages 60-70. According to the National Cancer Institute, even though breast cancer in woman under the age of 40 is only about 7 percent of the total cases diagnosed per year, it can happen at any age. This is why it is so important to understand the risk factors regardless of your age.
The Susan G Komen Foundation, posts several factors that may put you at a higher risk:
- Age. The older a person is, the more likely she/he is to get breast cancer.
- A personal history of breast cancer or some noncancerous breast diseases.
- A family history of breast cancer, particularly in a mother, daughter, or sister.
- History of radiation treatments to the chest before age 40.
- Having a specific genetic defect (called BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation).
- Getting your period before age 12.
- For some women, your age when you had your first child.
- Women who are inactive may have a higher risk than those who exercise regularly.
- Other risk factors include heavy alcohol use, high intake of red meat, dense breasts, obesity, and race.
One of the most important things you can do to help beat the beast of cancer is to be your own advocate. The importance of this really hit home when several close friends and neighbors of mine were diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.
My one friend, Jenny, was only 32 and had three children when she was diagnosed. She led a healthy lifestyle, exercised regularly, didn’t smoke, drink or have any risk factors at all. Nevertheless, the beast of cancer came calling. A couple of months before she was diagnosed with cancer, she had found a lump and told her doctor about it. He ordered a mammogram, and it came back clean. She relaxed a bit, but still felt uneasy about the lump. Several months later, she had her gynecologist look at it, and he ordered a biopsy. The news came back that she had stage three cancer. She went through eight rounds of chemotherapy and after many months managed to finally get a clean bill of health. She gave me a good piece of advice which I now take very seriously. She said “Pay attention, do your self- checks and if/when you find a lump get it removed! Remember lumps belong in jars of formaldehyde, not in our bodies! If told to wait and watch it, get it out now! Let them watch it on their desk in the jar. If I had waited another six months my stage III cancer would have spread to my lungs or liver or who knows where.”
My other neighbor, Dee, learned this bit of knowledge the hard way. She kept telling her doctor that she didn’t feel right. He unfortunately kept telling her that she was depressed and needed to go on anti-depressants because she was turning 47. Frustrated, she changed doctors. She found out for sure that she was not sick or depressed. She had stage three breast cancer. She ended up having bilateral mastectomies and eight rounds of debilitating chemotherapy. After five years of taking anti-cancer drugs that caused her horrible bone pain, scans showed she was cancer-free. She thought she had “beaten the beast.” Fast forward three years, and she was once again unbelievably diagnosed with breast cancer. This time it was in a tiny bit of tissue that had been left under her armpit area. She started at once on the chemo again, but the cancer beast was unrelenting and spread to her left eye, her lungs, and even her kidneys. Last December right before Christmas, Dee’s body couldn’t fight any longer and she succumbed to the cancer.
I learned many things from watching these two women go through one of the hardest things of their lives. One of the most important things I learned, though, is to never talk yourself out of getting a lump checked. Don’t ignore it, or it may be too late.
Just because Breast Cancer Awareness Month is almost past, don’t forget to be smart about your health. The American Cancer Society recommends in their guidelines that women have yearly mammograms starting at age 40. Annual clinical breast exams are also recommended along with a monthly self-exam. This advice may seem too easy, but the simple fact is, exams save lives. So does being aware of your body and any significant changes in size, shape or feel of your breast. You have to be your own advocate; after all, you know your body best. One day the beast known as breast cancer may still come calling, but if you are proactive about your heath and find it early enough, you have a better chance to beat it.
Good article.