As we enter Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I want to share a personal story with you…

 I grew up with breast cancer. My mother was diagnosed with it 6 months after getting married and 2 years before I was born. She underwent a radical mastectomy and was told that she had a 50/50 percent chance of surviving 5 years down the road. This was obviously before the medical and scientific communities made such progress in diagnosis, treatment options and cure rates. As the saying goes “We’ve come a long way baby”. But for me I have a deep understanding of what breast cancer means in terms of emotions and recovering from a life threatening disease that can scar a woman’s psyche. Not to mention the thought that the disease can kill you, the disfiguring surgeries can make a woman feel that she has lost some part of her femininity and a part of her will never be the same.

 Medicine and healing techniques have come along way since my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

 When I was growing up my mother gently told me about her bout with this horrific disease as soon as I was mature enough to understand it. One day she showed her surgical scar to my best friend and me to explain why she never wanted us to see her without her top or nightgown on. The scar made her chest look concave and went from the middle of her chest to under her arm pit and looked as though it must have felt very raw and painful in the beginning. She almost always wore her bra with the prosthesis inside to feel more normal.

 As I got older, I subtly learned that this cancer that had invaded her life had caused physical pain, emotional pain and insecurity about her sexuality. Only in her 30’s when she developed the lump that my father found, at an age where women are at their sexual peak, my mother felt ugly and maimed, especially when my father had a less than supportive attitude to her turmoil.

 As the years went on my mother stayed healthy and had no recurrence of the cancer. The lingering discomfort, swollen arm and scar slowly became less noticeable to her. She volunteered to go to the hospital and see other breast cancer patients to somehow try to ease their emotional pain and enlighten them as to the progress of the medical advances that were taking place.

 Today, more than 40 years from the day my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, there have been vast changes and improvements in the surgery, the techniques used ,added benefits of radiation and chemotherapy, reconstructive surgery, more doctors trained in the psychological effects of this dreaded disease and better diagnostic testing.

 As I wear my pink ribbon today I will think and honor all the women who have been affected by breast cancer.

Breast Cancer – 2^nd Leading Cause of Death for Women Aged 35-50

30,000 women in their 40’s will be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer each year. More than 40% of deaths due to breast cancer are in women who are diagnosed before age 50.

To review the risk factors:

1. Genetics (especially if you had a first line relative with breast ca before age 50)

2. Early onset of menstruation (before age 12) or late menopause (after age 55)

3. Not having any children or having children after age 30

4. Chronic alcohol use

5. Increased body fat percentage

6. Poor diet

7. Aging

8. Hormone use

Breast exam monthly should be done routinely. Look for painless lumps, pain, dimpling, and nipple inversion during your self-exam.

Check with your medical practitioner as to when and how often you should be having your mammogram. There are some different thoughts on this, but remember that generally mammograms are 90% effective in locating a breast cancer.

Other tests could include an ultrasound and MRI in some cases. There is also genetic testing now for a higher risk population.

There are different types of breast cancers and they grow at different rates.

Remember-

Monthly breast exam

Routine mammograms per physician

Eat healthy and drink in moderation