{"id":586,"date":"2013-10-31T13:38:44","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T13:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/?p=586"},"modified":"2013-10-31T14:16:56","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T14:16:56","slug":"four-personal-reasons-for-hating-breast-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/2013\/10\/31\/four-personal-reasons-for-hating-breast-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Personal Reasons for Hating Breast Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\"image\"\u00a0All across the U.S. we have been observing October\u2019s\u00a0Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many of us are have been wearing pink t-shirts embracing the\u00a0message. Even NFL players championed the cause with hot pink sneakers.\u00a0Yet tomorrow as November begins, we will be putting all our pink away. But breast cancer doesn\u2019t just happen in October. It strikes down women and occasionally men, all year long.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For me, fighting breast cancer is personal, but not for the reasons you might think.\u00a0By profession,\u00a0I am a freelance journalist. Therefore, when\u00a0I\u00a0first\u00a0found\u00a0a\u00a0lump in December of 2007, my mind started\u00a0racing with\u00a0breast cancer\u00a0statistics that I had often reported. Terrified,\u00a0that\u00a0it was my turn to\u00a0become part of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, according to\u00a0the\u00a0National Cancer Institute\u00a0one out of every eight women will be\u00a0diagnosed with breast cancer at sometime in their lives.\u00a0In 2013 alone, this organization estimates that 232, 340 women will be diagnosed, while the\u00a0American Cancer Society\u00a0reports\u00a0that about 2, 240 men will also receive this diagnosis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully, the reporter in me knew\u00a0what to do\u00a0when I found the suspicious\u00a0lump,\u00a0because breast cancer is estimated to be\u00a0as high as\u00a098 percent survivable\u00a0if detected in the earliest stages\u00a0according to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.\u00a0Immediately, I called my gynecologist and scheduled an appointment explaining\u00a0the lump\u2019s\u00a0discovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bThis\u00a0predominantly\u00a0killer-of-women\u00a0had already become a personal enemy, because\u00a0over 20\u00a0years\u00a0ago,\u00a0it took a dear friend\u2019s life.\u00a0Becky\u00a0valiantly fought breast cancer for almost a decade, but by\u00a0the time she reached her mid-thirties she could fight no\u00a0longer.\u00a0She was a woman of great faith, a pastor\u2019s wife, filled with dreams for the future. So no one ever expected\u00a0that\u00a0breast cancer would happen to her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today,\u00a0her\u00a0chance for survival would be greater due to positive\u00a0healthcare\u00a0advances.\u00a0\"image\"<\/span><\/p>\n

To\u00a0honor\u00a0Becky\u2019s\u00a0memory, every\u00a0October\u00a0during\u00a0Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I interviewed \u00a0breast cancer survivors.\u00a0My\u00a0hope\u00a0was\u00a0to encourage\u00a0women\u00a0over\u00a0forty to have a mammogram yearly. Women in their 20s and 30s should have a clinical breast exam every 3 years and possible self-exams per\u00a0American Cancer Society\u00a0recommendations\u00a0as well.\u00a0Women at risk should follow\u00a0more stringent\u00a0guidelines. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My own ambiguous ultrasound\u00a0six years ago\u00a0resulted in the need for a biopsy, being told the\u00a0lump was highly suspicious.\u00a0I thought about surgery,\u00a0and\u00a0about losing my long blonde\u00a0hair.\u00a0I looked at wigs and\u00a0even\u00a0tried to make my husband\u00a0Larry\u00a0promise\u00a0that if I needed chemotherapy, he would\u00a0shave his head like\u00a0former NFL\u00a0quarterback\u00a0Brett Favre\u00a0had done\u00a0for his wife,\u00a0Deanna.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is estimated that\u00a0about 1.6 million\u00a0breast biopsies are performed in the U.S. annually\u00a0with about 80 percent being benign (non-cancerous).\u00a0These are hopeful statistics, but I did\u00a0not\u00a0know them until afterwards.\u00a0That is after\u00a0I was sitting on the edge of my chair in the\u00a0consulting room waiting to\u00a0hear the biopsy\u2019s results.\u00a0My\u00a0husband held my hand tightly as the nurse\u00a0smiled and\u00a0shared the good news that\u00a0I was among the 80 percent\u00a0cancer-free.<\/span><\/p>\n

Momentarily, I\u00a0was\u00a0elated, but being a journalist I couldn\u2019t help but think about statistics again.\u00a0Survivor\u2019s guilt reminded\u00a0me that soon,\u00a0another woman\u00a0would be\u00a0sitting in\u00a0thatvery same chair\u00a0hearing that\u00a0her\u00a0biopsy\u00a0revealed\u00a0she had cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like my young friend Monica, who is my third reason for hating breast cancer.\u00a0We used to lie on our mats next to each other during Pilates class and giggle like school girls. Monica was smart. She was a teacher, and she was only 29 when this dreaded disease took her life\u00a0in 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then last\u00a0October this hater-of-females\u00a0caused my\u00a041-year-old\u00a0friend\u00a0Kimberly\u00a0to head for Heaven\u2019s\u00a0shores long before what seemed her time. I was there as a bridesmaid when she married,\u00a0and\u00a0present at the birth of her first baby. It was only right that I held her hand just hours before she breathed her last Earthly breath leaving\u00a0behind three children and a\u00a0grieving\u00a0husband.<\/span><\/p>\n

Losing three\u00a0precious friends to breast cancer, and having had a close brush\u00a0myself\u00a0continues to\u00a0fuel my passion\u00a0for making sure that\u00a0other females will have the opportunity to have the preventative tools and knowledge to battle this formidable foe, which takes the lives of 40,000 U.S. women each year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All across the U.S. we have been observing October\u2019s\u00a0Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many of us are have been wearing pink t-shirts embracing the\u00a0message. Even NFL players championed the cause with hot pink sneakers.\u00a0Yet tomorrow as November begins, we will be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[271,273,274,81,277,276,275,23],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-advice-on-the-road-less-traveled","tag-biopsy","tag-breast-cancer","tag-breast-cancer-awareness-nfl","tag-death","tag-disease","tag-mammogram","tag-susan-g-komen","tag-womens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}