Something about me

I'm sorry about the delay between posts. I've had some things come up in my life that have made it difficult to concentrate. Today's post is going to be about why I feel so strongly about Breast Cancer Awareness.

When I was little, I figured out at an early age that I was quite a bit younger than the rest of my generation. Not the general population's generation, but the generation that I belong to as it relates to my family. My mother had me at a very late stage in her life. She did not think she could even have kids anymore. She was 43. All but two of my cousins were much older than I was. All of my brothers and my sister were at least nine years older than I. As a result, I "hung out" with the cool older kids. (imagine being 5 and being aloud to hang out with the 14 and 16 year olds, I was in heaven) One of my favorites was my cousin Laura. She was always so glamorous in my eyes. She got up every day and curled her hair so that she could have the big hair, Farrah Fawcett wings. It was naturally very blond and she wore makeup (by this point I was about nine and she was eighteen); she was my hero. When I went to Tulsa every month to visit our grandmother, she and I would go hang out for the afternoon while our moms would talk. She would do my hair and we would go to the local fast food place to hang out with her friends. She eventually fell in love and got married, had kids and "grew up", but we would still go hang out when I would come to town. She was the cool cousin.
I eventually grew up and had my first child, and we would sit and talk for a while when I could make it to town, but she was feeling run down. I couldn't blame her. Her kids had a genetic issue that caused many trips to the hospital and she was worried about how their lives would turn out. She ignored some of the warning signs. When she did find the lump, she went in for treatment and they had it in remission for a while, but it moved. She fought it for several years, but she fell to the cancer.

I realized the other day, that I am now older than she was when she died. I am seeing my kids grow up as she never got the chance. I have the chance to experience things she was not able to. I miss her. As I do my mother, who fell to complications of Cervical cancer. All of the things that we do to help scientist look for prevention and cures, anything that can be done to give kids one more day with their moms, is worth every effort.

BABC Made GMA!!

Brides Against Breast Cancer (or BABC for short) made it on Good Morning America. Robin Robertsco-anchor of GMA introduced and interviewed Millie Martini Bratton from Bride's Magazine.

Fran Hansen, co-founder of BABC is in New York for a gown sale.

Bride's Magazine has created a line of wedding gowns just for breast cancer awareness. 10% of the proceeds from the sale of the dresses go toward breast cancer research.

Check it out!

Did you know?? Breast cancer facts.

Let's start out with some basic information from the Susan G Koman website :

• What are the estimated numbers of new breast cancer cases and deaths for the year 2007?An estimated 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to occur among women in the United States during 2007. An estimated 40,460 women will die from breast cancer. It is estimated that 2,030 men will be diagnosed and 450 men will die of breast cancer during 2007. In addition to invasive breast cancer, 62,030 new cases of in situ breast cancer are expected to occur among women in 2007. Of these, approximately 85 percent will be ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).
  Source: American Cancer Society Cancer Facts & Figures 2007.

• What are the signs of breast cancer? The signs of breast cancer are not the same for all women. In fact, some women have no signs that they can see. If you experience any of these symptoms, you should see a doctor right away:
  A lump, hard knot or thickening
  Swelling, warmth, redness or darkening
  Change in breast size or shape
  Dimpling or puckering of the skin
  Itchy, scaly sore or rash on the nipple
  Pulling in of your nipple or other parts of the breast
  Nipple discharge that starts suddenly
  New pain in one spot

• Men can get breast cancer too. Male breast cancer is rare. In 2003, the overall incidence of breast cancer in men was 1.5 per 100,000, compared to 124 per 100,000 in women. Differences in mortality were equally wide: 0.3 per 100,000 in men; 25 per 100,000 in women [22]. For more breast cancer statisticsAs with women, invasive ductal carcinoma accounts for most of the breast cancers seen in men, with ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive lobular carcinoma accounting for only a small proportion of cases [26].
  The strongest risk factor for breast cancer among men is Klinefelter’s syndrome, a condition associated with high levels of estrogen [26,27]. This rare condition occurs when men are born with two X chromosomes (XXY instead of XY) [27]. Although men with Klinefelter’s syndrome may have gynecomastia (enlargement of the breast tissue), gynecomastia not associated with Klinefelter’s syndrome does not appear to be related to breast cancer among men [27,28]. Similar to female breast cancer, male breast cancer risk is increased in men with a mutation in the BRCA2 gene [27]. Chronic alcoholism, chronic liver disease and obesity may also increase the risk of male breast cancer [26,27]. For more on cancer in general, click here. For more information on male breast cancer, see the Treatment section.

Going Pink

I know. I was a bad girl in September. No blog posts at all. Let's see if I can make up for it.


October is the month to go pink- obviously my favorite color!!



It goes much deeper than that. Breast cancer touches almost every life in one way or another. Going pink is just one more way to show support for women and men that fall ill to this horrible disease. My cousin, that was born just nine years before me, fell to breast cancer several years ago. I realized just the other day that I am almost as old as she was when she died. She left three beautiful children.

I do not want to see another family loose a mother, sister, cousin, but until more research happens, we need to love the people that we have while we have them. I am all for supporting the researchers to find cures and the support services fro those that do not have the time for research.

I will be giving more info as the month goes on.