I was thinking last night about how to express my thoughts on breast cancer and more importantly where to start. You all know the story of Blueberry and her being the reason I got involved in the first place, so what else could I talk about.
Then I started thinking about whether I could name ONE friend for each day of the month that I know has been touched by the darkness of breast cancer. My internal dialog told me there was no way I could come up with 31 names of people I knew (closely) who have been touched by breast cancer. Then I started counting.
I went through the name of friends in Facebook. I figured those folks are people I interact with on a fairly regular, albeit digitally, basis. And I started counting.
And counting some more.
And of my FB friends I counted 34 people. From there I could count family members of each that had been also touched, but thought I'd just leave it at 34.
Thirty four friends, husbands, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers cousins, aunts and uncles who have needlessly effected by breast cancer. "I guess that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed this year" statistic is very true (1 in 7 in the state of Washington BTW).
Last month I read the Nancy Brinker story. Nancy Brinker, for those of you not in the Susan G. Komen world, is the founder of Susan G. Komen. She made a promise to her dying sister that she would do everything she can to find a cure for breast cancer. That was 29 years ago. And while a cure hasn't been found, the money SGK has raised has done wonders in better treatments and better - quicker diagnosis'.
I wanted to share with you some of my favorite quotes of her book.
" I'm skeptical when any scientific voice - be it physician, researcher, or school of thought - makes any sweeping declarations of what is true or untrue, absolutely right or absolutely wrong, in the arena of cancer research or cancer care. I've witnessed the lifesaving value of both chemotherapy and prayer, mastectomy and lumpectomy, allopathic medicine and complementary therapies. The only singular truth about breast cancer is this: There is no singular truth about breast cancer. Or best strategy is to respect and listen to one another, share what we learn, read across the aisle, and make women's lives a higher priority than political agenda. "
When discussing treatments or diagnosis with your doctor: " When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras. To keep the chessboard moving and for the sake of our own sanity, when we hear hoofbeats, we think horses. It's reasonable to think horses. It's comforting to think horses. But it's sadly self-limiting - and occasionally dangerous - to pretend zebras don't exist."
"It took me a few tries in life, but I eventually learned that you can't bully people into believing. You win people over - or you don't. And if you're never willing to be won over, it's a safe bet your supporters won't be open to it either. It's like a saloon door; it's got to swing both ways."
"So many dreams die with a cancer diagnosis. It's the loss of innocence, a shattering of our sens of security. We have to honor those losses and grieve those dreams before we can truly open our eyes anew. It's natural for people to pull away from someone with cancer, simply because they don't know what to say. Or because they're terrified of it. Some need to believe that it's somehow your fault, because then they can believe it'll never happen to them. Or course, knowing that makes it no less isolating. The people who stick - those are your friends. There is a certain luxury in knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt who they are."
The one thing I've learned in the 8 years since Blueberry's diagnosis is that just when you think you've seen all you can see, you've witnessed all the crazy you can, you've laughed as hard as your sides will allow and you've cried as much as you possibly can - you still have some spare emotion to share.
I don't know if we'll find a cure in my lifetime. I can sure hope. What I do know is that my involvement in breast cancer, the raising of money for breast cancer may one day help my friends, their daughters, my nieces, my aunts, mom, (and any men in my life - 3% of men die from breast cancer) have a better chance of early diagnosis, better treatments and a longer life as a survivor of breast cancer. The one statistic that sticks in my mind is since the 70's, 5 year breast cancer survival rate rose from was some where in the area of 80% (frankly I can't remember the exact number) and today it is 98%. (BigBro would know the exact statistic.) Because of that, I'm going to keep fighting. For myself, for my friends, for their daughters, for their mom's, grandmothers, aunts, and loved ones.
0 comments:
Post a Comment