Something very near and dear to me… the fight against breast cancer. This is Melissa Etheridge singing live on Oprah.
Here’s to all of the survivors out there and the families that support them. And for all of those who fought to the end…
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
11
Jan
09
feel your boobies
Alright, so I guess it’s that I’ve just been too busy playing games… or maybe I just haven’t had anything to say. Well, now I do… FEEL YOUR BOOBIES! This website and campaign was recently brought to my attention via Facebook {as horrible as it is} but this one was really worth a second look. It’s all about finding fun and interesting ways to get the attention of the general female population – in particular the younger ones – and remind them about the importance of this simple little act – feel your boobies!
Because the breast cancer cause is so close to me, I felt a need to share this one. Now, although the Feel Your Boobies Foundation does not contribute or raise funds for breast cancer research itself, it instead does something no one else does. This foundation reminds us that the cure starts with us and that by regular self-examination, we can catch any lumps before they get too serious. This is especially important for younger women, who, like myself, are denied regular mammograms because we are under 40. So, remember ladies…
…it could save your life!
Ok, so I realize it’s been WAY too long since I made my last post. I just want to let everyone know that I haven’t completely forgotten about or given up on the blogging. I’ve just had too much going on and not enough time to concentrate on what I want to post.
I do apologize, but I have had a lot going on in my life lately, and haven’t spent a lot of time messing around online during the past couple months. I moved a couple of weeks ago and since then have been struggling with getting everything settled in the new place. The most exciting part of the whole thing is that my boyfriend decided to move in with me too, so there’s been even more to do and more to think about than I would have done on my own. But now we’ve got some furniture and a decent place to live until we decide to seriously start looking for a home in the new year.
Of course, now that we’re actually almost settled and I want to be able to sit at home and type up a post for my blog, my internet isn’t working and now I have to wait for service to be fixed before I can really get around to posting anything. That’s just the way it goes, though. I’m used to that. So, here I sit, wasting my last couple of minutes at work, trying to find a way to catch up so much in such a short time. Well, I don’t think I can do it. haha. But don’t worry – As soon as my internet is working again at home, I’ll be doing some posting. Until then, please be patient with me.
Wow. It’s been almost a whole month since I’ve actually written anything on here (although, you wouldn’t agree because the last thing you can see is even older). This past month and a half has been pretty crazy for me. My best friend ended up in the hospital for my birthday and had to have surgery, which brought everyone down for the last couple weeks of July. We did manage to get out to Deer Lake a couple of times before all that though. We spent one evening canoeing and another on a peddle boat, so we definately got to enjoy that while the weather was starting to get pretty hot. Things have been getting a lot better now as August is more than half-way through. We wanted to go away for the long weekend, but work got in the way of that, so we just stayed home and enjoyed the sun.
My boyfriend’s aunt has been out visiting from Prague for the past month, and she will be catching a flight home tonight, so I went out for dinner with his family last night. It has been interesting, at least trying to listen to them all talking in Czech and trying to figure it out on my own. His mom is a translator which helps, and well, my boyfriend just couldn’t be bothered, so I guess if I wanna learn, I’ll be doing it on my own.
My man, being the awesome guy that he is, took me to the Brooks & Dunn / ZZ Top concert, which was so awesome. It was actually a totally last-minute thing. He came over to my place after work and told me he needed to use my computer. The next thing I knew, he was buying tickets for the show! WOW! It was great! Of course, it cause a little jealousy among friends, but I enjoyed it.
I also had an interesting dinner last Tuesday when I met up with an aunt of mine that I have only met a couple of times in the past. It was great to be able to get together and talk about some of the crap and bs that has spread through the family over the years. Ok, well, dealing with bs is never fun, but at least now my head is a little straighter. And she’ll be at my nephew’s birthday party this weekend, so that will be cool.
This past weekend, we went to a house-warming party for a couple friends who recently decided to move in together after about 5 or 6 months of dating. It’s strange how seeing others do it makes you want to do it too. When we were leaving, my boyfriend actually thanked them for inspiring him to become more domesticated himself. Haha. I guess that’s exactly what I needed to do, show him how other people are doing it. Although I will admit I’ve been thinking about this for a while (ok, way too long, and I’m sorry I did so well at not saying anything, but I was scared) but I sure am glad I finally let it slip out. Now to figure out when this can actually happen… hmmmm…. I need to move now, so I need to find a place I can just rent on a monthly basis until next year. I guess it’s time to start looking.
This weekend will be another busy one. One of my friends’ bands (Last Suicidal Decision) has a show on Saturday, which is going to be crazy. I’m really glad my man will finally get to go to one of their shows and see them play. I used to work for the band so I’ve see a lot of it and, although it definately isn’t country music, it is awesome to be able to support my talented friends. They’ve done pretty good for themselves and they are finally almost ready to release their first album. Way to go guys! Can’t wait til the show. Sunday should be interesting as well. My nephew’s birthday party is Sunday afternoon and not only will I be taking my boyfriend to meet my sisters for the first time, but a bunch of family that I don’t really know is also supposed to be there, so as I said, this should be interesting.
Well, I guess that about catches everyone up on what I’ve been up to, since I’ve neglected to post anything for you lately. I have been crazy at work and haven’t been able to get online for more than a couple minutes in about a month now. Hopefully that will change now that we have some new employees to help out and I won’t be going nutz trying to do it all. I am taking vacation the first week of September, so I’ll have to write all about that once we get back.
Until then…
Since I was a teenager, I have always been scared that I am going to end up like my mother. She passed away from breast cancer when I was 12. She was only 33, but they caught it too late and could never do enough to get rid of it. Please don’t get me wrong here - I never really knew my mom. My dad and his mother raised me from the age of 4. I didn’t even get a chance to see her in the hospital before she died, so it’s not like I saw her suffering or was deeply impacted like other surviving families are by this dreaded disease. A couple of years ago I found out that both of my aunts also had been diagnosed, one of them pre-menopausal as well. She had her first diagnosis at the age of 43 and after a second lump was found years later, she decided to check out this genetic testing of the BCRA-1 and BCRA-2 genes (BReast CAncer Gene 1 and BReast CAncer Gene 2). This test pinpointed the gene that is carrying the mutation which causes breast and ovarian cancer in our family. She was given a positive result for the BRCA-1 gene mutation, which now meant that everyone in the family could go for a simple blood test to determine if they carry the same gene mutation. Finally – a way to find out ahead of time if you’re going to end up with cancer. Of course, a positive result does not mean that you are going to get cancer, only that your risk of developing it is very high. It also means being added into the high-risk cancer clinic and receiving free preventative surgery and help with any concerns you may have. All the women in the immediate family went and had the test done, and everyone came out with a positive result - that is, until I got my results back today. I am pretty sure I was the last one to get the test done, and most of the women in the family had already had or at least scheduled the surgery to have their breasts and ovaries removed (if over 30 years old) by the time I went in for my appointment. I think it was harder waiting for those results than anything else, especially when I went into this “knowing” I’d get a positive result just like everyone else in my family.
When I was told this morning that my test came back negative, I should have been ecstatic. Unfortunately, for some reasons that I cannot fully understand, never mind explain, I am not as relieved or as happy as I should be about these results. I should be shouting it from the rooftops – I am not at high risk for developing breast/ovarian cancer! In fact, I have just as great a risk as anyone else in my state of health.
To me, all that really means is that, if I do develop cancer, I will suffer – first because I will have cancer, and second because I will not be able to afford all the medical attention I would need to fight it and not end up like my mother. I don’t even have children. That is actually another factor that contributes to my risk. It turns out, if your mother had breast cancer pre-menopausal, and you don’t have children by the time you are 30, your risk of developing the breast cancer yourself is greater. But hey, that’s only one of the risk factors. There are so many, it shouldn’t matter. If I want to avoid developing cancer, I need to completely change my way of living. But really there is no way to avoid it. I always knew I’d end up with cancer, and that really hasn’t changed. All this test has done for me is told me that I don’t have the same gene mutation that my aunt does, although my sisters came back positive. But they’re twins, so I guess that only counts as one result. To me, my risk is the same as it always was. My mom had it, and so will I. I know that is such negative thinking, and it probably shouldn’t be allowed after the result I was given this morning. I guess, when you spend 15 years believing something, it isn’t so easy to change that, even with a negative result. But at least I can move on and go back to just living my life and not worrying any more.
