Taking Care of the Girls

15 years ago, my mother found out she had a very large lump in her breast. The doctors found it when they went to do an MRI while she was in the middle of a gall bladder attack.  The very large lump was removed, a mastectomy was performed, and she was finished.  I never found out what stage the cancer was, but it had not spread at the time of her surgery.

Mom was 70 when this happened.  Because she had a mastectomy, she never underwent chemo or radiation.  Keep in mind, Mom had a battle with Colon Cancer two years ago that she almost lost.  Is it related to the breast cancer?  I certainly don't know, but in my deepest heart I think it is.

Image: Burke Medical Center

Last month, her sister discovered that she had a tumor in her breast.  She underwent a lumpectomy and is currently undergoing radiation.  Her lump was Stage 1.  Small and treatable. 

I got my annual mammogram today.  15 minutes with a wonderful technician who joked with me through the entire experience.  It wasn't fun, but it wasn't horrible, either.  I get my mammogram done annually in the hopes that if I do ever have breast cancer, it is caught early and while still in it's most treatable state.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Take some time to look after your girls so that you'll be around for quite some time to come.  It only takes a few minutes.  You're more than worth it!

Skin Check

Do you check your skin for suspicious moles?  Have you checked your skin for suspicious moles?
On your arms, your back, your face, your legs? 

Did you know:

• Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States.  More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually.
• Each year, there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.
• One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.

(Source: http://www.skincancer.org/)

Skin cancer can grow not only on the areas that you expose to sunlight, but also to areas that never see the light of day.

All of my life I've had three really big freckles.  One on each arm, and one on my behind.  I've always freckled very easily, so now I tend to stay out of the sun.  I didn't do so well with that when I was younger.  Remember the 80's?  Remember slathering yourself in baby oil to get a good tan?  Remember going out to lay out in the sun and get a really good burn to begin the season?  While I never used the baby oil, I did get several "good burns" through my teenage years.  None were intentional, but I had friends who did it on purpose every spring.

For the last 15 years, I've kept a very close eye on the freckles.  I don't get out in the sun as often as I used to, and I do apply a moisturizer that contains sunscreen daily.

I had one mole and one of the big freckles cut off five years ago.

I went back to see my dermatologist earlier this week.  She took a look, and off came the second of the big freckles, and another "thing" on my head.

Everything will be sent off to the lab for analysis, and I'll get the results later this week.

The actual removal process isn't horrible.  The doctor gives you several small shots of pain killer around the area that they will be removing.  I don't actually watch them take things out... I did see an X-acto knife.  (okay, a scalpel).  The doctor dug wide around the freckle in order to get out any cells that might be cancerous, and she dug deep, to get at the root.  She dumped it into a container to send it off to the lab.  I didn't feel a thing until after the pain killers wore off!

All in all, I'm glad that those spots are gone.  Skin Cancer is deadly, and it kills people every year.  But, if it's caught early, it is treatable. 

I'm hoping that it isn't cancer.  If it is, I'm hoping that it was caught early enough.

What I'm finding as I get older, is that staying healthy is a matter of vigilance.  I need to take my own health in my own hands, and be vigilant.  Mammograms, skin cancer screenings, colonoscopies, losing weight, eating right... it's all about vigilance.

Because we all know that we're going to die.  But what if something horrible happens and we don't die? 

I really want the quality of my last years on this earth to be as amazing as the rest of my life.

Have you checked your skin lately?

I subbed in first grade this week.  One of the little boys, J., is already a die-hard jock at the tender age of six.

On Monday, he burst into tears at lunchtime because it was raining.  Stupid me, I thought it was because we were going to have indoor recess.  (Believe me, the thought of indoor recess made me want to cry!) Nope.  It was because his t-ball game was going to be cancelled.  "You don't understand!"  He told me.  "We're undefeated!  Now we're not!" No amount of explaining would convince him that the game would be rescheduled and that they were still undefeated.

Fast forward to Thursday.  We're reading a book about Lance Armstrong in reading group.  He found out that Lance had cancer, and J. burst into tears.  "Oh no!  How can Lance have cancer?  What kind of cancer does he have?"

"It's okay, J., let's turn the page and find out more!" 
"No, no, no" he said.  "Is he going to be okay? What kind of cancer does he have?"
"J., he's fine. He had cancer, but it was several years ago.  He's fine now."
J. looked up at me, "IF Lance Armstrong can get cancer, anybody can get cancer."

I took a deep breath, and we turned the page and read the rest of the story and found out that Lance did get better.

However, it kept me thinking about Lance Armstrong and cancer for a while.

It is true.  Lance is an amazing athelete.  He has accomplished more in his life than most of us could ever hope to in a lifetime.  And yet, his battle with cancer could have easily been the end of the story for him.  Fortunately, he was screened, caught the cancer early, and was determined enough to follow through with medical treatment and beat the cancer.  His story is a reminder to all of us.

J. was right.  If Lance Armstrong can get cancer, anybody can get cancer.

But it doesn't need to be the end of our story.

Get yourself checked now for cancer. Early detection is the key to survival.

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!