Catchy title, eh?
October is breast cancer awareness month. I never used to pay much attention to this month. Sure, I thought it was cool that people got little pink hair extensions and changed their profile pictures to pink but I never really paid much attention otherwise.
Now, I pay attention.
We don't have a family history.
We have a laundry list of health issues in my family but breast cancer wasn't one of them.
Until last year.
It has to start somewhere right?
As if my poor grandmother hadn't survived enough health issues, (diabetes, quad bypass, kidney problems, pacemaker) she had to add one more to the list.
We all told her it was going to be ok, that the lump was going to come back negative.
We told her it was going to be fine.
We were wrong.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2012.
The good news is that everything was fine. They removed the lump, she went through 6.5 weeks of radiation and now she is cancer free. She has to take, what she calls, a cancer pill for five years until she can actually consider herself cancer free.
And so begins our family history of breast cancer.
I've already asked my doctor about mammograms but she doesn't suggest I start getting them until 40 and insurance won't pay for them until then anyway.
It scares me. A lot.
So I am going to be proactive and hopefully, if I do happen to get breast cancer at some point in my life, I will be lucky enough to catch it early like my grandmother.
On Sunday, the hair studio I go to will be hosting an event called Hope Cuts where they cut hair, do manicures, give the pink hair extensions and many other things and all the proceeds go to breast cancer research.
I'm getting the pink hair and may even get one for Baby Girl.
Do any of your local merchants host events to raise awareness?
October is breast cancer awareness month. I never used to pay much attention to this month. Sure, I thought it was cool that people got little pink hair extensions and changed their profile pictures to pink but I never really paid much attention otherwise.
Now, I pay attention.
We don't have a family history.
We have a laundry list of health issues in my family but breast cancer wasn't one of them.
Until last year.
It has to start somewhere right?
As if my poor grandmother hadn't survived enough health issues, (diabetes, quad bypass, kidney problems, pacemaker) she had to add one more to the list.
We all told her it was going to be ok, that the lump was going to come back negative.
We told her it was going to be fine.
We were wrong.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2012.
The good news is that everything was fine. They removed the lump, she went through 6.5 weeks of radiation and now she is cancer free. She has to take, what she calls, a cancer pill for five years until she can actually consider herself cancer free.
And so begins our family history of breast cancer.
I've already asked my doctor about mammograms but she doesn't suggest I start getting them until 40 and insurance won't pay for them until then anyway.
It scares me. A lot.
So I am going to be proactive and hopefully, if I do happen to get breast cancer at some point in my life, I will be lucky enough to catch it early like my grandmother.
On Sunday, the hair studio I go to will be hosting an event called Hope Cuts where they cut hair, do manicures, give the pink hair extensions and many other things and all the proceeds go to breast cancer research.
I'm getting the pink hair and may even get one for Baby Girl.
Do any of your local merchants host events to raise awareness?
I got the pink hair too!! A local salon does that here too and I have been doing it for years. I did the Run For The Cure on October 6th and I got pink hair extensions for that. The sad thing is that this year the salon went with synthetic hair. They usually use real hair. Well you cant use heat on synthetic hair and I straighten my hair a lot so I only had the pink hair in for a week and got it taken out. It was driving me crazy.
ReplyDeleteIt is always smart to be proactive so good for you. Cancer (of all sorts) runs heavily in my family so I'm petrified of it.
ReplyDelete:[! My family had no history of breast cancer until earlier this year, either. But like you said "gotta start somewhere" unfortunately. I'm glad we have a month to bring attention and awareness, it seems like everywhere out here in california places are doing something in the spirit of it. I want to see your hair when you do it!
ReplyDelete