Cancer, Cancer Awareness and a gripe.

I'm not sure how many of you are using Facebook. I know it's effectively the most annoying of my addictions, behind good food and computer-geek-stuff. A few weeks back, there was a chain letter going around to all of the ladies on Facebook urging them to post their bra color in support of breast cancer awareness. Of course, 90% of the guys on Facebook had no idea what was going on. Believe me, I have nothing against raising awareness for a cause I have always believed in. If you're a woman, go get a mammogram as soon as your doctor will allow it. Men? Prostate exams as soon as possible. Cancer screening and awareness is nothing new... but when folks dilute themselves into thinking that a gender-specific-coded-message on Facebook is helping, we're all at a loss.

I bring this up because I was sitting there yesterday when a daughter and husband were told that their mother/wife (and my mother-in-law) indeed had breast cancer. She was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS for short). According to what I've found in research, and from what the doctor said, it's the most common of non-invasive cancers. Lumpectomy followed by radiation can normally take care of the treatment, mastectomy is another option. I've never sat there for that specific moment in time... when someone is given the news that their loved one has something inside them that could potentially be fatal.

I guess, if I'm trying to achieve anything by this blog post.. it's this: Get yourself checked out. Go to your doctor. Both men and women. Simply having a pink ribbon ball-cap and a Save-the-Tatas sticker on your car doesn't replace a screening.

I sat around trying to figure out why these women on Facebook had digressed back into middle-schoolers with their random color status updates, meanwhile my mother-in-law had a tumor growing inside her. If you want to support a cause that you claim to believe in, make a donation... go to a relay for life and walk... but most importantly, don't be a hypocrite to the cause. Don't dress up in breast cancer awareness garb and never get yourself checked out.

Long story short, they're going to meet up with an oncologist next Monday for a plan of action. If you're a religious person and want to send out a few prayers for Cathy Wood, please do. If you're a secular humanist and just wanna throw out some well-wishing or good karma, that's perfectly accepted too.