Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of waiting in line for 45 minutes to renew my license plates. Awesome, I know. It was worth it, though, when I walked out the door with my new breast cancer awareness plate.
This morning at work, my friend Amber noticed my new plate, and asked if my plate and my walk were in honor of a family member. Well, no, not really. My gram had a mastectomy in the 60s, but this is just something I’ve always felt strongly about. My cause, I guess. I’ve never really had a direct personal link to breast cancer.
Then, on the way home from work, it hit me.
A few years ago during an annual exam, my doctor found two lumps: one in my left breast and one in my right. I was 25 years old. I had a mammogram and ultrasound the same day, and everything came back fine: the lumps were fibrocystic. But forty years ago, when my gram found a lump, they did a radical mastectomy (my mom wrote about that here). No mammograms, no ultrasounds, no lumpectomy. Just… gone.
Forty years ago, that could have been me. Because after the mastectomy, they found out that her lump was benign.
That’s my link.
1 response so far ↓
gawilli // July 4, 2007 at 8:00 pm
That is a very meaningful link to have. I’m so glad that we have made advances but we still have a ways to go. Thanks for your efforts. My mom thanks you too.