When Maggie left, my infusion nurse, Karen (who was also Maggie's infusion nurse), asked me if I saw Maggie on the news last night. No! I exclaimed, And she's in so much trouble for not telling me about it!
Well, this is what Maggie gets for trying to hide information from a girl and her blog (wink, wink).
I admit, this video is a bit outside of my cancer cocoon (i.e., some of the information scares the crap out of me). But if Maggie can be brave enough to be in the video, I should at the very least be brave enough to watch it -- even if I only have one eye open. Because even with that one eye open, I am slowly starting to see how important it is to raise awareness among young women about this disease.
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Yesterday's New York Times also included an article about breast cancer incidence in young women. I won't lie, the hair on the back of my neck is standing up over a particular sentence in here that I will not repeat. It's absolutely terrifying though and I'm jumping back into my cocoon now. If you're like me and don't want to know this stuff, do not click into the article. For you brave ones out there, you can click HERE.
Finally, for any of you who want to keep clicking (or just end on a brighter note), here's a quick link to a prior entry, Meeting Maggie.
Tara, as usual, your blog posts come to me at really pivotal times. For some reason lately, I've been thinking about all of these things that you have been posting about, and sure enough, when I check in on your blog, you are thinking about them, too.
ReplyDeleteI recently encouraged another friend who was diagnosed (also young) to start a blog, and she has talked about how much it helps. It's true. Writing saves lives. I'm very curious and excited to hear about your idea, because I firmly believe in that statement. I teach English at a local high school, and I didn't even realize how true that was until recently and I'm very excited to talk to the kids about it when I go back to work.
Anyway, I was "brave" and read the links and watched the video. It is very scary, and I"m jumping into my cancer cocoon, too. BUT. I did like the part about the doctor being 44 after a diagnosis at 27. Hopeful.
Thanks again for writing. I'm sure you are helping so many like me.
Wow, thank you, Lisa! I agree there are hopeful things in there, but I think my mind starts to go too crazy to find them sometimes :) So your comment was especially helpful because you picked it out for me! Also, I can't tell you how much your encouragement on the writing saves lives idea helped me today. Thank you so much. You have much to bring your students when you get back! Best of luck!
DeleteThe NYTimes article makes me so mad because again, with higher rates of cancer (or higher rates of severe cancer, anyway) in younger women, doctors are still only suggesting mammos at age 40?? These two facts are completely contrary to one another! And the fact that they're so worried about studies and information creating "panic?" - come on, we're all just being RESPONSIBLE! AH, it's all maddening! =p
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