Breaking News: Facebook is still dumb.

There have been a few breast cancer awareness campaigns floating around facebook. The first one that appeared last year, post your bra color as your status, I let slide. The second one that started floating around a few weeks ago, post where you keep your purse as "I like it on the...", made no sense to me. Now the third, post your shoe size followed by the word "inches" and a frowny face, is the worst of them all. These have about as much in common with breast cancer awareness as I do with Snookie from the Jersey Shore.

I have therefore decided I'm going to start my own awareness campaign: Know your risk of breast cancer. Play along, it'll be fun! (Do you know your risk? I sure do! It's 100%).

-If you are a woman, you automatically get 2 points. Men get 1 point.
-If you are over 40, add a point.
-If you had your first period before the age of 12, add a point.
-For every first degree (mother, daughter, sister) relative with BC, add a point. If they were younger than 50 at diagnosis, add another point. For every second degree (grandmother, aunt) relative with BC, add a half point. If they were younger than 50 at diagnosis, add another half point. If you have been tested and are BRCA positive, add 5 points.
-If you do not exercise regularly, add a point.
-If you are overweight, add a point.
-If you drink alcohol, add a point.
-If you use birth control pills (or other hormones), add a point.

If you have 1 - 3 points: Low Risk
Perform breast self-exams. Know what's normal for your body. At the age of 40 start getting yearly mammograms.

If you have 4 - 6 points: Medium Risk
Perform breast self-exams. Know what's normal for your body. At the age of 40 start getting yearly mammograms. Talk to your doctor about ways you can reduce your risk (healthy diet, exercise, stop boozin').

If you have 7 or more points: High Risk
Perform breast self-exams. Know what's normal for your body. Yearly mammograms can start as early as 35. Talk to your doctor about ways you may reduce your risk (healthy diet, exercise, locking up the liquor cabinet, prophylactic mastectomy, chemo/hormone suppressants).

*NOTE: These values are subjective and came from my brain and my 11 months of research into the fascinating world of breast cancer. Also, BOOM!

Over pinkification?

I've been thinking for awhile about what I wanted to say about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I was diagnosed last November so this is my first one as a survivor, which makes it a completely different experience for me. As in, before it wasn't an experience at all. The pink ribbons were just on the edge of my consciousness. Sure, I was "aware" of breast cancer. It existed. I knew about it. But it was something that happened to old ladies, not something I had to worry about. I didn't need to worry about breast self exams. I had ten more years before I had to worry about mammograms.

I knew that pink ribbons equalled breast cancer awareness, but I wasn't at all aware of breast cancer. The treatments, the scars, the constant worry, the fighting for my life... this is what the pink ribbons mean to me now. Pink ribbons accost me wherever I go (my sister says "It looks like pink ribbons threw up all over the grocery store"). I would say they're a constant reminder, but how can you be reminded of something if you never stop thinking about it in the first place? Between my own treatments and checkups, managing after-effects, and volunteering for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, breast cancer is constantly on my mind. I don't need the pink ribbon products in order to be "aware".

I especially don't need a pink ribbon product that says "5% of the proceeds to benefit breast cancer research...". The $4 is better spent being donated directly to a charity than to buy a product from a company that disguises their greed under the premise of being charitable. They use the pink as another marketing ploy. It makes sense, too. One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime and with all-time high survival rates, there are a lot of survivors walking around out there. Not to mention all the survivors' friends, family, co-workers, etc. who just want to show support. "Buy our $4 cereal and 4 cents will be donated to breast cancer research...". No thanks. I'll buy the generic and donate the dollar I save.

"So what, then, can I do to make people aware?". I'm very glad you asked that. I personally raise awareness by blogging, twittering, facebooking, and everything short of shouting my story from the top of a mountain (but only due to the distinct lack of mountains in Florida). "But Cristal, I don't have an inspiring story like yours to share." Yes, thank goodness for that! You can still get educated and spread the word. Breast self-exams: Do them and know what is normal for you. Get your mammograms after 40. Know your family history and know your risk. Boom, I just dropped an awareness bomb on you.

Would you?

I went to visit my surgeon today, and he mentioned that bi-lateral mastectomies associated with BRCA+ gene mutation was in the news. I didn't know what he meant, so I looked it up and I found this:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/200240.php

For women who are BRCA+ (like myself), having a prophylactic, or preventive, mastectomy can reduce their risk for developing breast cancer in the future. For us gene mutants, our risk for developing breast or ovarian cancer is very high compared to the rest of the population. Women with a family history (which I don't have) have begun to be genetically tested for the mutation, but then when they find out their results they're faced with the question of: what do I do now?

In my support group last week we were asked: If you could rewind time and have a prophylactic mastecomy, would you? My answer was a definitive YES! That would have made things extremely easy on me. In one surgery I probably could have had the mastectomy and the reconstruction. I would not have to go through chemo. I would not have to go through radiation. I would not have to deal with the long term side effects of treatment like anxiety, chemo brain, lymphedema, and possible infertility. I would have been done with it and moved on without skipping a beat. Unfortunately, I was never given a warning that this lurked in the future for me. Without a family history, there's not much reason to get BRCA tested. Even if I had the test and came up positive, I'm sure pre-cancer me would never think that something as unimaginable as cancer could possibly happen to me. I would have taken my chances and not elected for the surgery, betting that I'd be just fine.

It's like buying the warranty for your car... you don't need that, what could possibly go wrong?

Pre-op

Days until surgery: 5
Number of eyelashes: 12 (11 on the left, 1 on the right)
Hair length: Still about 1 mm

I went in for my pre-op appointment this morning for my mastectomy on Monday. What I have to do to prepare is not take any medications that would thin my blood, do not eat or drink after midnight the night before my surgery, and wash the surgical area with anti-bacterial soap the night before and the morning of my surgery.

My surgery is first thing in the morning so I have to be there at 6AM. They will take me to pre-op, knock me out with anesthesia, and when I wake up I'll be in recovery. Seems simple enough, right? I'm getting a bi-lateral mastectomy (both sides taken out) and lymph node removal on my left side only. This is done by my breast surgeon. Then my plastic surgeon will put in tissue expanders and drains and they'll sew me back up.

I've been trying to figure out what I can do to prepare at home for my surgery. The recommendations I've gotten have been to buy cami's and button up shirts (a shopping trip? Deal!) because it'll be hard for me to reach over my head to put clothes on. Also helpful is to move dishes, food, etc on lower shelves because I won't be able to reach them for awhile. I have family members who will be staying with me so they should be able to help me with all the lifting and reaching that I need. I went into my closet and arranged it so all the button-up shirts are in one section. I don't know what else to do to prepare, so I'll just relax and wait!

Cashing in on Karma

It's amazing the outpouring of support I have received through my treatments thus far: cards, gifts, donations on my Race for the Cure team, well wishes by the heap, whole churches praying for me, animals sacrificed (ok, maybe not that last one). It's been incredible being able to see just how many lives I have touched in my 28 years causing trouble on this earth. I feel as if I'm cashing in on all the good karma that I have been building up. I've been a friend, volunteered for charities, gone out of my way to do nice things for other people and it's all coming back to me tenfold.

I started a team for the South Florida Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure a few days after my diagnosis. I used the race as an upbeat way to break my diagnosis to most of my friends and family. It's funny when I think about it now, but at the time I wasn't even sure I could get 10 people to sign up. My friends just took off with it and I've gotten 101 people on my team (and there are people who missed the deadline and wished they could join). We've been at third place overall for amount of money raised for the cure... currently we have close to $13,000! The two teams ahead of us are big companies (FPL and South Florida Waste Management), and I think it's incredible that we've gone toe-to-toe with them.

All this fundraising has not gone unnoticed. The Susan G. Komen Race Committee read about me on my team page (http://www.komensouthflorida.org/2010rftc/hydooo) and were tracking my progress. I had the fortune to meet them at a survivor celebration, and I was not prepared for all the fuss that they made over me! Since then they have joined my army of supporters, and have opened up incredible doors for me.

When our local newspaper, the Palm Beach Post, wanted to interview someone connected to the race that had done a lot for the community, the ladies at Susan G. Komen immediately sent them in my direction. The article can be found here:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/health/cancer-victim-s-race-team-of-100-has-193571.html

I don't like that he refers to me as a cancer victim because, as anyone who knows me can testify, it's cancer that is the victim of me in this situation. Cancer really didn't stand a chance. Also I don't like that he wrote I have sad times and wonder "why me?" because it really isn't true. Well, it's true that I have sad times. I'm like everyone else; I have good days and bad ones. But never - not once - have I wondered "why me?". Overall, though, it's a nice article. I've gotten a lot of recognition for it from friends and even from strangers. I'm famous! I wonder if I'll get a stalker? ;)

There are more good news to come... stay tuned...

Baby got background info

I've had a lump for awhile (August is as far back as I remember because I had it on my 28th birthday) but when I went to see my OB/GYN about it he said "Oh, I don't feel it now. It's probably because you drink too much caffeine. You know that new tea place opened up in the mall? Girls drink tea and they don't realize it has a lot of caffeine in it." I thought to myself "You know what? I do drink an insanely large amount of Diet Coke" so I gave up my BELOVED Diet Coke for two grueling weeks. In those two horribly terrible Diet Coke free weeks I started getting some pain. I went back to my OB/GYN and I said to him "No sir, something is wrong". He thought it was an inflammation and an abscess (which is extrememly rare in women who aren't breast feeding) so he put me on antibiotics and sent me for an ultrasound (where they ended up doing a mammogram as well).

The report from the mammogram and ultrasound seemed to agree with him that it was an inflammation and abscess, so the OB/GYN went on vacation and referred me to a surgeon to have the abscess drained. I saw the surgeon on friday 11/20 and when he reviewed the films and the symptoms he told me that it didn't look like an abscess. He tried to get me in for an MRI friday afternoon but the radiologist said "Pssshaw, my weekend has already started" so Monday morning bright and early at 7AM I had an MRI and that's when they found my swollen lymph node (but it still wasn't entirely clear what was going on).

Monday at noon my surgeon did a biopsy and Tuesday 11/24/09 at 4pm he called with the results. I was positive in both my lymph node and my breast for "Poorly Differentiated Ductal Carcinoma".