1 in 8

We all know eight women, right? I mean, if you’re a woman and you have any family at all, you know more than eight women.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.

I graduated in a class of 44, pretty much half girls and half boys. That means there were at least twenty girls who became women. Which, statistically speaking, means that at least two of us were bound to end up with breast cancer.

You want to feel young? Get a breast cancer diagnosis in your forties (no, don’t do this, I don’t wish this on anyone, ever.) Every single doctor I saw during my cancer treatments told me that I was ‘so young.’ I skewed the average of the patients receiving chemo each time I went in for a treatment.

Cancer is not an ‘old peoples’ disease. It happens to all ages, all races, both genders. And it sucks.

The aftermath of a cancer diagnosis, even beyond treatment and being ‘healed’ is pretty awful.

Sure, I’m grateful to be here. I’m so very thankful to be alive but I am scarred, both physically and emotionally. I’m a wreck. I am still tired. I’m weak. I worried incessantly.

But I’m here to fight another day.

So get those mammograms, those screenings. Get checked, and then get rechecked. Trust your instincts. If something hurts and you can feel that it’s not a ‘normal’ ache/pain, fight your way through the medical bureaucracy and find someone who will listen to you.

Get any vaccinations available that might prevent cancer.

Both my girls have had the HPV vaccinations. Alyssa got hers before I received my diagnosis and Olivia after but I’d already planned for Liv to receive hers before I was told I had cancer.

If there is anything that might prevent cancer, please, PLEASE do it. It’s such a horrible disease. Of course no illness/disease is fun. I get that but I can only speak for cancer when I say that the treatment is pretty awful too.

Let’s keeping fighting the good fight. Let’s keep working to find cures for all cancers. Babies should not have to endure chemotherapy. Mom’s shouldn’t have to worry about loving their kids enough today because they might not be here tomorrow. Spouses shouldn’t have to bury their love because cancer took them away.

Let’s fight together to save more lives.