That's what my friend Kristi always says. We've been friends since 3rd grade, and when she turned 40, exactly four months before I did, she made her first mammogram appointment. They found cancer. She went through radiation. She is a survivor.
My mom also had breast cancer, when she was about 65. Having lost a dear friend to it before I was even born, and having seen women die of it in her job as a nurse, she already had her plan in place. She made an appointment for a double mastectomy the day she got the results back. Then she lived another 12 years.
I'm not very good about taking care of my health. I love coffee, and sweets, and wine. I don't work out. I keep meaning to go to bed earlier. But I get my mammogram every year. It's a quick and easy appointment, and, although my dentist requires appointments to be made four months out, I get next-day appointments when I call the Breast Health Clinic. There are so many ways to take care of ourselves that involve effort. There are so many unknowns and uncontrollable things that can go wrong. Breast cancer is common, and when caught early, very often treatable. I get mammograms to honor my mom, my friend, and my mom's lost friend. I get mammograms for the sake of my husband and kids. Who do you do it for?
I do it for my kids, that they'll get to have a mom for the majority of their lives. I do it for my mom, who died of breast cancer, 20 years after she beat it the first time, 4 years after she beat it the second. I do it for my husband, who banks on the fact that having a wife 19 years younger should mean that he gets to die first.
ReplyDeleteI did the genetic testing too, for me. Because I could not stand not knowing, but expecting it. While it was (shockingly) negative, I still do them. Every year. As I have since I was 31.
Thirty minutes of time buys me another year of peace.
Glad to hear the genetic testing was negative!
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