Tag: National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Sensory Overload

decisionsformyfamily1 Comment

Pumpkins and pink items.  Everywhere I go there they are. Pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin coffee, pop tarts, bagels, waffles, oatmeal, marshmallow, beer, potato chips and even vodka.   Virtually anything you could imagine now available in pumpkin flavor or scent, most for a limited time of course.  People everywhere are gorging themselves all in the name of the season.

Even the Pumpkins are pink!
Even the Pumpkins are pink!

When not bombarded with all things orange and pumpkin, my eyes are overwhelmed with all things pink.  Walks and rallies, sports events at all levels and all products imaginable marketed in pink for Breast Cancer awareness month.  Watching football this week is giving me a bit of a headache with the pink shoes, gloves and towels flying around. Don’t misunderstand, I think it is wonderful that everyone is raising money to hopefully one day put an end to Breast Cancer. But let’s be honest here, would the NFL be repainting lines in bright pink if it was not profitable?

All hype aside, maybe you do not have the extra money to buy that cute pink whatever.  Maybe things are too tight to send anything in the envelope this time around. What you could do is something much more impactful, maybe pick up a phone and call a woman who you love and ask if they have had a mammogram recently.  This week I shared my own bilateral prophylactic mastectomy story with 3 of the women I work with.  Two of those women have breast cancer in their own families.  I encouraged them to be proactive talk to their doctors and possibly get tested for the BRCA gene.  I wasn’t even wearing anything pink.

Pink Pink everywhere

decisionsformyfamily2 Comments

Every year it spreads a little more, pink ribbons for Breast Cancer Awareness.  But as we are all aware, it is not just ribbons.  It is cleats on professional athletes or bats and gloves.  I went to an office supply store yesterday and felt compelled to buy a pink pen placed on the counter.  My  husband bought a 5 hour energy that was also wrapped in a pretty pink label.  I have some socks with pink ribbons, they sell apparel of all types as well as those plastic bracelets I don’t think there is really anything that has not jumped into the pink arena.  Even the local pet store seems to be “aware”.

I have become a very cynical person in my older age.  I Would just love to believe that all of this money raised in the name of awareness actually went to research for a cure.  Imagine, a future where we would not need to worry about the ever worsening breast cancer statistics, for that matter cancer statistics in general.

CEO’s of these charities making massive six figure salaries, third-party calling centers keeping large percentages of donations for “fees”.

I would love to believe that by the time my girls are old enough I would not need to worry about answer the question that Madison asked a few weeks ago, “Mommy, will Megan and I have to have our boobies operated on when we get older?” I can only hope they will not have to ever know the word mastectomy in theirs lives.

Maybe I am wrong, I pray that I am.  Millions of woman and an increase number of men are counting on it!