LaChelle R.

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My mother, Lauretta, is a breast cancer survivor.  She was diagnosed almost 9 years ago. It started out one morning, right before her birthday, she happened to feel a sharp pain in her right breast. Upon further examination, she found a mass the size of a golf ball.  She contacted her dr. and he immediately sent her for a bioposy. Unfortunately, when they went in for the biopsy, they found that the mass was larger than at first expected, so they had to do an IMMEDIATE bi-lateral mastectomy.....in other words, they removed BOTH breasts right then.  My mother was shocked, depressed, and sore. But that procedure SAVED her life.  She went thru chemo, and in the process, lost her hair.  She had beautiful, curly, auburn hair, (of course I knew that she colored it, and I didn't want her to, but she did it anyway, just to make her feel younger). The onocoligist told her to expect her to loose her hair. She was not too thrilled with that, but she understood that it was all a part of it.  So one morning, she asked my father to shave her head....he just laughed at her, but finally agreed to do it, because he loved her and he wanted her to be happy again.  We went and got her a couple of wigs, and a few turbans. That seems to be the popular thing to do while you hair is slowly growing back in.  The dr. warned her that her hair will most likely grow back totally diffrent....straight and grey.  Of course she expected it to be grey anyway, since she had colored her hair for ages. She figured that straight haie would be ok to live with, and that was ok with her also. 

Slowly, over the next few months, her hair cam back in, fuller and thicker, and CURLIER than ever!  She was so happy about that you would have never known that she had cancer to begin with, but you could tell it in her eyes....there was still an emptiness there. Her REAL breasts were gone, and she didn't want to have reconstructive surgery, so it was on to the prosthetics......boy was she in for a shock!

Her insurance company allowed her to buy 2 bras and 2 sets of "BOOBS" a year. Not bad, but still those things are very expensive! I went with her many times over the past few years, and they just keep getting pricier each time we go!  She was feeling better about herself, slowly but surely each trip we would take.  She would pick up some the size of grapefruit, and hold them  next to her and say, "Look, Dolly Parton" or something silly like that!  That was when we could tell that she was slowly getting better. My mom was finally getting back to some closness to normal.

To this day, she is doing well. She is 78 years old now, and she still is thankful that they caught it in time, because now she has been able to watch her grand-daughters grow up.

Now, on to the second part of my story.

I am 34 years old as I write this blog. I have 2 little girls, 4 and 5 years old.  I work EVERY day to promote breast cancer awareness.  I remember what my mother went thru, and I remember each treatment that she had......her shaving her head....the pain of those drainage bags in the hospital....I close my eyes, and vividly see her lying there crying from the sorrow and the pain. I try to pass it along to all my friends that it is NEVER TOO EARLY!!! Early detection is the KEY!!! They phrase I use to get my point across is...."I don't want my daughters to have to hold the hand of someone they love as that person is going through chemotherapy. I don't want them to have to sit there and help them shave their head when their hair falls out!"  There is no other way to stress it any better than bring it close to home.

Every family, in one way or another, is touched by this disease. You can look in your high school annual yearbook, and find someone that knows someone with cancer, or have had it themselves. That is hard to believe, but it is true.  

 This year in America, more than 211,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 43,300 die. One woman in eight either has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. In addition, 1,600 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 400 will die this year. If detected early, the five-year survival rate exceeds 95%. Mammograms are among the best early detection methods, yet 13 million U.S. women 40 years of age or older have never had a mammogram. 

Please remember to check out ACS::Making Strides  and Breast Cancer.org to find out more about what you can do to help!

Please, do this for the ones that love you, and for those that you love.