Breast Cancer Awareness #8

And once again, it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Like I’ve said before, I don’t like how breast cancer seems to get the most attention out of all the cancers.

Maybe I’m just hypersensitive to all the pink ribbons everywhere, having gone through breast cancer myself.

Here is my list of reasons I’m very aware of breast cancer:

1. I’m still having a hard time reading any books to completion: I hope this doesn’t mean my chemo brain is permanent.

2. Last week alone, a friend told me about her friend that is “going through breast cancer.” Another young girl who sold me yoga pants told me her mother is dying from ovarian cancer and has “given up all hope.” I cried over both of these women I don’t even know.

3. Every October, I get mail from Nordstrom advertising the prostheses they sell.

4. I’ve needed to go to the eye doctor for years now, but I keep putting it off because of the doctor burnout I’m still experiencing from my cancer treatment seven years ago.

5. I’ve been vacationing like crazy this year because I keep thinking that “any day now,” the bomb is going to drop.

6. Any time I get a sore on my body that doesn’t want to heal, I’m worried that my cancer is back because poor wound healing is a symptom of cancer. I never used to be paranoid like that before I got my cancer.

7. I’m more conscious of maintaining and enriching my relationships with friends and family because I realize how precious life truly is, having faced death squarely in the eyeballs, so to speak.

8. Every time I pay bills, I’m thankful that we managed to hang on to our house in spite of the huge debt caused by our bills during my cancer treatment: our lawyer friend advised us to declare medical bankruptcy during those dark days, but we managed somehow, by the grace of God, to hang on to our house and pay every last medical bill.

9. Two weeks ago, I got a notice from my oncologist making an appointment for me this upcoming March. I guess he is worried cancer could come back to bite me in the butt.

10. My energy has never fully returned since my treatment, and in talking to other women that have gone through cancer, this is pretty common.

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