Getting a Mammogram...Probably Saved My Life


Happy Birthday! You are 40 years old, and it is recommended that you start getting those annual mammograms. Seriously, do they realize how busy we are?! And now they want us to add one more thing to our busy lives? I work full time, and run my five children here, there, and everywhere. Do they realize how difficult it is to squeeze another appointment into my calendar?
Besides who wants to get a mammogram?  Who wants to go in and awkwardly let someone smash your boobs into pancakes and then take pictures?!  It's not that it is really that painful or anything. It is just so awkward!  So what makes us do it?  Why do we go ahead and schedule an appointment? We do it because we are scared...just ever so slightly fearful that we might get cancer. 
Cancer. Now just say it...say the word cancer ten times, right now out loud.  We simply just don't like the word. We don't like to say it, and we certainly don't like to think about it.  For many of us, it immediately reminds us of a loved one.  While there have been years of very successful research and treatments, it is still something to fear.  It is still taking loved ones from our lives. It is still making children sick.  It is just a mean and scary word.  It sneaks in when you least expect it. There is absolutely no way to be ready for it, no way to prepare yourself or your family. 
So even though I didn't really have "time," I went ahead and scheduled that awkward mammogram at 41 years old and... it probably saved my life! 

On August 7, 2012, breast cancer came knocking on my door, determined to rock my world.  I have decided to share my story to help keep everyone updated.  I hope it will inspire you to do the preventive measures that need to be taken.  And as I am walking into this whole cancer thing blindly, I am hoping that sharing my experiences will give others an inside peek to terms, tests, and treatments...just in case you yourself or maybe a loved one is told that they too have cancer.

First step ladies...schedule the mammogram! Today!

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