Personal Injury Law

Breast Cancer Awareness: Know the Signs and Symptoms

By Megan Roth

As I commented in yesterday's post, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is upon us. So get ready to be enlightened. Pink is the color of choice, folks; you'll undoubtedly see a great many pink ribbons adorning handbags, candies, pens and papers, and even people themselves (just this morning a lady came through my office with a basket of the most adorable metal pins - glittery and pink, of course - which were attached to cardstock containing statistics relevant to breast cancer. She was selling the pins for a mere $5 each, the proceeds of which will be donated to breast cancer awareness. You should've seen the response...it was amazing to see how everyone, and I mean everyone stepped up to donate, many even contributed more than the requested $5). I suppose that's the result of everyone recognizing the need for and positive impact that such donations will have...

As of 2004, the incidents and deaths stemming from breast cancer were on a downhill slope (the onset of breast cancer was marked at a decrease of 3.5 percent from 2001-2004, and the number of deaths resulting from breast cancer dropped 2.2 percent between 1990 and 2004).

Thus, as breast cancer awareness increases, it's likelihood and negative effects drop. The correlation seems relatively self-explanatory, but here's a run-down just in case. As breast cancer research and awareness is promoted, more and more individuals become aware not only of the need to conduct self-exams, but also of how to conduct such exams. Along with the how-to, people are learning what to look for.

One of my good friends was recently diagnosed with an early stage of breast cancer - and she's only 22. Scary, right? What's even scarier is the fact that she'd actually noticed a lump on her breast a couple months back, but she didn't want to make a fuss over nothing so she let it go until her yearly exam.

Thankfully, the tumor is in an early stage and, pending removal of the lump, she is expected to make a full recovery; she could've saved herself a whole lot of grief though, had she gone to the doctor immediately upon noticing the lump (or any of the other warning signs she elected to ignore).

Like many women, my friend ignored those signs out of fear; she knew what they could mean, but didn't want to admit to the possibility the infamous and ever-common disease could affect her. Unfortunately, however, avoiding the truth does not make it go away; my friend was lucky and will get off easy in terms of treatment and recovery. Many breast cancer sufferers are not quite so fortunate and undergo far more invasive treatments and procedures with the hopes of getting their life (and health) back in order. We all know chemotherapy is often necessary for breast cancer patients, and we also know just how expensive, damaging, and painful this particular treatment can be. So what (if any) are the alternatives? Why do some patients respond positively while others don't? What are the odds for survival? Who, besides the patient, is affected? An what are the long-term effects of this particularly haunting disease?

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).