Saturday, October 18, 2014

Lady Lumps

October means one thing to my sorority; it’s breast cancer awareness time! We pink out campus, plan several fundraisers, hold our annual pink football game, encourage everyone to wear pink and volunteer at Race for the Cure runs. The entire month is dedicated to raising money and awareness for breast cancer.

Through all of the years and hours I have spent going to our events and fundraising, I have developed an emotional connection to the disease. However, I honestly have not taken the time to educate myself on the causes, effects or treatment of breast cancer.

As a 21 year old, I just haven’t felt it was enough of a concern to stop and learn about the disease. However, it doesn’t make much sense to fundraise for a cause I don’t know much about. So, I am going to utilize this blog as an opportunity to teach readers and myself about the warning signs of breast cancer.

One interesting video I came across cleverly explained how there are several signs for breast cancer. Majority of the time, we just hear medical professionals and women talking about checking for lumps. It seems like every breast cancer survivor I speak to goes through explaining the moment she found her lump, but there are actually several other warning signs.

Some other symptoms of breast cancer can even include enlarged lymph nodes in the armpit, vaginal pain and weight loss. You don’t typically think of these symptoms as signs of breast cancer, but they are also indicators of the disease. This video created by the Scottish government also gives great illustrations of the signs.

It is also important that you are giving yourself monthlybreast exams. Yes, please feel yourself up, because you could save your life. Almost half of breast cancer is detected through women feeling lumps in their breasts, and early detection is key. So, make sure to check yourself at least once a month.

1 comment:

  1. I think it is amazing how much your sorority does for breast cancer awareness. This is a horrible disease that affects too many woman in this world. Thank you for sharing signs and symptoms with us. Hopefully in the years to come, we will find a cure so we do not have to worry about this disease taking so many lives.

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