ThatРІР‚в„ўs nearly 190,000 women who will hear the terrifying news that they have breast cancer yet their prognosis is outstanding. Sixty-one percent (61%) of cases are diagnosed at this stage. If the cancer is located only in the breast (an early stage of cancer), the 5-year relative survival rate of people with breast cancer is 99%. This year, an estimated 252,710 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and an additional 63,410 women will be diagnosed with in situ breast cancer. So, are the Shannon Dohertys really the only face of breast cancer? I donРІР‚в„ўt think so. The other significant factor in promoting this cancer language problem is the abundance of memes presented as fact that are, at best, well-intentioned misinformation, and at worst, purposely using fear as the catalyst for fundraising. There are many thousands more of us than the celebrity cancer victims. While I am not famous on the scale of a celebrity actress, my attorney claims I am a semi-public figure, and therefore I wanted to put my story out there as an example of the many tens of thousands of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, get treatment, recover and move on with their lives leaving cancer behind them. During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, also known as РІР‚СљPinktoberРІР‚Сњ, the media highlights cancer patient stories, mostly focusing on the worst case scenarios. One factor that has contributed to this РІР‚Сљcancer language problemРІР‚Сњ is the media saturation of stories of women with stage 3 and stage 4 breast cancer such as actress Shannon Doherty which leaves the impression that the typical breast cancer patient is in dire straits. ThatРІР‚в„ўs confusing to patients conditioned to treat every cancer diagnosis as an emergency, in a world that still reacts to cancer as though itРІР‚в„ўs the beginning of the end and in a culture where we donРІР‚в„ўt talk about death until we have to.РІР‚Сњ Siobhan OРІР‚в„ўConnor, Time Magazine A 57-year-old woman with low-grade DCIS that will almost certainly never become invasive hears the same word as the 34-year-old woman who has metastatic malignancies that will kill her. ThereРІР‚в„ўs also the problem of the word itself. РІР‚СљCancer has a language problemРІР‚вЂњnot just in the way we speak about it, as a war that drafts soldiers who never signed up for it, who do battle and win, or do battle and lose. When I inform someone of my cancer diagnosis, I find myself needing to immediately qualify it by adding that it was caught very early and my prognosis is РІР‚СљexceptionalРІР‚Сњ. The words РІР‚Сљbreast cancerРІР‚Сњ strikes terror in the hearts of many. I see the fear flicker across womenРІР‚в„ўs faces when I tell them of my diagnosis or hear the actual gasps and condolences they offer me. As this particular cancer journey has progressed, I have become increasingly aware of how much misinformation and stereotypes there are regarding breast cancer and the significant role social media and the media in general plays in hyping up fear. GET THOSE BOOBS MAMMOGRAMMED YEARLYР”Р„s regular readers know, I was diagnosed with breast cancer this past May and had taken a sabbatical from posting during surgery recovery. Guess which one has annual mammograms and which did not. One had a mastectomy, radiation and chemo, the other had a lumpectomy, no radiation and no chemo. One was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer, the otherРІР‚в„ўs was caught extremely early, like mine was. In the year since then, two acquaintances have been diagnosed with breast cancer. The following post below was published by me on October 9, 2017, a few weeks after finishing treatment for breast cancer. I prefer to use the month as a platform to promote mammograms and battle the most РІР‚СљpopularРІР‚Сњ myths of breast cancer with the truth. breast cancer awareness month and like most breast cancer victims I know, we hate those pink ribbons.

Boob squish