Awareness, pt. 1

Day 1 with the Tykerb, and all is well.  Right this very minute, I'm feeling a little queasy; however, who isn't if they really focus on it?  Overall, it was a good day.  Technically, I accomplished little.  This is supposed to be the week that I deep clean all the public areas of our house.  Yeah, about that.....

I did manage to make some phone calls and schedule some appointments, so all is good, right?

Regardless, it was a full day.  Did some weights at the Community Center, walked a mile or so, had a visit with my NP to discuss some foot pain, scheduled further appointments with an ortho NP, and then went on a bike ride along the Maumee with the Eldest and the Feral Third.  Came home and the Eldest fixed a wonderful dinner, which 4/5 of us ate on the patio.  The Feral Third and I played catch for awhile and then, after he came home from his internship stuff, the Middle and I took a walk.  Now, the Feral Third is in bed, the Middle is doing homework, the Old Man is watching something boring on TV, and the Eldest and I are watching Anthony Bourdain.  But enough of this self indulgent, twitter-esque blather no one really cares about.

Instead, a day or so ago I threatened to indulge myself in pondering about the whole concept of Breast Cancer Awareness.  To loosely paraphrase myself, I said something to the effect that any teenager who had not been in a coma his or her whole life had to be aware of breast cancer.  It's breast cancer, for god's sake, not Leiomyosarcoma. Did you have to look that one up?  A few years ago, when my friend told me that she had breast cancer, I didn't have to look it up.

So, we are aware of breast cancer. 

In fact, most women know we are supposed to do self breast exams.  When we go for our annual gyn exams, we get a clinical breast exam.  We know that there are recommendations for mammograms, whether we believe they will find anything or will actually cause cancer or not...we still all know that it is recommended we get them. 

Everyone knows what the pink ribbon stands for. 

Do you know what the black ribbon stands for?  Look it up.

In the sense of knowing that breast cancer exists, that it is common among women, that it is eminently treatable.  In fact, if you clicked on the last link I included, and read far enough, you will read those exact words. 

And all of this is where the pink ribbon campaigns have been successful: lots of women get breast cancer, it can be screened for, it's treatable.  The pink ribbons, the boobie bracelets, the second base stealing and the ta-ta loving campaigns., though, have also brought some false awarenesses (is "awarenesses" a word?).

We are all now aware that breast cancer is fun.  Just look at the parties!  Breast cancer is yummy!  It's beautiful! It's sporty! It's cuddly! It's comfortable!

Well, you get the idea.