Well, the
Bright Pink newsletter, that is. Check out a piece I wrote about my changing relationship to
Ovarian and
Breast Cancer Awareness months, and the importance of thinking about the folks who have neither of those things to be aware of -- ie: the men in our families -- and how their genetic heritage affects our own. If I have one soapbox as a BRCA blogger, it's that I want to remind young women (and men) to consider both their mother and father's family histories of breast and ovarian cancer. I'm incredibly lucky that, despite having no obvious warning signs (no doctor asks about your father's cousin's health when assessing medical history), I know my risk and had the choice to defy it.
If you're having trouble reading that (click on it once, then click on it again to enlarge it), check out the
full newsletter.
To the new women visiting this blog for the first time, welcome! And if you have any questions about anything, please feel free to email me.
Congrats, Deebs. I'm so proud!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are spreading the story. I have appreciated your photos as I also am in the reconstruction phase of my PBM. My BRCA2+ came from my father's side also. In fact, my father and HIS father both had breast cancer. One of my uncle's died from "some type of stomach cancer", which makes me wonder if it was peritoneal cancer. Since males have ovaries in utero (up until a certain point), even males are susceptible to certain cancers linked back to the origins of ovaries. Despite all of the info out there, it took my twin sister getting breast cancer last summer for any of our docs to pick up on all the flags for BRCA, even after 2 of us (another sister and myself) had been to 2 different breast care centers. Blows my mind. Mary
ReplyDeletethis is awesome. i got the newsletter in my inbox yesterday and was proud to see your piece. great stuff!
ReplyDeletebtw. i'm not on your blog roll yet: http://losingtheboobs.blogspot.com
ReplyDeletelol. please add me. i have lots of recon photos to share with women curious about nipple sparing mastectomy with expanders.
cheers,
rach
Steph,
ReplyDeleteIt really was a fantastic and sensitive article. Keep it up. It takes many voices to get the word out.
Joi
This is a great article Steph! Awesome job!
ReplyDelete