Sunday, October 3, 2010

Book Shopping

I went to Borders today and purchased three books: What to Eat if You Have Cancer, I am Not My Breast Cancer, and Breast Cancer: a complete guide.  Kind of a depressing book club, if you think about it.  Haha.  I figured it was time for me to start delving into cancer and everything cancer related.  Knowledge is power, right?  I figured I should know everything I can about my enemy before I decide how I want to throw down.  

Something I have already learned: the type of cancer I have accounts for 70 percent of all breast cancer.  I'm actually comforted by the fact I have a common breast cancer.  Rare and breast cancer are words you don't want together. 

"Lara, your breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer."  "Yeah!"   

"Lara, this is a rare breast cancer, and one we have only heard about before."  "Fuck!"

So hooray for common!  

The rare thing about my cancer is my age.  30-year-old women are not typically diagnosed with breast cancer.  I know for a lot of my friends, this is scary to them.  They have had aunts, mothers, or grandmothers who had breast cancer.  I may be the first of their peers to have been diagnosed with this.  That is not something I wanted to be first or special about.  Wah wah wahhhhhh.  I want all my late 20-something and early 30-something friends to know: just because this happened to me, does NOT mean it will happen to you at this age.  You should always be diligent about your health and what's going on with your body, but you shouldn't be terrified that you are going to be diagnosed at an early age too.  I'm an exception, not a rule.  Take care of yourselves and your bodies, but don't be frightened that this will happen to you now too.  Find a good balance between going to your doctor for every lump you may feel and ignoring going all together because you're scared of the big bad C.  Just be proactive.  



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