Save your tatas - October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Hello Friends,

Did you remember that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month?  This message is for my lady friends.    When is the last time you gave yourself a breast exam?  How about getting your mammogram after 40 years old?

If you are like me you haven't done it consistently. Well, that was the case right up until August 2021 when I found a lump in my right breast.  I can tell you that I remember standing in the bathroom and I immediately knew this was not normal.  In my early twenties, I had my first mammogram on the same breast.   In the span of ten minutes, my brain tried to rationalize what I was feeling.  It felt like a hard golfball in the tissue. 

I immediately scheduled an appointment with my primary care physician.  Fast forward to going to get my mammogram at the hospital.  Sitting in the waiting room by myself, scared and crying silently because I could not have my husband sit with me due to Covid protocols. 

Can you believe we can send people to space?  Can put a computer in your pocket but a mammogram is still a terrible experience.  Apparently 20 years later it is still the same awkward form of modern medieval torture.  All while you are trying to not lose your mind.  Right after my mammogram, I got my ultrasound.  By this time I was losing it on the inside, thinking that my kids would grow up without their mom, missing out watching them grow, and wondering will Chris still love me if I don't have breasts.  All in the span of 20 minutes.  My ultrasound technician stopped and comforted me.  Gave me words of encouragement and pulled me together for the rest of the procedure.   How many times a day does she show compassion and kindness to women at their worst moments?

I am glad to share that I do not have breast cancer but breast cysts.  My right breast is an overachiever and retains larger than normal pockets of fluid.   What a relief but I am dumb for not taking my health seriously enough to go in for regular mammograms.  Never again.  If you haven't gone for your mammogram, do it and do it soon.  Love yourself enough to not be scared and schedule the mammogram. 

If you want to stop by and share your story with me, I will be at a popup event on Saturday, October 16, 2021, at Wester Star  Cowboy Church, 790 Co Rd 3696, Springtown, TX 76082 from 11 AM - 4 PM.  

Cheers,
Angela Booth