Getting off my butt to fight breast cancer

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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This post is being made with moderator approval. Thanks TubaDiva!

A few months ago, Mrs. WeHaveCookies (Shay) and I began to hear ads on the radio about this year’s Bay Area “Susan G. Komen For The Cure” 3 day breast cancer fund-raising walk. These events are happening all across the country on various dates (please see the above site). The one in the Bay Area is scheduled for September 5 - 7, 2008.

We started talking about how that (aside from just being a great cause) it would be a great incentive to train for and prompt us to get more regular exercise in our daily lives, and meet some great new people in the area that we recently moved into from across the country.

Then a couple of weeks ago, we received some news that moved things immediately from just talking to taking direct action. Shay’s mom has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and the pervasive reach of this disease entered our lives in a much more personal way, as it does with so many people every day. Thankfully, the doctors caught it early and the prognosis is good, but she is still in the middle of the decision to remove the tumor while keeping her breast and undergo radiation treatment or have a full mastectomy.

Over this past weekend we both registered for the event and have started futzing with our personal donation pages. We each have an individual contribution goal to meet in order to qualify to participate in the event, so we are hoping that our contributors will split their donations between us.

Here is a link to my donation page and to Shay’s donation page.

We are also putting together a “thank you” gift for those who donate to us. As I have posted elsewhere on the Dope, Shay is a composer and classically trained pianist, and she has decided to re-record a selection of her original compositions on the piano as a gift. I am also going to try to work on some recordings of my own with acoustic guitar and vocals. We will distribute these gifts along with some photographs of the event once we have completed the walk in September.

I will be making regular updates to this thread, including breast cancer awareness links and information, and to make sure Dopers have plenty of opportunities to get out their wallets for a good cause. :smiley:

In the meantime, feel free to jump in if you are also interested in participating in a 3 day walk near you, if you are a survivor or love a survivor, if breast cancer has touched your life, or just to show your support for the fight against this disease and the quest for the cure.

Thanks for reading!

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Boobs are my most favorite charity.

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3 days? Damn, you 'Muricans are hardcore.

Up here, we have the Weekend to End which covers 60K in 2 days. I did it for the first time last year, and it was the most painful, exhilarating, inspiring experience of my life. So much so that as soon as I crossed the finish line and treated the giant blisters on my feet, I limped over to the registration table and signed up again for this year’s walk.

I hope that you and your partner have the same kind of experience, and I’m sorry to hear that your lives were touched in such a personal way.

I’ve got a ways to go on my own fundraising for this year (I’ve been a little bit lazy, to be honest), but if I should happen to reach my goals on time, I’ll be happy to kick some of the extra in your direction. Least I can do.

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Mine too. And they’re also my most favorite theoretical charitable item, as I am always wishing I could give at least half of both of my personal pair to someone else…

I’m posting a link to Mahna Mahna’s Weekend to End Breast Cancer for any other Canucks who might be reading and interested in participating. Thanks for the info!

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On the radio during our morning commute today, we heard some good news on the breast cancer treatment options involving the drug tamoxifen combined with an aromatase inhibitor.

Here is a snippet from a Washington Post article:

Shay’s mom has also decided on having a lumpectomy and undergoing radiation. Her particular variety of cancer is known to respond very favorably to tamoxifen.

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Best wishes. I’m walking as well, but its a little 5k on Mother’s Day (so my kids can walk, with my mother, and my sister and her kids). My sister is a survivor, having been diagnosed a year ago with Stage II breast cancer at the age of 37 - with a one and a three year old at home. After a mascetomy, chemo and radition, she is now clear, and her hair has reached the “don’t wear sensible shoes to the women’s bookstore, unless you want a date” length.

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We’re all about breast cancer in my family (wow, that sounded odd). My mom had breast cancer 15 years ago (lumpectomy & radiation), my younger sister had a double mastectomy last year, chemo and radiation (and a lawsuit against the radiologist for not catching it sooner–her oncologist thinks she’d had it for a couple of years and it should have been caught sooner). Her cancer recently metastisized to a small spot on her spine, which they treated with radiation. This kind of thing will probably keep happening the rest of her life.

I was tested for BRAC1 and 2 and came up negative. My little sister is positive for BRAC2 and just had her ovaries removed to lessen the chance of getting breast cancer (estrogen feeds tumors) and eliminate her chances of getting ovarian cancer. My younger sister had a hysterectomy, because, well, who the hell wants to get cancer again? I’ve switched over to estrogen-free birth control and I get examined a lot.

My mom was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer last summer, and died in the hospital from respiratory failure while being treated for pleural effusion (liquid around the lungs, which is where they found her breast cancer cells). Her oncologist had been very upbeat about treating her with oral medication, like Elizabeth Edwards, and said she would have been okay living with cancer.

I’m not trying to be a downer. I’m sure Shay’s mom will recover nicely and I wish her all the best. It’s just that I have 2 sisters and breast cancer has become a big part of our lives. My younger sister has developed a greater appreciation for life and not sweating the small stuff, attitudes I am trying to adopt. I wish you luck with the walk. I’ll mosey over to your website soon.

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bumping important thread so I won’t have killed it

:slight_smile:

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I meandered for the Cure in the Komen Run in Newport Beach, CA, last year, and I will do it again this year. A number of Dopers, Unaboarders and Fathomites sponsored me.

Good for you guys!

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I’m very encouraged by the response from y’all so far. Thank you! Though I am beginning to wonder if there is something about liking to play Mafia and being charitably generous, or if some of y’all are just trying to butter me up to start banking manipulation points early for future games. :smiley:

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Just giving this a friendly little nudge to the top of the page with some breast cancer news.

Amy Winehouse to pose nude for breast cancer awareness. :slight_smile:

And on a more somber note, Dame Maggie Smith has been diagnosed with breast cancer. :frowning:

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While I was undergoing chemo for breast cancer for most of 2005 my youngest sister and a few other friends did the 2 day walk, and have done it in 2006 and 2007 as well. I said then I would do it one day, and I’m aiming at next year, 2009. In the meantime, money has to do the walking for me.

I wish the very best to everyone who participates, you’re all heroes to me.

And I hope for the best for every other woman who has to deal with breast cancer. It’s a hard row to hoe.

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The biopsy of my mother-in-unlawfulness’ lumpectomy has uncovered two other cancer types besides the original type that prompted the original diagnoses. The doctors are re-evaluating the need to go back and do a full mastectomy of at least one breast now.

While this is a setback, spirits and optimism are still high as the detections have been nice and early.

I’ve been trying to write more, and I’ve decided to share a half-baked essay on boobs. Some of this information is redundant, but I did not originally start writing it with this audience in mind. Some of the things I say may prompt some folks with differing viewpoints to post. I am not trying to hijack my own thread into a pit-fight, though. I hope that the thread can stay here and the discussion can stay civil. If it ends up in the pit anyway, maybe few more donations might come in. :smiley:

Some introspection on boobs…

I spend a lot of time thinking about boobs. My own pair (too) often occupies my thoughts, but as a lesbian-living-in-cohabitating-sin, I certainly spend a good deal of (much more fun) time thinking about my partner’s pair as well.

Mine are attention hogs. They’re just too damn big for their own good. My bras are uncomfortable, so I think about them every time a strap irritates me, which is about every 30 seconds. I’m also constantly dropping and dribbling food onto them. If I had a nickel for every spot or stain I inflict upon my shirts all because of “the shelf”…

They get in the way of pretty much everything I do, even sleeping. I remember a time back when I was an active and athletic teenager. Back then they were only minor annoyances that took a few years to get used to. Then they just kept growing. Now they are an obstacle to getting into shape and being more active. Two self-sustaining parasites attached to my chest like big ticks.

My mother in-unlawfulness was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, which prompted my partner and I to sign up for a local fundraising event. We’ll be walking 20 miles a day for 3 days with a few thousand other folks. More boobs on the brain, along with a conflicted and nagging guilt about being unhappy with my healthy (though heavy) pair. Knowing that we’ll be walking with survivors who have had single or even double mastectomies… Knowing that I would gladly give half of mine to someone who wanted them, if I could… Knowing that if I ever do follow through on getting breast reduction surgery, that my doctor could very well have an augmentation patient in the next room, getting her birthday present from her husband implanted… Nonsensical and ironic knowledge, all of it.

I haven’t even yet touched on the whole point of 50% of the population having them stuck on our chests in the first place. I personally don’t even hear my biological clock ticking, let alone experience pangs or aches of unfulfilled motherhood. At 33, I figure I have managed to somehow dodge that particular hormonal or instinctual bullet.

However, my personal ambivalence certainly doesn’t stop me from feeling completely perplexed at the conflicted double-speak that runs so rampantly through our society about boobs. Victoria’s Secret Wonder Bra billboards with airbrushed cleavage as big as a city bus? That’s cool. Titillating even. But breast-feed your baby anywhere but alone in a private room with no windows and a locked door? Icky! :rolleyes:

If in the distant future, some alien intelligence finds Earth, with the only vestiges of our civilization remaining somehow relating to boobs…what conclusions might they draw about us? Mind-boggling. Or should I say mind-boobling?

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Sometime far in the future…

Bloog – “Hey, Bleeg?”
**Bleeg ** – “What, Bloog?”
Bloog – “Earth had a cool civilization, huh?”
Bleeg – “Boobalicious, Bloog. Boobalicious.”

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Well, that sucks and I am sorry to hear it. My friend Susan thought she found a lump, they did a mammogram and found it. Then they did a biopsy and while doing it found another mass. Then they did an MRI to check out the first two masses and found a third. You see where this is going… :frowning: She had a bilateral mastectomy a few months ago, scary but it went well. Much harder was the reconstruction phase- she HATED the tissue expanders necessary prior to getting implants, and they were painful as hell.

However, she finally got her implants and she is much much happier.

A mastectomy is not the end of the world- it’s the end of cancer. She can pick out a great new pair of bobbies. :wink:

Seriously, hard news to hear but not necessarily the worst news. Hang in there, all of you.

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I will be participating in the 3-Day in Chicago in August.

I lost my Mom two years ago to an extremely rare form of breast cancer. Last August, I found two lumps in my own breast and between finding it and having it examined eleven days later, I planned my own funeral. We’re talking SCARED. Turns out I have a couple of harmless, fluid-filled cysts (and a MUCH higher awareness of breast health.)

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Today is mastectomy day. :frowning: She has elected to go the reconstruction route, but I’m not sure if any of those procedures are happening today as well or not. Unfortunately the surgery was scheduled at a time that made it impossible for us to fly back to ND to be there for it. It is a worrisome day all around.

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A study has shown that a deficiency in Vitamin D in women when they are diagnosed with breast cancer can increase the future chances of recurrence of or death from the disease. Story.

In other news, my mother-in-unlawfulness is doing very well after her procedure. In other other news, in about a month I will actually be able to refer to her as my mother-in-law. Yay CA Supreme Court!

Be sure to check out Kat’s American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life” donation thread too!

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Thank you for doing this, DarkSide. I hope, when I’m better, I can do a walk too. :slight_smile:

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You go girl! You should be proud of yourself. I got involved with that charity after my sister had a scare with that kind of cancer. Unfortunatly a lot of us don’t seem to care untill it’s on our doorstep. Well, most people do what they can. But actually getting off your ass is another matter entirely, I bet your family is so proud of you too.