COLUMN: Getting personal with breast cancer

We live in a very breast-conscious society. Mall stores display posters of models with plunging necklines, and countless magazine covers expose nothing-left-to-the-imagination celebrity cleavage.

Don't get me wrong, as a woman I want to look my best. Yet being birthed in the boomer era, my "sisters" and I fought valiantly to redefine female worth based on brains, not breasts. Being a person of faith, this type of "sex sells" marketing also seems offensive.

Suddenly, this past Christmas I began to look at these ads in a different light though. While purchasing a gift in a trendy shop, I remained motionless when the teenage cashier asked for payment. Distracted by a poster model's visibly voluptuous chest, I clutched my own chest protectively.

By profession, I am a freelance journalist. Therefore, when I found the lump in my breast early in December, my mind started racing with breast cancer statistics that I had often reported. Terrified, that it was my turn to become part of them.

For example, according to The National Cancer Institute, one out of every eight women will be "diagnosed with breast cancer at sometime in their lives." The American Cancer Society reports "78 percent of newly diagnosed breast cancer cases occur in women over 50 years of age," remaining the leader in new cancer cases in U.S. women.

Thankfully, the reporter in me knew what to do when I found the suspicious mass, because breast cancer is estimated to be 98 percent survivable if detected in the earliest stages. Immediately, I called my gynecologist and scheduled an appointment explaining the lump's discovery.

This predominantly killer-of-women disease had already become a personal enemy, because 15 years ago, it took a dear friend's life. She valiantly fought breast cancer for almost a decade, but by the time she reached her mid-30s she could fight no longer. Today, her chance for survival would be greater because of positive health care advances. Although, we still don't know what causes breast cancer, research has helped to identify factors that put individuals at risk.

For more than a decade, to honor my friend's memory, every October during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I had interviewed breast cancer survivors. My hope was to encourage women older than 20 to perform monthly self-exams, and for women older than 40 to have an annual clinical breast exam and yearly mammogram per ACS and Susan G. Komen Foundation recommendations. My goal was also to promote local agencies like Women's Preventative Healthcare Project, which offers free mammograms and breast ultrasounds to those over forty who qualify.

As we once again observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month, many of us are wearing pink T-shirts with a message to embrace the cause. We've even fished pink ribbon pins and bracelets out of our jewelry boxes in honor of the women battling this disease. But breast cancer doesn't just happen in October. It strikes down women, and occasionally men, all year long.

My own ambiguous ultrasound resulted in the need for a biopsy the day after Christmas. Before the procedure, I thought about surgery, about losing my hair, and stared at posters of women with cancer-free breasts like the one in the mall store. I looked at wigs and even tried to make my husband, Larry, promise that if I needed chemotherapy, he would shave his head like New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre had done for his wife, Deanna.

It is estimated that 1 million breast biopsies are performed in the United States annually. For every five biopsies performed, four will be benign, and only one, or about 23 percent, will be cancerous. These are hopeful statistics, but I did not know them until afterward. That is after I was sitting on the edge of my chair in the Lima consulting room waiting to hear the biopsy results. My husband held my hand tightly as the nurse smiled and shared the good news that there was "no cancer."

Momentarily, I was elated, but I am a journalist. I couldn't help but think about statistics again. Survivor's guilt reminded me that soon, another northwestern Ohio woman would be sitting in that very chair hearing that her biopsy revealed that her mass was cancerous.

This close brush with breast cancer renewed my passion for making sure that it could be detected early in other females resulting in optimal success for survival. You see, breast cancer is very personal when you or someone you love is battling this formidable foe, which takes the lives of 40,000 U.S. women each year.

To contact Women's Preventative Healthcare Project of Allen, Auglaize, Hardin, Hancock, Putnam, Mercer, or Van Wert counties call 419-224-4500 or 800-901-9723.