Thursday, October 7, 2010

bse saves lives

October is breast cancer awareness month...Ladies and gentlemen...yes I said gentlemen and ladies..I want all of you to give your loved ones a gift that will take you 10 minutes (or less) a month but at the same time give you additional years to love them. Everyone, men included should be doing their breast self exams. Yes the gentlemen should also be doing them...same technique as the ladies use--just less tissue to go over. If everyone did their own breast self exams the incidence of fatal breast cancers would be cut by 90%...The scary information comes next: The different sizes and cure-ability of a tumor found by a doctor at an occasional checkup is the size of a marble and stage V (less than 20% survival), by a doctor at an annual exam-- the size of a small grape and stage IV (about 50% survival), by the occasional breast self exam a pea and stage III (75% survival) but by the monthly breast self exam a small grain of rice and stage I (99+% survival) and this typically is curable by outpatient surgery and seldom even needs anything else but attentive followups by a good medical team.

Are we going to be afraid of something that can be cured without the loss of a significant body part! NO most of us have cut ourselves by accident and have a bigger scar than the removal of a grain of rice--often it is now done as an outpatient and you can be back at work the same day. On the 4th of each month remind 4 others to do their breast self exams. Breast cancer in men is rare but 5 minutes a month can save their lives, too. If you do not know how to do a breast self exam check the Breast self exam site or ask your primary care medical professional (http://breastselfexam.ca/section4slide5.html) and for the gentlemen please check (http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/guys/tse.html) about testicular cancer--no reason to die since it is curable and you can do both exams in 10 minutes.
What a gift to give your loved ones--your life!

Peace and do your self exams!

Had the information been available in 1953 my grandmother might have lived a longer life! She had the first radical double mastectomy for breast cancer performed in Idaho in 1952 and died in 1955 of breast and ovarian cancer that spread from the breast cancer.

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