Awareness Months

Many of you, while driving down Bemidji Avenue, have probably noticed the banner on the railing near the waterfront advertising October as National Domestic Violence Awareness month. We are often overwhelmed by these awareness months’ advertisements. Regardless they are important to bring our attention to something that has affected many peoples’ lives dramatically. These people do not want others to be affected by them either especially when they are preventable or easier to overcome with early detection.

October was also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (http://nbcam.org/) . We are all taught to detect breast cancer, by doing monthly self-breast exams. While looking for these lumps is helpful for detection of other types of breast cancer, there is another type of breast cancer for which lumps are not a symptom: Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). It is a rare and not well-known form of breast cancer. Unfortunately, it can and has been mis-diagnosed as a breast infection, but it does not respond to antibiotics. For signs and symptoms see this May Clinic page: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/inflammatory-breast-cancer/DS00632/DSECTION=symptoms . For a video news article see: http://www.komonews.com/ibc/ .

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. We all hear a lot about breast cancer, but lung cancer actually kills more people annually than breast, prostate, colon, live, kidney, and melanoma cancers combined - contributing to 1 in every 3 cancer deaths. For more information, go to: http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/ .

November is also National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month. No doubt many of have been touched by this disease. You may already know that it is the most common form of dementia, but did you know that it is a fatal brain disease that is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States? For more information regarding Alzheimer’s and related diseases, go to: www.alz.org .

Another November campaign is American Diabetes Month. With the increasing prevalence of diabetes in our societies, where better to focus awareness than in our schools! To coordinate a “Schoolwalk” fundraising event, go to: http://schoolwalk.diabetes.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SW_homepage . For more information on this disease, go to: www.diabetes.org/ .

In the spirit of the upcoming holiday season with all the festivities, I had better include one of December’s campaigns, National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month. In 2005, 16,885 people died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, accounting for 39% of all traffic-related deaths in the United States (NHTSA 2006). There are a lot of websites with a lot of good information. I did not find one definitive site that seemed to cover everything, but for a fact sheet see: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/StopImpaired/HolidayPlanner/pages/FriendsFactSheet.htm or if you have teenagers see: http://www.alcoholalert.com/preventing-drunk-driving.html . Let’s keep our community safer by volunteering to be a designated driver or abstaining from drinking if you will be driving. Happy Holidays everyone!

While each month has numerous awareness campaigns associated with it, I have missed quite a few. However, in the interest of time and space, I picked only a few. I hope some of you found these to be helpful reminders of the things we need to continue to be aware of to increase or maintain the quality of each of our lives.

Shared Circumstances Bringing Us Together

Having been diagnosed with breast cancer in Sept 2007, I am now involved in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life Event held every year here in Bemidji. It will be held August 8-9, 2008 at the Beltrami County Fairgrounds. As I am new to the event, there is much I will discover as the event nears and happens. Regardless, since my diagnosis, I have become acutely aware of how cancer has touched in some way or fashion the lives of nearly every person I know. Perhaps I have been living in a bit of a bubble, but I was surprised at the number of people who approached me indicating that they had gone through cancer themselves or had a parent or other loved one who had had cancer (whether that might be past, or present). While I had originally felt a bit unique, perhaps even singled out, it became very clear to me that I was not alone in this and had many people around me whom I could lean on, ask advice, etc. Being the independent individual that I am of course, I did not lean or confide much, but I still derived strength and solace in knowing that I was far from being alone. Thank you to all of you who have shared your experiences with me. This upcoming ACS Relay For Life Event is another opportunity for us to come together to show our support. Support for who? For what? To show our support for those who have lost loved ones to cancer, for those currently undergoing treatment, for those survivors currently cancer-free, for those who care for those with cancer, for research, for solutions, for a good cause….. The list goes on and on. Cancer of any type really does affect us all. Look at breast cancer alone. The background occurrence rate in the general population is 1 in 12. That is only for breast cancer and does not reflect the higher occurrence rate of those who carry the “breast cancer” genes or other types of cancer. Men, regardless of your gender, you too are susceptible to breast cancer. Never be embarrassed and never hesitate to have that funny lump checked out by your doctor. Everyone reacts differently when confronted with a cancer diagnosis. For example, some might ask, “why me?” When having lunch with my dad one afternoon not too long after my diagnosis, he alluded to the fact that I might be asking such a question. To which I replied, “no, I do not wonder ‘why me?’ Rather, why not me. From my viewpoint, it could be anyone. Cancer is a random thing, a part of life. It is something that does not makes sense who it chooses, sometimes it chooses the most healthy person living the most healthy life we know. It doesn’t make sense. So….… why not me?” I do not mean to imply that I will give in to the cancer or take the occurrence lightly. I simply mean to make the point of how random of an event it can be. Trying to figure out why it happened to you or your loved one is, in my opinion, the equivalent to beating your head on the wall. We can only try to affect what happens to us in the future and how we handle what does occur in our lives. So, in that spirit, I invite each any everyone to come to the ACS Relay for Life Event at the Beltrami County Fairgrounds . If you would like to donate money on my behalf, go to my webpage or on my team’s behalf at our webpage. Thanks for all of your support!