Farm Girls Get Their Mammograms!

Mammograms and breasts and cancer- oh my! This probably is not a pleasant topic but as responsible women we should talk about it to the point that we are comfortable with it. I had the ahem...pleasure of my first mammogram tonight. Men, be glad you don't have to stand practically naked in front of a stranger who manipulates your parts onto a metal plate then squeeeeezes them flat as a pancake and takes a picture....repeatedly. Let me just put out there that if a woman had designed the machine, it would have been a lot friendlier to the tatas. Afterward I bought myself a new dress. I deserved it for my bravery and for the pain....so there! I can look forward to this procedure and therefore a new dress annually.

But seriously ladies this is important. Breast cancer does not run in my family and hopefully it doesn't in yours either. But I bet you know at least one person who has been affected by it. My family has dealt with other types of cancer. I lost my mother at age 50, she was stage 4 when they diagnosed her with bile duct cancer. I learned about her cancer when I called to wish her Happy Mother's Day in 2005 and by July 1st she was gone. She had two chemotherapy treatments and they were killing her faster than they were killing the cancer so they had to stop. We lost my grandmother to her fourth battle with cancer last summer. I take cancer VERY seriously.

Many (if not all) of my farm girl sisters eat and live the way they do to avoid putting chemicals and hormones in their bodies and those of their families. At least that's one reason. Ladies, you work so hard to protect yourselves, I hope you are not neglecting your screenings. Early detection is the key to beating this thing. That and educating ourselves. We can't tell each other what to do, what to eat, what products to buy or how to live. But we can encourage. Encourage our friends, our mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, daughters, nieces, cousins and coworkers to be knowledgeable, to protect yourselves and to get your yearly mammograms uncomfortable as they may be.

Hey, treat yourself to a new dress when you leave the imaging center. And for those of you yet to reach the age of the big squeeze...it really isn't that bad. At least its not any worse than Paps and I can't speak from experience but I'm pretty sure it doesn't even come close to childbirth. And I'll tell you, it was pretty dang wonderful to look at the pictures of my breasts and not see any large white spots! Of course I don't have my results, but I can honestly say I feel pretty dang good for honoring my body and being responsible!

This has been a public service announcement. : )