Giving Life, Making a Difference

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past several years, then you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  This is the month to promote saving those girls, because women use them to nurture life and men…  Well, men just like them.  As women, it’s our responsibility to keep the girls healthy, so please remember to do your monthly self-exams.  I usually do mine on or around the 11th of each month, which is my mom’s anniversary date.  Go on now…  Get naked to the waist and feel your boobies!

Yesterday was my mom’s 11th anniversary as a breast cancer survivor.  Because of her, I refuse to change anything about my products or labeling to exploit the consumers’ tendency to “go pink” this time of year.  Usually, I send her pink carnations (her favorite flowers), but since she was on vacation, I decided to give a different gift.

Before I go further, let me say that I hate – passionately – getting sticks.  I’ll tolerate shots and finger pricks, but anything involving a tourniquet and needing a vein, and I avoid it like the plague.  I’ve been known to pass out as soon as the nurse or phlebotomist even starts thumping my vein.  Yeah, I’m that much of a wimp about it.  So, that being said, I decided to donate blood in a Red Cross Blood Drive.

Time to make a difference for someone

A little O+, anyone?

Can’t give blood without getting your orange juice and cookies afterward

To recap:  If I can get stuck with a very large needle without crying, passing out or whimpering through it, so can you.  It’ll make a huge difference in the life of someone who needs a transfusion.  Feel your boobies.  See if you feel anything that shouldn’t be there.  If you do, don’t try to convince yourself it’s normal.  Go to your doctor ASAP.  Get a mammogram.  A negative mammogram is better than an undiagnosed malignant tumor.  This goes for men, too.  I would wager that breast cancer in men is often more life-threatening than in women – not because the cancer is necessarily more malignant, but because it so seldom gets detected early enough.

What steps are you taking to protect your health?  What steps have you taken to help protect the health of others?