Pink Is More Than a Color

Pink is not just a color. It’s an attitude.

Here we are at the end of October and I haven’t even checked off half the blog posts I’d plan to write this month.

But I cannot let the month end without acknowledging Breast Cancer Awareness Month and reminding readers to mind their breast health. Though my sisters, Karlette and Lori, eventually succumbed to breast cancer, they first detected the disease via self-examination. If you’re not in the habit of performing a monthly examination of your breast, begin today. Be sure to examine yourself monthly and schedule mammograms regularly; your doctor will help you determine what regularly means for you based on age, health, and medical history.

If you’re unsure of how to do a self examination, there are a number of resources available online. Some are simple and straightforward and some provide a bit more detail.

There are also many organizations that provide free or reduced cost mammograms for those who do not have health insurance or cannot afford the cost of mammograms.

Finally, if you or someone you know is coping with a breast cancer diagnosis, allow me the pleasure of sending a bit of cheer and light. Simply, click the Karle’s Wings link above and fill out the contact form near the bottom. I’ll be sure to send heart mail soon.

About the image: The image above features Ellie’s Belles, a gift from my dear friend Lauralee (LL).  LL, who works with organ and tissue donation, hosted a BRA Day event earlier this month in which the dolls were featured. She gave them to me when I visited DC earlier this month and spent a few hours with the family. The elegant dolls were created by artist Loren Martz. You can find these and many other dolls in her Etsy shop.  [Thank you, LL for the special gifts, and thank you, Browns, for making time for me. ❤ y’all!]

About the title: The title of today’s post was inspired by one of the art journal pages my photographer friend, Diane W., posted on Instagram earlier this week. “Pink is not just a color. It’s an attitude.” It’s an attitude  that I hope is sparked whenever we see the color pink, an uncompromising attitude that we will do what we can to manage our breast health and well-being and do all we can to support our sisters [and brothers] who have to deal with breast cancer.

12 thoughts on “Pink Is More Than a Color”

  3. franhunne4u says:
    Reply

    I hate pink with a passion, but for this cause I will make an exception. My paternal grandmother and my grandaunt both died from breastcancer. They were just beyond peri-menopause and that was in the 70s of the last century, so knowledge was not as far spread. Grandma was in her early sixties. I never got to know her properly, as we did not live close. But I know her death made a wreck out of my grandfather.

    So for this cause I will make an exception when it comes to hating pink. Spread awareness and – all those men who might read this blog: Men CAN get breastcancer, too! You do not have to trust my word upon this, read for yourself!
    https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/male-breast-cancer

    Liked by 2 people

    • Ellen Hawley says:
      Reply

      I also hate pink, and I’ll make the same exception for this. I’ll also second the call for people to do self-exams. I’d stopped bothering–I’m way past menopause (which is probably not relevant but I thought it was) and had let the whole thing slip my mind. For no reason I can explain, though, I did check one evening, found a lump, was convinced it was nothing (I’ve had cysts before), and to keep the tale short turned out to have found a very early stage cancer, just emerging from a cyst. There’s minimal chance that it spread, but it easily could have if I hadn’t happened to check.

      Liked by 2 people

      • franhunne4u says:

        Or if you had ignored your find! So good to hear that it turned out ok after the cancer diagnosis. Yes, self-diagnosis is where most patients still find out something. A friend of mine found a tiny lump in her breast while taking a shower. Thankfully it wasn’t cancer then, because she would not even have been 30 – and the earlier on you get it, the more aggressive it seems to be!

        Likewise, another friend of mine detected a lump – and she later described it to me as something unusually hard, not like milk glands or cysts. She had to have her breasts removed (she was in her early 30s) and had to have chemo – “just to be sure” (the “nuke it from orbit”-option). She survived and could go on and marry her boyfriend of many years and build a house with him. Sadly cancer may have robbed her of the chance to have children of her own (she wanted some).

        So many cases in family and friends and not all concern women in their 80s who are more prone to have the one or other cancer. (My grandma had a big tumor on her ovaries, and no, though it was discovered late, it did not kill her, but then she was already advanced in age and died of a stroke a few years later).

        Liked by 2 people

    • Ellen Hawley says:
      Reply

      I’ve run out of reply buttons on your later comment, so I’ll put it here: After I was diagnosed, a friend said she’d always wondered if she’d be able to recognize a tumor. I’d wondered the same thing. If anyone’s wondering, my experience is that yes, you will. It may turn out to be a cyst, but you’ll recognize that it’s something new that doesn’t belong there.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Chandra Lynn says:

        Yes, if one does exams regularly, she will notice anything out of the ordinary right away. If a woman is unsure, her doctors might have a tool that can help–a set of “imitation” breasts–one with the normal tissue density variances of a healthy breast, one with lumps and knots that imitate a cancerous lump. There is, as you know, a distinct difference. The key is–as you point out–knowing one’s own body/breast.

        Liked by 1 person

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