Awareness month part one arrived last week right in the middle of birthday alley. (My family has six birthdays squished together within two weeks.) I had meant to post last week about it to kick it off, but I was distracted...by a baby. A week isn't too late? I didn't miss too much awareness did I?
As a two cancer survivor, I have the unfortunate honor of having two whole awareness months that I get to be "aware" of. October, the month of pink, is a familiar season to most people. Pink has wedged itself into the orange, black, purple, green, and silver of Halloween beckoning people to fund research to cure cancer and help women (and men). It offers people a small way to turn the tide against a cancer that will affect one in eight women. Most everyone knows a survivor. I have a love hate relationship with Pink, but that is another conversation. This is about my other color. The color that I earned two years ago: not pink, peach.
September cancer awareness is for all three of the major gynecological cancers: ovarian, cervical, and uterine/endometrial. Ovarian: teal; cervical: teal and white; and endometrial: peach. There's no season for this side of me. Unless you have been impacted directly by one of these parts of your or a loved one's body trying to kill itself and its host, it is unlikely you would know about them. I want to to change that.
Women die every day from ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancers. Kids lose their moms, partners lose their spouses, and parents lose their kids all of the time, and we don't talk about these cancers. I'm not really sure why. It may be because they are more rare, or it may be because to discuss them, you have to say words like "vagina," "cervix," "ovary," "rectum," "urethra," etc. It may be that we don't talk about them, because these cancers strike at so much of what modern womanhood is. We are supposed to be mothers and sex goddesses right? How can you do that with half a vagina and no ovaries?
I don't know why we don't talk about them, but I want to. I'm sick of having friends die from these diseases, and this will not change until we have an active and honest discussion about Pink's siblings. Teal, Teal-white, and Peach.
So this month, before the pink, remember there are other colors of ribbons out there, and please remember to know the symptoms of each and get your annual check ups. If you've got a sweetheart, keep on her to get her annual and go to the doctor if anything weird pops up and doesn't go away.
Do not live in fear, but with awareness. Early dectection is key to increasing and improving survival.
Below are links to symptoms. If you are a hypochondriac, do not read them. Actually you probably already have; so never mind. Try not to fixate on them?
Please share! Let's paint the town teal, white, and peach.
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