Fight Breast Cancer

May is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Today I am posting information to increase your awareness

and hopefully encourage you to get your yearly mammogram.

I have lost several family members to breast cancer 
so I can tell you it's not something you want to take a chance with.  
Get a mammogram.   Don't become another statistic. 

As a Mom, A Registered Nurse and A Woman I urge you to not wait on having your mammogram done.  We can always find a reason not to go at some particular time, however let me give you a reason to go.  Look at your children and your husband, all the people you love and care about, 
do you love them enough to spend 1 hour a year getting your mammogram so 
you can LIVE to be with them?

Have you had your annual Mammogram? 
If you haven't then now's the time.

 If you have Spread the Word.  Make you voice heard.  Save a life!

Tweet, Facebook, Bloglovin, Instagram, get the word out:  

I've Had My Mammogram. I choose LIFE!

Enter the Mammogram Raffle at the end of the post

(All the information below is provided by the American Society.)
Become educated about Breast Cancer. 
About 1 in 8 U.S. women (just under 12%) will develop invasive 
breast cancer over the course of her lifetime

Preventing and detecting breast cancer early will help save more lives. Understand the lifestyle factors that may affect your risk of breast cancer and what you can do to stay healthy. Breast exams, mammograms and other screenings increase the chances of detecting breast cancer early, when they are most likely to be curable.

Guidelines for Early Detection

• Yearly mammograms are recommended starting at age 40 and continuing for as long as a woman is in good health
• Clinical breast exam (CBE) about every 3 years for women in their 20s and 30s and every year for women 40 and over
• Women should know how their breasts normally look and feel and report any breast change promptly to their health care provider. 
• Breast self-exam (BSE) is an option for women starting in their 20s.

The importance of finding breast cancer early

The goal of screening exams for early breast cancer detection is to find cancers before they start to cause symptoms.Screening refers to tests and exams used to find a disease, such as cancer, in people who do not have any symptoms. Early detection means using an approach that lets breast cancer get diagnosed earlier than otherwise might have occurred.

Breast cancers that are found because they are causing symptoms tend to be larger and are more likely to have already spread beyond the breast. In contrast, breast cancers found during screening exams are more likely to be smaller and still confined to the breast. The size of a breast cancer and how far it has spread are some of the most important factors in predicting the prognosis (outlook) of a woman with this disease.

Most doctors feel that early detection tests for breast cancer save thousands of lives each year, and that many more lives could be saved if even more women and their health care providers took advantage of these tests. Following the American Cancer Society's guidelines for the early detection of breast cancer improves the chances that breast cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage and treated successfully.

Signs and symptoms of breast cancer

Widespread use of screening mammograms has increased the number of breast cancers found before they cause any symptoms. Still some breast cancers are not found by mammograms, either because the test was not done or because even under ideal conditions mammograms do not find every breast cancer.

The most common symptom of breast cancer is a new lump or mass. A mass that is painless, hard, and has irregular edges is more likely to be cancerous, but breast cancers can be tender, soft, or rounded. They can even be painful. For this reason, it is important to have any new mass, lump, or breast change checked by a health care professional with experience in diagnosing breast diseases.

Other possible signs of breast cancer include:

• Swelling of all or part of a breast (even if no distinct lump is felt)
• Skin irritation or dimpling
• Breast or nipple pain
• Nipple retraction (turning inward)
• Redness, scaliness, or thickening of the nipple or breast skin
• A nipple discharge other than breast milk

Sometimes a breast cancer can spread to lymph nodes under the arm or around the collar bone and cause a lump or swelling there, even before the original tumor in the breast tissue is large enough to be felt. Swollen lymph nodes should also be reported to your doctor.

The main types of treatment for breast cancer are:

• Surgery
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy
• Hormone therapy
• Targeted therapy

Fight Breast Cancer

• Take charge of your health

• Although there's no sure-fire way to prevent breast cancer, certain lifestyle habits are linked to a lower risk of it developing or returning.

• Be physically active. Evidence is growing that regular physical activity helps reduce your breast cancer risk. It also helps keep your weight under control, which may also lower your risk.

• Eat a healthy diet. Studies link a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy products to a reduced breast cancer risk. A healthy diet also helps you stay at a healthy weight.

• If you drink alcohol, limit how much you drink. Research has shown that even 1 alcoholic drink per day can slightly increase your risk of breast cancer, while having 2 or more alcoholic drinks per day is linked to a higher risk.

All this information and much more is provided by the American Cancer Society. 

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