National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Sandwiched Boomers

By Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. and Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D.

For the past 25 years, October has been designated National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You’ll find races to run that raise funds for research. Stores will be selling everything from mixmasters to ipods in pink. In fact, pink ribbons will be virtually everywhere. What does this focus on early detection and recovery mean to you?

If you are over 40, have regular screening mammograms and perform monthly breast self-exams. And see your physician for an annual breast exam and consultation about risk factors and additional diagnostic steps to take, such as MRI. With early detection, most breast cancers now can be successfully treated. There are between 2 and 3 million American women living today who have survived breast cancer and are thriving. Yet, as many survivors have learned, the process of coping with any serious illness can take its toll – emotionally and physically. These 7 tips will help you manage your recovery so you can move forward with your life:

1. Accept your changing emotions as normal and give yourself permission to express them.
After a brush with cancer, it’s normal to experience many different feelings, such as anger, fear, anxiety, depression or stress. Talk openly with those you trust and acknowledge these feelings to yourself. Only then can you begin to cope with them.

2. Recognize the changes in your body.
You may feel that your body has betrayed you, leaving you vulnerable and with a loss of innocence about your own invincibility. Take time to grieve this loss. You may also experience side effects of the treatments – fatigue, weight change, hair loss, or menopausal symptoms. Once you determine how your body is reacting, you can address each of the symptoms in efforts to alleviate them.

3. Enjoy the support you receive from others.
Your family and friends can provide a caring network. You may also want to join a breast cancer support group, either in person or on-line. Support is helpful in many ways – it gives you someone to listen to you when you need to talk, someone to give you information and feedback, someone to help you with practical matters such as meals and errands. Support will be there for you if you look for it. It may feel awkward at first to ask, but you’ll find friends want to do what they can to help you out.

4. Take care of yourself.
Pamper yourself – you deserve it! Set aside time to start or continue an exercise program that includes aerobics, flexibility and strengthening exercises. Enjoy eating a more healthful diet, rich in fruits and vegetables. Schedule relaxation time to decrease the stresses in your life. Learn visualization techniques. Think about what you really enjoy doing and do it. Of course this may be easier said than done, but stick with your decision to make time for yourself. You can make it happen.

5. Redirect yourself toward active goal setting.
When a serious illness strikes, you may feel like your life is completely out of control. To regain a sense of direction, reflect on the priorities that are important to you and then set a goal within your reach. Identify your strengths and build on them as you plan how to achieve your objectives. Journaling can help as you consider different strategies and options. Initiate your plan in small steps and review your progress regularly.

6. Make something positive come out of a difficult situation.
Women who are able to find some positive meaning in negative circumstances experience growth as well as a sense of control and feelings of confidence and optimism. Think about how you can use the unique perspective you have gained to make the rest of your life richer and more meaningful.

7. Take credit for the challenge you have overcome and the changes you are making.
Recognize and accept that you have faced many difficulties in the process of healing. Give yourself credit for the hard work it took to get to this point in your recovery. You have learned a lot about yourself – and made changes in the way you think, feel and react to others and the situation around you.

As women move through the steps of coping with breast cancer and its treatments, staying informed and involved in the process provides a sense of power and resiliency. One breast cancer survivor put it this way after completing a tough charity walk to raise funds for research: “As I crossed the ‘finish line’ in the pouring cold rain, I felt the exhilaration of my accomplishment, knowing that I had begun to trust myself again. I realized it had taken a long time for me to finally come to terms with the disease that had threatened my life. But now, with the acknowledgement and recognition that I allowed myself to accept from family and friends, I knew, through my tears, that I would have the strength to continue rebuilding myself, body and soul.”

© 2009, Her Mentor Center

Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. and Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D. are family relationship experts who have developed a 4-step model for change. It targets women like you, challenged by a family in flux. Whether you’re coping with acting-out teenagers, aging parents, boomerang kids or difficult daughters-in-law, we have the solutions – GEMS that will make your family rifts disappear. Visit our website, http://www.HerMentorCenter.com – where you can subscribe to Stepping Stones, a free newsletter – and our blog, http://www.NourishingRelationships.blogspot.com.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/cancer-articles/national-breast-cancer-awareness-month-and-sandwiched-boomers-1345051.html

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www.breastcancer-checks.betterguidetoyou.info Breast cancer definitions are disease that occurs due to abnormal growth in breast cells that attack the surrounding tissue

Discover How Breast Cancer Awareness Can Benefit You

You have undoubted run across many of the breast cancer awareness days and sessions that appear around the country sporadically. These are usually put on by a local group, a church, or sponsored by the American Cancer Society to promote breast cancer awareness in the community.

You might be wondering why your breast cancer awareness level should be raised and what benefit that represents for you, but all you need to do is look at the statistics about the reported cases of breast cancer. The reported cases of breast cancer has been rising steadily year after year, and for the coming year, the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be more than 200,000 diagnosed cases. Even scarier is that they also estimate that more than 40,000 of those cases of breast cancer will die from it.

Here is an even scarier fact for you — did you know that breast cancer is not limited to women? Yes it is true. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 1600 cases of breast cancer in MEN this year, and that about 400 of them will die. So are you starting to see where breast cancer awareness is starting to be important to you and your health? With statistics like this, it is no wonder that they want to promote breast cancer awareness as much as possible.

Many people do not take this disease seriously, even despite these statistics. Although it is difficult to believe, there are many people who have not had a checkup or medical exam in the past 4, 5, or 10 years or more. How can you possibly take your health seriously if you do not have regular checkups and exams from your doctor or medical professional? One way is of course to raise your breast cancer awareness level since that is a disease where there is currently not a known cure.

Your best option for fighting breast cancer is to get early detection and early diagnosis. When breast cancer is detected early, your chances of being able to cope with it, to fight it, and via treatments like chemo, there are many documented cases of people who have beat it. But if it had not been detected and diagnosed early, those would almost certainly be different stories with radically different outcomes. What about those people who have not had a medical examination in the past 4 or 5 years? If they have developed breast cancer in that timeframe, it will certainly not be considered an early diagnosis and could even mean another fatality from breast cancer.

You need to become knowledgeable about the typical symptoms of breast cancer, and if you detect any of those symptoms at home, you should schedule a checkup with your doctor as soon as possible. For women of ages 18 to about 40, you should plan to schedule a checkup with your doctor once about every 2-3 years. For women over 40, that checkup should be not less than annually. Although breast cancer has not conclusively been determined to be hereditary, you might want to consider having checkups even more often is there is a history of cancer in your family tree. Keeping these statistics in mind, your level of breast cancer awareness should be raised where these regular checkups should be at the forefront of your mind.

Raise your breast cancer awareness levels and get those checkups. Be aware of the symptoms and if you see any of them, be sure to get an exam soon. Remember, the best chances for beating breast cancer are early detection and early diagnosis.

Jon is a prolific writer with expertise in a number of areas. Find out more information about Breast Cancer Awareness [http://breast-cancer-explained.com/breast_cancer_awareness.php] at his web site, [http://breast-cancer-explained.com/breast_cancer_awareness.php]Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Arnold

Technorati Tag: Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Symptoms

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Being Aware of Breast Cancer

By now you should be friendly with the blond ‘Live Strong’ rubber melanoma awareness rings. Seven popularized them-time Tour de France cycling champion and canker survivor Lance Armstrong. The money from their proceeds goes for scourge seek.

If he has planned to pitchfork blight awareness into guild’s consciousness, Lance Armstrong has done a really good job. His rubber rings are ubiquitous nowadays, an ever state awareness tool for pest, and a furnish-raising tool for blight explore.

Among evil awareness ornaments, next to Armstrong’s rubber wristbands come the breast tumor awareness charms. However, different the ‘LiveStrong’ rubber ensemble rings, the breast bane awareness earrings come in different flag. The most accepted redden for breast melanoma awareness earrings is pink.

Nevertheless why pink? There is a chronicle behind it: Charlotte Haley, a 68-year-old lady, began making and distributing peach garland in the 1990s with cards that read: “The National Cancer Institute yearly plan is $1.8 billion, only 5 percent goes for growth prevention. Help us arouse up our legislators and America by draining this ribbon.” Haley’s daughter, sister and grandmother had breast menace. Self magazine sought to use Haley’s ribbon but she refused proverb they were too commercial. The magazine came up with another shade then — pink. Focus groups say pink is ‘gentle, comforting and curative.’ Soon the pink ribbon became the worldwide icon for breast bane, and Charlotte Haley’s peach ribbon chronicle.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. says that more than 211,000 women will be diagnosed with breast bane in America in 2005. Of these 43,300 will die. One woman in eight either has or will ripen breast canker in her life. In addition, 1,600 men will be diagnosed with breast scourge and 400 will die this year.

However, the breast menace awareness charms can come in all insignia, a rainbow of them, depending on the organization or gifts promotion them. These charms typically have some point, such as ‘Support Breast Cancer Research And Education’ stamped on them.

Well, the breast menace awareness charms needn’t be made of rubber or silicone either. The charms can be made of prize, or cats eye, or metal, or any other fitting pertinent. There are even stainless steel breast melanoma awareness earrings! The difference between them is, of course, the value. The rubber ones would advertise for around $1 an example. The metal ones would promote senior. Some nugget breast canker awareness charms push for around $30 a piece. Such bracelets help two purposes — they are jewels and butter the memo of charity and breast plague research.

The advantage with rubber breast pest awareness bracelets, distant from the value, is that they are infinitely customizable. Yes, you can order them in any affect and with any note stamped on them. You needn’t take them off while washing or live — they are all-coarsen bracelets. And you don’t have to agonize about losing them, disparate the pearl or cats eye ones.

The rubber breast cancer awareness bracelets can be ordered in immensity or bought in packets of a dozen or so from many Web sites.

About the Author:For tips on breast cancer statistics and signs of breast cancer, visit the Breast Cancer Prognosis website.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Being Aware of Breast Cancer

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