boobs.

i'll be honest. part of me did not want to write {what seems to be} an obligatory breast cancer awareness post. we all know that october is breast cancer awareness month. 

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well, what about the other eleven months in the year? shouldn't every damn month be breast cancer awareness month? after all, november {back in 2006} was the month that changed my mother's life. she found out - on my sister's birthday, in fact - that she had breast cancer. thanksgiving that year was pretty solemn. thank goodness i was dealing with a stubborn {and very constipated} three year old at the time. aidan's poop issues took my family's minds off of my mother's condition. having to deal with suppositories & potty battles was certainly more entertaining than having to think or talk about the implication of my mother's fate.

yes, i said fate. 

you see, my mom's sister {an aunt that i barely knew} had breast cancer, too. she died. she was young, too, only in her 40s. 

let me back track a bit and say that my mom's diagnosis only came about because my mother insisted on a second opinion because her routine mammogram was not very clear. my mother's primary care physician agreed. a better mammogram was done. one that screamed, "you've got some funky cells infiltrating your boob, lady!"

my mother had options. it was detected early enough. the cancer had not spread. chemo? no. radiation? no. wait & see?* oh, hell no.

my mother had a single mastectomy three days after christmas. go big or go home, huh? clearly, my mother knew from the moment of her diagnosis that her left breast was a goner. sayonara, sucka! the first time i saw my mother's scar i pretty much lost it. it ran from the middle of her left armpit down across where her breast used to be and onto her chest. it was big. it was ugly. but, it was filled with hope. 

my mother eventually opted for reconstruction. {she had a prosthetic boob...that was pretty awesome. seriously, it was a detachable boob.}  her new left breast is pretty . . . and cancer-free. so is her right one and, well, so is the rest of her body. i'm very thankful that all the cancer took was her breast . . . it spared me her life.

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so, in the spirit of all things pink & booby-related, please check your girls. raise awareness for the cause. get a mammogram. and, definitely don't think that you're immune because you're young, you have no family history or you're generally in great health. it's cancer, yo. it knows no boundaries. 

*there was no wait & see option for my mom...i just needed to add that for some dramatic effect. promise.