With the kickstart of the month of Fall, it is essential that we read and educate ourselves about a rather significant issue that this month is meant to spread awareness about. October is the month for Breast Cancer Awareness. Breast Cancer is the most common form of cancer that affects women across urban India and the second most common form of cancer that affects women from rural India. In India, one woman is diagnosed with Breast Cancer every four minutes and a life due to it is lost every thirteen minutes. It is quite surprising and disappointing that a deadly health issue such as Breast Cancer still manages to co-exist with increasing discoveries in healthcare technology advances. The following graph is a statistical representation of how alarming yet essential it is to accept and accommodate the possibility and strive towards the prevention of the disease.
I am not here to scare you with the facts, rather to do my bit in creating the necessary awareness and being there for all my friends who might have been diagnosed with the disease already.
To begin with, here are some of the early symptoms which should be enough to make yourself book a mammogram as soon as possible - swelling of all or part of a breast, skin dimpling, breast or nipple pain, nipple retraction (turning inward), nipple or breast skin that is red, dry, flaking or thickened, nipple discharge (other than breast milk) and swollen lymph nodes (near the area of your underarms below your shoulder joint). Any or every abnormality should be treated with utmost care sensibility.
“Breast cancer changes you, and the change can be beautiful.” – Jane Cook
The course of the treatment involving the necessary chemotherapy commonly runs between the gap of six months to a year. Life post any treatment, which is as emotionally and physically assaulting as a chemotherapy, is a new life in itself. Not everything can go back to the way it was, things change, but guess what? They can change for the better. Two of the most early and common side effects include fatigue and development of a ‘chemo brain’ which is just a term for mental changes such as memory deficits and the inability to focus. However, what follows is a life full of love including love for your own self. You might find yourself being unable to sweep right into your job schedules or dinner parties, but you will find yourself looking after yourself and those who looked after you during your treatment. It instils a sense of belongingness and responsibility that you feel towards yourself. That feeling is inspiring. (Although the path to reach there, I hope, no one should ever have to walk through.)
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So the only thing to really be afraid of is if you don’t go get your mammograms.” – Cynthia Nixon
Mammography is what we call an x-ray of a breast. There is a special branch called Screening Mammography for an x-ray when you just want to check up on your health without the occurrence of any symptoms. Hence, it is up to us as grown-up women to not only educate and look out for such a challenging disease, but also look out for our friends and family who might not know of any of the above mentioned facts on Breast Cancer.
Breast Cancer Awareness is not just a month. It should all the days of the year because though treatable, the disease might leave a scar which can last an entire lifetime. Some of the common practices to facilitate prevention as well as imbibe an aspect of healthcare awareness generally in our daily lives include maintaining a healthy body weight, being physically active, eating all our fruits and vegetables, avoiding smoking and consuming alcohol in large quantities, keeping track of our family histories and most importantly, going for screening mammography once every while. Awareness of symptoms and a knowledge of our body combined is the first step to fight any form of cancer, I hope you take this into consideration and talk more about this disease — Breast Cancer — enough to educate any and every woman!
Piece By-
Khushi Agarwal
khushi31agarwal@gmail.com
Khushi is currently pursuing her majors in Mathematics from Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi. She loves to talk and is an avid day-dreamer. She wishes to create a lasting impact by not only learning new things, but also by helping anyone and everyone with her journey at the Women’s Development Cell.
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