I hate October/Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I have wanted to get a "Survivor" sticker for my car that adds..."For now...."

I finished my treatment on the 25th Sept 09 and pink is my favourite colour. Being in New Zealand we are not as subjected to ads as you seem to be in the USA. In NZ our conservative govt have pledged that they will find the cause and cure by 2017 I think. Go them. I just bought myself the pink leather Pandora bracelet and will wear it with pride that I survived the treatment,drove me mental for a while so I can still pretend I am nutty and get away with it. LOL. I encourage all women I meet to have an annual mammogram as mine did not show one year and here it was 13 months later at 1.7 cms and triple negative,yikes. I was told if I had waited another year for my mammogram my predicted outcome would have been far more negative than my present predicament. Only time and research can tell. Susie

Oh, bettysgirl, that's a good idea!

This is off-topic, but, as athena said, I think we need to be careful that we don't minimize the seriousness of other types of cancer... like prostate cancer. Here's a link to the National Cancer Institute (U.S.) website on prostate cancer: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/prostate

The NCI estimates that more than 27,000 men will die of prostate cancer in the U.S. in 2009.  So, it's hardly "curable". Here's what the NCI site says about the survival rate with prostate cancer:

"Survival of the patient with prostatic carcinoma is related to the extent of the tumor. When the cancer is confined to the prostate gland, median survival in excess of 5 years can be anticipated. Patients with locally advanced cancer are not usually curable, and a substantial fraction will eventually die of the tumor, though median survival may be as long as 5 years. If prostate cancer has spread to distant organs, current therapy will not cure it. Median survival [if it has spread] is usually 1 to 3 years, and most such patients will die of prostate cancer. Even in this group of patients, however, indolent clinical courses lasting for many years may be observed."

It's also important to realize that it is a whole lot easier to find an abnormal lump in an organ that's the size of a walnut and that can be palpated almost directly, than it is to find an abnormal mass buried in the middle of a generously-sized breast. Also, despite decades of research, there still is no blood test that can accurately and reproducibly detect breast cancer, like the PSA test can for prostate cancer.  (And even the PSA test is suspect.)

Finally, the treatments available for prostate cancer are not pleasant at all. Just talk to a few guys who've been treated for it (like 3 of my uncles). Radical prostatectomy, pelvic irradiation, and/or "hormonal therapy" (basically, surgical or chemical castration) have SE's as severe and debilitating to men as those we suffer; those treatments just affect a different body region. If you've never read about the treatment of prostate cancer, here's some info:  http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/prostate/page8

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.  I just offered that in the spirit of fairness and full disclosure.

otter

I watched "Why I Wore Red Lipstick to my Mastectomy" over the weekend....and I believe pink is too wimpy.  Let's all wear red as we fight this disease in whatever way we feel comfortable doing.

Thanks, Vivre, for sharing that website.  It confirms everything else I had read on this subject.

Thanks so much for the post that started this thread.  It is refreshing to know that I am not alone in being very tired of the "parade of pink" every October.  Breast cancer is way too commercialized. 

OMGOSH... Otter...

" Would you like to donated to BC research... No thank you, I already donated my left breast..."

WONDERFUL!

I DO have it in me to say that... and I am going to do just that.

I had a lady this weekend.. collecting money for Koman.. I told her that I was a survivor and that I have all those Tees she was giving away... and that my Salon gives 100% of the money collected to this cause... and I thanked her for her time.. She looked at me with the most HORRID face.. like... " lady... if you had BC you would be giving me money right now.." grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The next person who asks me to donated... and I know that THEIR proceeds will only give 1 % or such... I AM going to say.... " No Thank you... I donated both my breasts.."

Maybe we should turn it around on the fund-raisers. I haven't had the courage to say this, but I always allow myself to think it.  Maybe it's selfish of me, or stingy, or ...

What I would like to say is this:  "No, I can't give you any money at this time. But as someone who has had breast cancer [or, "as a breast cancer survivor," if you are comfortable with that word], I do want to thank you for all the work you are doing on my behalf."

That's the key phrase:  on my behalf. Try to pretend that they are raising money for you, and let them know that's what you think.

If I were the fund-raiser in that situation, it would sure shut me up. Otherwise, it's like raising money for people in homeless shelters by trying to extract the money from the people in the shelters.

otter 

Finally people who get me, last year I wore a pale blue ribbon for Prostate C. if I get another pink ribbon I think that I'll blow!  It was in Oct. "07 that my toxic boobs were removed.  I am still still going thru reconstruction for my nipples.  So I am a tweener insofar as I don't know whiether to celebrate or scream!  What "group" do I belong??? I have had so many complications that I feel worse physically than I did when I had my breasts.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful I am just sooo frustrated not to mention alone with lots of people around

Meece, you mean this one?:

I have not been able to find the original source of that picture, so I can't give credit where credit is due.  It's great, though, right?

otter 

HATE the pink. HATE October. It's been traumatizing me since 2000 when diagnosed the first time. Having now literally given my "pound of flesh" this year with the second hit (LOVE that one!!) I am totally tapped out. A local grocery store is so pinked out I can't go in there.

It has become a marketing tool. Everyone has jumped on the band wagon. Buy this product-buy that product and a bit goes to breast cancer research. I will almost avoid those products - I'll choose my own research organization and send my money directly to avoid the middleman thank you very much.

I've always like Halloween. Even more so now - it marks the end of the pink madness. Orange, my new favorite color...

I can't belive i found this thread. This is exactly how i feel! I thought i was the only one that felt this way.

I LOOOOVVEEE this thread - I agree - I love the month dedicated to the breast cancer but hate hate hate the commercialization of it all.  Send some money instead!

Well, we could switch to blue, but it appears that Prostate cancer has dibbs on the blue ribbon.  They might begin to wonder what BC does to a woman if we have blue ribbons.

I think I understand some reasons why breast cancer got so commercialized (most women do not have any particular risk factors for breast cancer besides being a woman, it is a frequent cancer, it is not associated with excretory functions like colon or rectal cancer), but when I go into my local supermarked, 25% of the items are pinked.  My grandmother had bc in the early 1950s.  I was told I was never to talk to her about it (and I never did) - she died over 20 years later. Now we get 12 year olds who not only are terrified of breast cancer and their breasts - they also think they presently HAVE breast cancer.  (I know its possible, but its exceedingly rare.)  I guess reproductive system cancers are more lurid.

I'd like that other cancers, certainly cancers that have even fewer survivors, such as pancreatic and brain cancer, and other dire diseases get their awareness day and fundraising too.