BREAST CANCER AWARENESS
Support groups, volunteer organizations, help hotlines,
researchers, medical facilities and spiritual advisors are all
working together towards the fight against breast cancer.
With these tools, women can suit up and go head-on into
battle with the confidence of knowing they have a team of
advocates backing them up. Treatment is becoming more
successful and less women are dying from the disease,
thanks to cancer centers across the globe putting in hundreds of hours of dedicated research towards the cure.
Friends and family of those who are diagnosed have been
able to come together as well, whether acting personally
as a pillar for their loved one, or taking on a more communal role in the fight against breast cancer through relays
and charity events.
Along with these supporters and increased awareness,
there are things women can do personally for themselves
to help reduce risk factors and lead a healthier lifestyle
overall. According to the National Cancer Society Guidelines (For Cancer Prevention), it is important to take care
of yourself by eating a balanced diet to maintain a healthy
weight, be as physically active as possible, and limit the
consumption of alcoholic beverages. That all seems like
common sense, but even when we do everything right,
sometimes we’re still faced with a challenge we never
thought we would have to try to overcome. For a lot of
women, that challenge is breast cancer and it is no walk
in the park. Many celebrities and public figures in our culture silently cope with the disease and a number of them
have survived it, but more and more people are beginning
to speak out for women suffering in order to bring them
hope and comfort.
One of these brave survivors is Leslie Ezelle, a former
Dallas Cowboys cheerleader turned HGTV “Design Star.”
Ezelle tells us during her interview, “It is okay to NOT try
to be superwoman.” We couldn’t agree more, because if
there’s one thing women need during their fight against
breast cancer, it is help.
CAN YOU TELL US YOUR STORY OF
HOW YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT YOUR
BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSIS?
It began with four words that nobody wants to hear, “You
have breast cancer.” These words do not evoke a warm,
fuzzy feeling. Fast forward through about eleven years
and four surgeries to remove benign lumps from my boobies. I was forty-two, newly married to my wife Libby, and
the proud new caretaker of a total of four kids. After finding yet another lump, I had been through a series of tests,
biopsies, and two long weeks of waiting before I received
the news. They wanted me to come into the office. That’s
when I knew, It ain’t gonna be good news. I dragged Libby and my mother in there with me, so I wouldn’t have to
hear the verdict alone.
Once the doctor came in, it all went pretty quickly. Thankfully, she was a no-nonsense kind of gal. “You have breast
cancer.”
After that, I didn’t hear anything else. I remember seeing
her lips moving as she was delivering the details, but I had
no idea what they were saying. I was just checked out.
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32
l Fall 2014
I was lucky, if having cancer can be considered lucky. I
had a form of cancer called invasive carcinoma ductile
cancer. This is code for “the good kind of cancer.” In other
words, my chances were pretty favorable. Still, I had to
endure surgery to remove the lump, a slew of reconstructive surgeries to piece me back together, plus radiation
in order to eliminate the cancer completely. Fortunately
for me, because vanity matters, my insurance covered the
reconstruction. I wanted to look like myself again. They
lopped off the left one, and then radiation, five days per
week, for six weeks. Then it was time to heal. I really just
wanted it all behind me.
I tried to hide it from the kids most of the time. The medications, the naps, and the weird cramps I would get in
my non-existent left breast--these aren’t the things you
share. It was the good kind of cancer, I assured my kids
of this fact, (knowing full well that there is no such thing as