Ok ladies, I am sure that you are all aware that October is breast cancer awareness month - everything at the grocery store is pink, yoplait has pink lids again (send them in - help support research!), and around here our the lightbulbs downtown have been changed to pink!!!
My Oma is a survivor of breast cancer - 6 years and counting - Praise the Lord! So it hits home with me. I want to encourage every person to perform self breast exams every month - they are easy, realatively quick, and can save your life! If you noticed, I said every person, that is because out of the breast cancer patients, 2% are men.
Early detection saves lives! Here are some steps for a self breast exam, they are paraphrased from this article on www.cancer.org
How to examine your breasts
*Lie down and place your right arm behind your head.
*Use the finger pads of the 3 middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in the right breast. Use overlapping dime-sized circular motions of the finger pads to feel the breast tissue.
*Use 3 different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue. (Light pressure is needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin; medium pressure to feel a little deeper; and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs.)
*** It is normal to feel a firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast, but you should tell your doctor if you feel anything else out of the ordinary.
*Move around the breast in an up and down pattern starting at an imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the middle of the breast bone. Be sure to check the entire breast area going down until you feel only ribs and up to the neck.
*Repeat the exam on your left breast, putting your left arm behind your head and using the finger pads of your right hand to do the exam.
*While standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing firmly down on your hips, look at your breasts for any changes of size, shape, contour, or dimpling, or redness or scaliness of the nipple or breast skin. (The pressing down on the hips position contracts the chest wall muscles and enhances any breast changes.)
*Examine each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your arm only slightly raised so you can easily feel in this area. Raising your arm straight up tightens the tissue in this area and makes it harder to examine.
Katrina, Breast Cancer very important to self check . Also so important are yearly Mamograms. Katrina you are so very special to me. I love you most OMA
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see you post this. It is amazing to me how many women don't know how to check or when to start.
ReplyDeleteI keep an eye on everything. We don't have a family history of breast cancer, however my family on both sides has lost several members to cancer and heart disease. Never too soon to start.