October is Pinktober.

You see signs, bumper stickers, ads on TV, some are subtle, some are really attention getting such as, “Save the TaTas”.  Organizations everywhere are supporting  Breast Cancer Awareness and Breast Cancer Research.  And we should too. We should support anything that promises a cure!

I know I’m not often serious on Redneck Latte Ravings, but some things just have to be said, and I couldn’t let the month go by without this.

Losing one person you love to breast cancer is one too many.

I’ve lost one.

I met Mindy the same day I had my first date with my wife, she was her sister.  Mindy was the baby, she was beautiful, she was 17.

Cheerleader, popular, Homecoming Queen, and one of the most vivacious people I’ve ever known.  Children and the elderly flocked to her.  Everyone loved her on sight.

Blond, pretty, happy, out-going, athletic, healthy, she had her life ahead of her.

And for the most part, she had a good life.  Parents who adored her, sisters who catered to her every whim.  She was easy to spoil.

She had two children and a husband who knew they couldn’t live with out her, and never realized they would have to, until she found that lump.

The lump was 3 cm. when they found it and the doctor decided to “watch it”.  Watch it do what?  Grow?  That’s exactly what it did.  It grew.  I’ve never understood why the doctor decided to watch, but as most would do, she took his advice.  By they time they started treating it, it had grown tremendously.  Watching it was a bad idea.

She went through it all.  Surgery, radiation, Chemo, Stem Cell Replacement, anything available.  And for a while, it worked.  She seemed healthy again, looked good again, her hair came back, she was happy.  And the cancer was in remission.

But it came back.

Even though it took her life, it never took her.   There wasn’t a day for two  years that did not include some cancer related activity: doctor’s appointment, chemo, a new food to try, something every day.  But she did not allow it to define her.  She did not let it take away what she really was.

We often wonder what could have been done, if anything to make things different.  And we wish things had been different.  We miss her.

I barely passed science in high school, so medical stuff is way beyond my pay grade.  But I know from what I’ve read that early detection and early treatment is the only chance women have.

So, encourage the women you love to check, be vigilant, and make sure the doctors they are using are doing all they can.

Don’t just save the Tatas, save the lives!

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To see what else is fashionable this week, check out Fight the Frump Friday at Blissfully Domestic!