Because, just as breasts differ, so do the cases of breast cancer.
Some catch it early...
and can receive a lumpectomy, keeping the breast.
For some there is no discernable lump, but they notice discolouration
For larger breasts lumps are less noticeable and so they are at higher risk for late detection
In the case of a later stage breast cancer a mastectomy is sometimes needed.
Or a double mastectomy.
Breast cancer occurs in Men more rarely (2% of all breast cancer) but has the same risk of fatality.
In later stages most cancers can become ulcerative – breast cancer is no different.
And it can metastasise out of the breast to the rest of the body, via the lymph nodes.
This is why women often have Axillary Lymph node dissections at the time of a mastectomy.
Please get your breasts checked by mammogram, it’s free in NZ if you are:
Aged 45 to 69 years of age
You have no symptoms of breast cancer
You have not had a mammogram in the last 12 months
And you are not pregnant
AND check them yourself regularly.
Thank-you so much for this post Scuba. This is the reality of breast cancer. I can't help but think this is what people are trying to hard from. It's hard to look at but it's far harder to go through it. Cancer survivors and those we've lost deserve our respect. Breast Cancer isn't a joke. And it's not sexy.
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry if this offends you, or you find it distressing, I found the first few breast cancers that I scrubbed for (used to be an OR nurse) increadibly distressing due my personal life.
ReplyDeleteBut think of what people who have experienced this side of breast cancer feel like when they read about campaigns like "get your tits out for the girls".
Just because it doesnt offend YOU doesnt mean it isnt offensive.
*cries* I'm thinking of my nanna right now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scuba.
That's not sexy? No fucking shit Sherlock.
*hide not hard.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way - just saw your comment.
"Just because it doesnt offend YOU doesnt mean it isnt offensive" is just spot on. If women are enjoying the campaign and getting something out of it, good for them - but they shouldn't attack people who think it's an insensitive and mean campaign. People are upset about it for a reason. It's not like we all just woke up yesterday looking for something to get pissed off about.
Thank you for this ray of sanity. This is what a breast cancer awareness campaign should look like.
ReplyDeleteDon't be sorry -- that fucking offended and distressed me for a reason. I've lost too many wild and beautiful women to breast cancer. That makes me ANGRY.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. Breast cancer is often seen as a "cute", sellable disease. I'm frankly rather sick of all the pinkwashing and people need to see the reality of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat gets me is that Nzgirl justifies it with what amounts to "we asked a few people we knew who'd had cancer and they said it was great!" as if that kind of consulting was enough. This is a really complicated issue and the way they've treated it is hugely disrespectful.
This is a very, very important post, Scuba Nurse. Damn good work.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant post, Scuba Nurse.
ReplyDeleteThis was really excellent; showing the reality of an awful disease.
ReplyDeleteAnd here's a little thought experiment for the "oh, get get over yourself dull humourless prude" crowd.
ReplyDeleteI run a "lifestyle" website aimed at men -- let's call it NZ Boy, for the sake of argument.
I encourage users to post pictures of their cocks, balls and spread arse cheeks for viewers to rate and comment on.
All to "raise awareness of testicular and prostate cancer" -- entirely worthy men's health issues, BTW. Heavens forfend anyone cynically suggest its a stunt to drive traffic and press coverage.
Then I try a bit of reverse slut-shaming -- you're obviously a prude who has problems with your own body, and should go away and deal with your own issues instead of trying to force your morality on me, Yadda yadda.
Would never happen, at least it wouldn't without a rather intriguing dialogue with Internal Affairs and my ISP? Damn right -- and it's worth asking why.
Awesome post... cancer and women seem to have been lost in the ZOMG breasts angle.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post... cancer and women seem to have been lost in the ZOMG breasts angle.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. Thank you for this. It was getting so damned frustrating all that crap about how NZGirl really was doing a good thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd people just couldn't understand how wrong they were.
This was exactly what I was after in my comments on Stuff about this. Now **this** draws attention to cancer.
Hey - this is a great post. I agree that there's a lot of 'pink washing' out there and I think it's important that we all remember that breast cancer is a horrible, debilitating illness. Often all we get to see are celebs re-emerging after a six month hiatus sporting a chic, short new hair cut. The scary stuff is kept hidden.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'd also like to add my 2 tiny cents to the NZ Girl campaign discussion. I'm truly sorry that it made sufferers feel awful. But a campaign for a charity has one of two jobs to do - raise money to help the stricken or raise awareness to help prevent it. I feel like this campaign was aimed at women who don't have breast cancer, who don't think they're at risk and who don't ever think about their boobs.
In that respect, it does a great job. It got me thinking. It even made me find out how to self-examine. And like Movember, or Red Nose Day, the light heartedness of the campaign was never meant to trivialise the illness.
@Helen: NZGirl's "campaign" was "get your tits out for the girls". It was blatantly a bribe to women to provide their website with titillating images in return for money going to an (UNSPECIFIED) charity.
ReplyDeleteIf this was about actually raising awareness in women who haven't thought about it (and as I've said on Twitter, what are they, pink/pink colourblind?) then they could've done a feature on self-examination and run a "for every young woman who does her first self-examination and posts a non-risque photo holding up a sign that says "I've checked mine out, you check yours!" we'll donate X dollars."
If this was about actually raising awareness about the many shapes and sizes of women they could've done that WITHOUT the breast cancer bribery and WITHOUT the FUCKIING RATING SYSTEM.
Movember and Red Nose Day aren't even in the same ballpark because men posting pictures of their facial hair online, or people walking down the street wearing a red nose, are simply not putting themselves at risk in the same way, or being narrowed down to one constantly-over-sexualised part of their body, or being exploited by a website run by people whose very professions mean they know damn well tit pics = revenue and brand recognition for them.
Well said QoT. This is a marketing ploy. It's cheap and tacky and people need to realise that talking about this on Twitter isn't raising awareness about breast cancer. It might make them feel good to believe that but it's not the case. The thousands of people looking at tits on NZGirl are not becoming 'aware' of breast cancer. They're likely just A) wanking or B) judging the tits in relation to other tits. Sorry to kill the romance but that's the facts.
ReplyDeleteThere should be more links to this.
ReplyDeleteIt really puts the NZGirl promo into perspective.
Wow. The third to last pick really shocked me. I will be checking myself again tonight. I also had no idea that I was doing a poor job at checking so thanks for posting how to check yourself properly. Much more educational then nzgirl
ReplyDelete...I am a bit late in commenting on here, but just found your blog Scuba Nurse : )
ReplyDeleteThis is a GREAT post, and really shows the realities of breast cancer.
I was alerted to the NZ Girl website a week or so ago - raving about how they had donated $5000 to a couple of organisations related to breast health. I don't ordinarily knock generosity of any kind, but after all that palaver and the increase in traffic to their website (+ corressponding increase in advertising revenue), it is absolute peanuts. I hated all that exploitation of women, of breast cancer victims , and that whole pink-wash marketing ploy. Urgh.
Fantastic (and horrific) post. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI am a breast cancer survivor and I think this is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWhat does distress me greatly is how late woman leave this before going to the doctor.....those last few pics are very advanced cancer....how did it get that far......
Fear - Yes, but that fear could ultimately kill you....you have two options, get over your fear or possibly die....