Cancer is Not Pink!

When I started this blog upon learning I had breast cancer, the sole intent was to keep track of important information, like appointments, tests, treatments and my feelings – in one easily accessible place. Rather than having to search through hard copies, which I still keep, digitized information is so much quicker to reference if I need to remember when or why something changed.

Blogging has also given me a platform where I can rant, cry, rave and simply ramble about things that have nothing to do with cancer – those things that are part of “living,” everyday life which sometimes takes the lesser, supporting role when cancer shows up to play the leading role.

I decided my first step was to pick a name for my blog. I wanted something that was easy to remember but made an on-topic point. I made a hand-written list of names I thought might work. “I Hate Pink,” was a first thought for a catchy name, but after googling “I Hate Pink” and finding Ann Silberman’s incredible, But Doctor, I Hate Pink,  blog, I needed to cross that name off my list. I continued scribbling names on scraps of paper if a catchy name flashed through my mind. Yet Google was proving that every “good” name had already been taken.

I ended up going back to my first thought, the “I Hate Pink” one because first thoughts are usually the best – it said everything I was feeling! I decided to analyze deeper. So, I did.

I reflected upon what I was trying to convey and how everything I searched, related to breast cancer, is pink. Poor pink. It was such a fair, pretty color, until it turned into a death shroud of sorts, forever to be linked with a killer disease. Its new meaning is easily recognizable because of all the hype and damn band-wagoning… poor pink. And then…

BLUE! A shrieking blue lightening bolt shot through my thoughts, clearing all of my muddle until there, wearing a pink cape, were the words, the simple truth – CANCER IS NOT PINK! “Hell yes! That’s it!” But, I needed to be certain that cancer was indeed, NOT PINK! And my search began…

©Wikipedia Mastectomy specimen containing a very large cancer of the breast (in this case, an invasive ductal carcinoma).

I am only going to post two images of what actual breast cancer looks like because it’s not pretty and it’s not pink.

I understand where the pink got started, with the pink ribbon and Susan G. Komen and it was all for a purposeful cause and well intended to remind women to check their breasts, get checked, get mammograms. And, it worked! Women got the message and have been getting checked and diagnosed.

©UCDavis.edu
Slide 150. Gross specimen of invasive breast cancer. The arrow points to the infiltrating edge.

Since then, however, everyone and their pet gorillas are still throwing pink at us! There are charlatans out there! Buying “pink” doesn’t cure breast cancer, it lines pockets of frauds with plenty of GREEN! And GREEN is what will foster the cure for breast cancer by donating to reputable Cancer Research Facilities! A good place to start is at your State Universities. Check into their Medical Department, do they have a Breast Cancer Research Program? Do your homework. 

Many people feel they are helping by wearing pink products, the more junk they buy, the more committed they are to the cause, but that’s wrong! The $100 they spent on candles, pins, chains, shirts, caps… could have gone toward equipment and made a REAL difference in someone’s future. The Pink Awareness campaign is senescent, women ARE aware. Now, let’s find a cure.

PINK AND YOUR DONATIONS

I have spent all day scouring through different breast cancer sites, organizations and blogs, researching tissue expander problems.  My favorite site is the breastcancer.org site, of which I already added to my favorite links on this blog.  But, this post is not about any information that I gleaned from my hours of web surfing, this post is about the color pink, the ribbon, the cutesy little logos of the pink ribbon with feet, the pink ribbon with angel wings, on and on and on and on…

I used to like pink, it was the first color I learned to spell when I was four years old, I was in love with pink and was happy that I was a girl and could wear pink, although I do not remember ever owning anything pink as a little girl, someday I would.  In retrospect, however, I cannot remember having many clothing items of pink, except for one dress, about thirty years ago and it was not a ‘fluffy’ type of pink dress, it was very business-like in its styling.

But, today, I am all pinked-out. I’m even thinking about changing the background of my blog  but, if I do, then people might not so easily realize that my blog or page are about breast cancer.  Pink has forever been linked to a horrid disease.  Honestly, if you see someone wearing pink, don’t you first think of breast cancer?  Do you wonder, as I do, if that person has breast cancer or knows someone who had or is fighting breast cancer?

After I survived my surgery, I wasn’t quite sick of pink yet, I actually went in search of a pink ribbon necklace, thinking that I would wear it as a sort of graduation into this ‘club.’  During my search, I found many, many websites that sell breast cancer pins, necklaces, rings, key chains, candles, boots… you name it or want it, China has already made it and has it for sale.  But, the thing that bothered me, is that many women buy these articles believing that the cost of their purchase, or a good percentage of it, will be donated to breast cancer research.  My message to the consumer – BEWARE!  

Breast cancer research can only be performed in a laboratory setting, and if a portion of your purchase will be donated to Breast Cancer, find out “how” your donation will help in eradicating this disease.  It’s your money, you have the right to know how and where your donation will be used. So, before you go running out to buy that “pink” whatever, for your friend or relative who was just diagnosed with breast cancer, do yourself and them a favor, put your money toward something that will make a real difference – Breast Cancer Research.

YOUR  FRIEND  AND  WE  SURVIVORS WOULD  MUCH RATHER BE WEARING  OUR  NATURAL-BORN  BREASTS THAN  ANY PINK  PARAPHERNALIA!

Do your research, check with your local or State University to see if they have a Breast Cancer Research Facility.  I know that one of my State’s Universities has a fine Breast Cancer Research Facility, that’s where my Breast Surgeon is going and someday, hopefully within my grown children’s lifetimes, Breast Cancer will be preventable and as extinct as the rotary dial-phone or party-lines.