Personally I hate cancer. Cancer has taken so many of my loved ones that it feels like I am in my own battle with the disease. My first encounter with cancer occurred at age 12. My mother was diagnosed with cancer; I remember when she told me. That night for whatever reason I wind up sleeping in the bed with my mama and she wrapped her body around mine and told me in a soft whisper that the doctor told her she had cancer. Before that night I had never heard the word cancer before. It meant nothing to me, but I remember my mama sounding like a frighten little kid , like she just accepted the fact that she was in the fight of her life. Soon after that mama started going to chemotherapy which made her feel weak and ill. Sometimes I would go with her; I don’t think anyone knew she was sick. In the waiting room were people from all ethnic backgrounds and ages. I still wasn’t too sure of what cancer was but from looking around the waiting room I could tell that age and racial make up was not a factor. Each person seemed to be at a different stage of the disease, some had hair, while others did not.
Soon it became very apparent that mama could not keep this cancer thing a secret. Finally she told the family because the chemo was making her so sick she could hardly get out of bed and go to work. Mama was losing weight so fast, at her normal weight she only weighed 130lbs and she had already lost 20lbs. My mama decided that she could not handle all four of her kids so she decided that my brother (who happened to be her shadow, they had a very close relationship) could not mentally handle seeing her deteriorate, so he went to Arkansas to live with my dad. My little brother and sister who were only 3 and 4 went to live with my Aunt. My Grandmother and two Aunties moved in and took care of mama 24 hours a day. Slowly the cancer started to eat away at her body. The doctors added radiation to the mix and this was like a jolt to her body. She began to have radiation rashes and lost 15 more pounds at this point she was skin and bones. She would spend weeks in the hospital and seemed to be tired of fighting. The cancer was winning and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. My mama knew the end was near and called my father and asked that he bring my brother home because she needed to see him before she left this world. I will never forget the look on my brother face when he saw my mama, he was completed devastated. A few weeks after his arrival my mama passed away. Since that time I have lost my father, aunt and uncle to this disease and that is just the people in my family.
So when a government task force said Monday that most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50 I felt personally attacked. The task force also feel that breast self-exams are of no value. I know that I am not a medical professional but I also know that many women discover lumps in their breast by doing self-exams. I also know the benefit of catching cancers at the earliest stage as possible. Not to mention the fact that although white women get breast cancers at higher rates than black women, but black women are more likely to die from the cancer.
It is my fear that Medicaid and insurance groups do not fall in line with the suggestion of the government task force. This would be a tremendous blow to the life of many women that could be diagnosed too late to save their lives. It angers me that people that sit on a board get to make decisions that adversely affect the lives of thousands of people. I am willing to bet a dollar to a dime that big pharma or insurance companies is behind this “new” revelation. Why not it would save billions of dollars on test especially when the government may pass a law that entitles all Americans to insurance? People need to understand that this is about lives not dollars. Can someone please tell me how much a life is worth? When are we ever going to get past our greedy need for money and as much as possible at all cost? Sometimes capitalism is not as great as it is cracked up to be
PS. I have a high school classmate that is battling breast cancer. Lisa my prayers, thoughts and love are with you.
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