October is the time to think pink as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month kicks off today.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an estimated 182,460 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to occur among women in the US during 2008; about 1,990 new cases are expected in men.

Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the U.S., and is the second most common cause of death among white, black, Asian, and American Indian women. It is the leading cause of death from cancer in Hispanic women.

While most college women don’t need to worry about developing breast cancer at such a young age (we won’t face the invasion of mammograms until our 40s), there’s still plenty we can and should do to protect ourselves. A  major study released in 2006 indicated that the number of new cases of breast cancer dropped significantly in the reporting period of 2002 to 2003. After 20 years of increases, this is incredibly exciting news and most likely directly correlates to new methods of early detection and prevention. Read More »

[Every once in a while, we have to go something that blows. Something we’re not prepared for. Something, that at least, makes a good story…]

I walked around my apartment, touching things, pulling my blankets tighter around my bed, staring at the window, and then eventually sitting down on my couch. The TV was playing in the background, Olympic synchronized diving, and I tried to concentrate on what was happening on the screen, but besides a few thoughts about how synchronized diving is an odd sport and how did it get into the Olympics? — I couldn’t keep my head clear.

In a little less than a week, I’ll find myself lying on a hospital bed, hooked up to beeping machines, and wheeled by a bunch of masked people I don’t know into an operating room. The surgery is either simple or complicated — nobody can seem to decide — and all that’s clear is that there’s something foreign that needs to stop renting space on my 9th rib. I’ve been thinking about the surgery for a few hand-wrung weeks, and the closer it is to happening, the fuller my brain gets with every. possible. horrible scenario. Read More »