BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

Don't be Like My Mother

by Lois Winston

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Early detection is key to surviving breast cancer. Ignorance is not bliss. I can’t stress how important it is for women to have yearly mammograms.

My grandmother had breast cancer. Knowing this, you’d think my mother would have been proactive, but she wasn’t. Every year her doctor would give her a prescription for a mammogram, and every year she’d toss that prescription in the trash. I had no idea she never went for mammograms until the day she called to tell me she had breast cancer.

Because she had refused to go for yearly mammograms, her cancer wasn’t caught in the early stages. By the time she felt the lump in her breast, the cancer had metastasized and spread to her bones. But cancer didn’t kill my mother; stupidity did. I have no doubt that had she gone for yearly mammograms, she’d be alive today.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Don’t be like my mother. Don’t be stupid. Schedule your mammogram today.

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR LYNN CAHOON

Lynn Cahoon is a contemporary romance author with a love of hot, sexy men, real and imagined. Her heroines all have one thing in common, their strong need for independence. Or at least that’s what they think they want. Learn more about Lynn and her books at her website. -- AP 

Temporary Roommates is a novella set in the Central West End of St. Louis, next to Forest Park, where the 1905 World’s Fair was held, and, down the street from the hospital where I spent the majority of 2007.

The writer handbooks all tell you to write about something you know, so when I stared out the window after being told I had breast cancer, instead of focusing on the fear of what might be, I spun a story about a nurse who needed a place to live.

As the treatments continued, I had a lot of time to think about this story.  As the months passed through spring and into summer, I, like my heroine yearned to be outside.  Maybe not running like Annie enjoys, but at least walking, hearing the birds and feeling the sun on my face.

I’ve been cancer free now for five years and although I still haven’t taken up running, I’m a lot like my spunky nurse heroine, always trying to find my way in the world without help. But I’ve found that taking care of each other is a calling.  So I wanted to share my top five gifts for any friend undergoing cancer treatments.

1-Offer to help. No, scratch that, don’t just offer, show up to clean their house, or drive them to chemo, or even sit and talk on the porch. 

2- Ease the boredom.  I tell everyone I know the best part of cancer was time to read.  If your friend isn’t a reader, crosswords are great, too.  Just something to pass the time while waiting for the next appointment.

3- Food. As time passed, the chemo made food less appetizing. So I ate a lot of mashed potatoes and ice cream.  Find out what your friend loves, then stock their fridge.

4- Be an exercise buddy. Studies have shown some advantages for people who exercise through the months of treatment.  Added strength, energy, and maybe even just a healthy dose of the feel good stuff that floods your brain after working out.  (Be sure to clear plans with your friend’s medical professionals.)

5-Offer to take your friend to their appointments.  I found myself wondering about the future way too often when I was alone. Having someone there kept me in the moment and focused on getting better.

Annie Baxter, my heroine in Temporary Roommates is given doggie duty, escorting a puppy through the halls to meet patients. I tend to agree with my character, there’s nothing quite so healing as a big wet puppy kiss.

Blurb: Annie Baxter has her dream job.  Now, all she needs is a cheap apartment close to the hospital.  Troy Saunders knows his life as an intern is all about the long hours. He doesn’t have time to play doctor to some Nurse Barbie.  So when his sister finds a great apartment walking distance to work and next to the best running paths in the city, he’s sold. Two leasing agents, two prospective renters, one apartment.  Can they co-exist without fireworks?

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HEALTHY LIVING WITH JANICE - EXERCISE FOR COUCH POTATOES

Health editor Janice Kerr has some advice for all of you couch potatoes who veg out in front of the TV for hours each night. -- AP

The best thing you can do for your health is to turn off the TV. The more you sit, the more you increase your odds of getting cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Too many of us sit all day at work, then come home and sit for hours in front of the TV at night. However, a study a few years ago found that overweight individuals who cut their TV viewing in half burned on average an extra 120 calories a day.

Yes, I know you’ve all worked hard during the day, and you’re entitled to some mindless down-time. Chances are, you won’t be giving up CSI or Dancing With the Stars any time soon. So why not try to have your mind candy and exercise, too?

Try this: get up from the sofa during the commercials and either dance or march in place while the advertisers are trying to convince you to buy a new car or switch your brand of toilet bowl cleaner. The average hour long program contains approximately 15 minutes of commercials. If you watch two hours of TV a night, that’s a half hour of exercise you’re getting in. The faster you dance or march, the more calories you’ll burn, but even walking in place or back and forth around the room during the commercials will benefit you.