Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is the month of all things pink and I'm a little skeptical. I get a little annoyed by the 'send in lids' type pf breast cancer fund-raising. It seems like a bunch of BS sometimes. Maybe they DO good work - but what do you need with old yogurt lids?

I saw Dr. Susan Love on the Today Show and rolled my eyes. I have her book, it was like required reading with my diagnosis. I know many MANY women swear by it. I don't. But I respect her nonetheless. The woman has empowered women, changed breast cancer treatment, she's incredibly smart. Just for me, I didn't walk around with that book. I couldn't read it. It was too much for me. But Dr Love brought me to tears this morning talking about cancer research. She's looking for what causes breast cancer, not just a cure. An Army Of Women.

While I was sitting here watching TODAY, I was re-wrapping my arm to get the swelling back down. I was looking at the sea of women wearing pink at 30 Rock and I was a little irritated. I was thinking, 'these pink t-shirts make people think they are helping. They are just wearing a fricken pink t-shirt, damn it. DO SOMETHING! Something substantive.' And when I heard her, Dr Love, talking about researchers needing samples. Samples that they didn't know how get; women weren't just going to give them a blood sample, a urine sample, be part of a research study. I got hot tears in my eyes. YES WE WOULD! Are you kidding me?

If you asked me 10 years ago to provide samples for breast cancer research (or any number of other causes), I would have gladly handed over the goods. When my girlfriends read this, they will sign up. If I could pee in a cup (how many hundreds of times have we Mommies done that?) and a researcher could use that information to find links to the causes of breast cancer - oh my God! - I would have done that. And for me, it's compounded. I DID have breast cancer. If they could comb through my samples and my history and discover a pattern that I shared with other women, and then notice 'oh,taking birth control pills for more than 5 years maybe that's not a good idea' or 'hmm, her weight fluctuated. her blood sugar changed. What does that mean?' Who knows what will trigger the next great breakthrough.

We need this breakthrough. I know we need a lot right now. But I can tell you, when you have your health, you really do have everything.