Bring on the first annual Breast Reconstruction Awareness (B.R.A.) Day! Launched in Canada last year, it's now gone international - recognized in the U.S. and many other countries around the world. Another of those awareness days, this one's smack in the middle of pink October, but specific to the issue of breast reconstruction. I remain stunned that so many women (70%) know little or nothing about breast reconstruction after mastectomy, but BRA Day embodies our resolve that we're not going to take it anymore! :-0
My first October, I hated PINK. It was six months after I was diagnosed, and PINK was everywhere. Perky PINK ribbons. Products peddled in PINK packaging. Reminders of what I wanted to forget. Personally, I was peeved.:-(
By the following October, I saw the color through new eyes. No longer did I associate it primarily with the detested disease. Instead it reminded me of a legion of warriors: other survivors, those who support them, those who treat them, and the people in my own life who’d had my back (and front) the previous 18 months. :-)
I was completing my own breast reconstruction that second October. Not an easy journey. But definitely a positive one, given the poor, battered body cancer had left me. I became more than just the victim I’d been - the passive recipient of medical intrusions to my physical and psychological self. I took charge of who I was and who I wanted to be again. :-D
We’re lucky to be living in times of great medical advancement. Hopefully, in the future, people will be even luckier, able to prevent or cure breast cancer without the current slash and burn and poison techniques. We’re not there yet, but we have many more treatment alternatives than our mothers and grandmothers. And breast reconstruction is part of that treatment - a part that gets little notice or press, but which is so important. :-[
The official logo for B.R.A. Day builds on the traditional pink ribbon, along with the phrase, “Closing the loop on breast cancer.” So appropriate (though a bit harder to crank out the lapel pins). Here’s the website that tells all about it http://www.bradayusa.org/ as well as providing ideas of what you can do in your community to lend your support. You may find events already planned where you live. If not, try to get something going. Write a letter to the newspaper. Post something on Facebook. Do what you can to honor the day. And if you’re a successful breast recon patient yourself, flash someone! (o)(o)
