Many tears were shed when E! News beauty Giuliana Rancic revealed her breast cancer diagnosis on the Today Show last week. Breast cancer is one of the leading killers of women today and her public reveal was extremely personal, hitting close to home for a lot of women. Despite her emotionally and physically draining lumpectomy, where several of her lymph nodes were removed for biopsy, she was back to work on E! just days after.
Giuliana gives an inspiration to women fighting similar battles. Although we are only in our late teens/early twenties, it is a battle we must be prepared to fight in the future. I can name three family friends diagnosed with breast cancer and who have gone through the chemotherapy off the top of my head. I can only imagine the amount of pain experienced by those who have lost mothers or sisters to breast cancer.
Giuliana only discovered her diagnosis after trying IVF (in vitro fertilization) for the second time due to her infertility. She and Bill allowed the public to follow their struggle to get pregnant on their reality show.
Blessings truly do come in disguises because without her second attempt at pregnancy, the diagnosis would not exist and it would have been caught much later in a stronger stage. Giuliana’s diagnosis was obviously a wakeup call to her but also to women in general. Her world was literally shattered in seconds. One minute she was sitting in cold, outpatient office and the next her life was flashing through her eyes when the words “breast cancer” was uttered from the doctor’s lips.
It is scary to think that we will one day have to face the reality of cancer and problems that “older women” deal with. We will soon be those women, mothers and wives with families of our own! We will not be relying on our own mothers to force us into appointments at Campus Health and our main health concern won’t be on the outcome of a gynecologist visit.
Guiliana will continue to shine on E! tonight and every other night, making a huge statement for women and breast cancer. A lot of women are not as lucky as Guiliana was, being diagnosed so early, but her quick recovery and eagerness to return to work is beyond admirable. Thank you Guili for giving all women hope and being a true Wonder Woman!
As we watch women like Guiliana move forward with life and past breast cancer, it is a reminder that breast cancer is one of the unfortunate realities that women face every day.
We can only hope that there are some smart (and sexy) doctors out there working night and day to find some sort of cure for this feminine epidemic.