Parents are the ones who pick you up when you fall down. They lift your spirits when you’re having a bad day. They take care of you when you’re sick. But what happens if a parent gets sick? The roles may suddenly reverse, creating a situation for a child to grow up…fast.
I found out what it felt like to grow up quickly when I was in seventh grade. Although my situation was milder than most, cancer is cancer, and my mother had it. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer, although, thankfully, it was caught in the early stage.
I remember the day I found out so clearly; it’s hard not to. I had come home from school and saw my older sister sitting on the couch with both of my parents. As they both worked during this time of day, I knew that something was going on. They explained the situation and what it meant. They described the procedure that my mother was going to have. They told me that my mother had cancer.
I was in middle school and I didn’t really understand what it meant. I did, however, understand that it was scary. It was serious.
But, of course, there are so many reasons why my mom is okay today, more than five years after the operation, and one of them is because she periodically went to her doctor to get a mammogram. She did this because my mother’s mother also had breast cancer, which created a sense of a need to take action early. My grandmother also is a survivor, which makes us all, of course, thankful.
But what does it mean if your mother and your grandmother both have cancer? Do I have a better chance of getting it? What about my sister?
Well, no matter what may be, I’m not going to take any chances. When it comes time, I will have yearly mammograms, and I completely believe that every woman should. Most women start going yearly around the age of 40, but if you have a history of breast cancer in your family, start going earlier. It’s too scary to take chances, so why not do something about it? There are too many women that have to fight this disease so hard, but you can try and take it on early.
So visit your doctor. Look online. Talk to a survivor – chances are, you know at least one. Listen to their advice, and you could possibly prevent or detect a cancer that has, according to the American Cancer Society, already affected over 230,000 women this year.