Now that the beginning of fall has finally hit and it is almost mid October, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to talk about two things that have impacted some very important people in my life. The first thing that I will be discussing is something that is more well known than the other, and this is breast cancer. The second is something that is called dysautonomia also known as POTS.
Breast cancer is something that has been an important part of my story, not because it has personally impacted me, but rather because it has affected the person who I was closest to, and it is something that has forever changed my life. My nana, grandmother, had breast cancer and I lost her to it when I was in seventh grade. Growing up I remember spending a lot of time with my nana and doing tons of things together. I can remember even the stupidest little details about things we used to do. I remember having sleepovers at her house and sleeping with her stuffed animal dog, who now sits on my bed here at college; it’s like a little piece of her that I hold on the nights when I miss her most. It’s eating little teacups of Neapolitan ice cream, or moving the furniture in her living room and doing dance routines and catching her watching me when she thought I wouldn’t notice. It is the simpler times that I miss nowadays when I am drowning in homework or nonsensical drama. The point of this portion of this article is for me to remind you that yes, breast cancer awareness month is in October, but that does not mean that it does not affect people only in this month. Breast Cancer has impacted me through my nana, and even though she is not here with me anymore, it still left an impression on me. If breast cancer didn’t exist she would probably still be here, but sadly that is not the case. So the only thing that I can do now is reflect on the good times that I had with the strongest woman that I know, and to spread the awareness of breast cancer and how it has can impact the life of not only the person who has it, but also those around them.
The second topic of awareness is dysautonomia. One form of dysautonomia that has impacted people in my life is commonly known as POTS. This stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. This syndrome has affected both my brother as well as my closest friend from grammar school. This is something that is not life threating but rather life altering. POTS affects the flow of blood through the body. There is a wide spectrum of the symptoms that one can go through while having POTS, making even the easiest of tasks seem very daunting. At this point in time POTS is something that still a lot of doctors do not know about, which can make the process of getting a diagnosis that much more discouraging for those reacting to the symptoms. Please feel free to click on the link to learn more about the syndrome that you may not be able to see effect someone, but to them it plays a big life-changing role in their life. http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=30
So for the rest of this month in spirit of spreading awareness and in support of those who are impacted by the two things that I discussed above, I challenge you to do two things: I invite you to wear the color pink in support of those who are battling cancer, as well as those who lost their life to it. I also dare you to wear the color turquoise in some way in support of dysautonomia. You can show your support for these colors in many different ways, such as nail polish, your outfit, hair accessories and in many more ways. I challenge you even further to take a picture spreading awareness and post it to social media in order to get the awareness even more wide spread.