Eliza's Adventures with Cancer

22 years old. Breast Cancer patient. Loved.

prettyinpinkterminator:

Save Me Not Second Base

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month draws to a close I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and a lot of waffling over whether I should get involved with a debatable issue. But one of the things you learn in the School of Humanities is that rhetoric is open for critique.

Go on. Save the boobies. Save the tatas. Save second base. Raise money. Sell wristbands. Base entire campaigns around a secondary, sexualized sex characteristic used pars pro toto for womanhood. You’ll get away with it.

But first save the people they’re attached to.

Forever reblog. I know October is over, but the fight is not!

(Source: nihilnovisubsole)

fuckyeahsexeducation:

rabbleprochoice:

kate-elizabeth:

Long version.

AKA: So here’s what I do at the office sometimes.

With text by Colette Bennet.

Gendered language but this is a really informative infographic.

Make sure to check your breasts EVERY month, it’s important to be familiar with how your breasts regularly feel in order to detect anomalies. Doing it just once every few months isn’t frequent enough for you to learn how your breasts naturally feel and it lessens your ability to detect when they aren’t feeling like they usually do.

Love,

Rabble

Also, if you have fibrocystic breasts self exams may not be as accurate. Talk to your doctor so that they can give you advice on what you should be looking for and how to better take care of your health.

Remember, ANYONE can get breast cancer so this is important information for EVERYONE.

(via believeinmyths)

theweekmagazine: The NFL had $9.5 billion in revenue in 2011, and they’ve donated a paltry $3 million to breast cancer? ”Pardon me while I don’t slobber all over the NFL’s pink-drenched marketing campaign.” -Erin Gloria Ryan at Jezebel.  The NFL is coming under fire in the wake of a new report that accuses the NFL of profiting from the cause, arguing that most of the money from the breast cancer awareness push “ends up in the pockets of billionaire NFL owners.” The NFL refutes that claim. What exactly does the NFL’s breast cancer campaign do in terms of raising money and raising awareness?  Is the NFL’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month a scam?

theweekmagazine:

The NFL had $9.5 billion in revenue in 2011, and they’ve donated a paltry $3 million to breast cancer? ”Pardon me while I don’t slobber all over the NFL’s pink-drenched marketing campaign.” -Erin Gloria Ryan at Jezebel. 

The NFL is coming under fire in the wake of a new report that accuses the NFL of profiting from the cause, arguing that most of the money from the breast cancer awareness push “ends up in the pockets of billionaire NFL owners.” The NFL refutes that claim. What exactly does the NFL’s breast cancer campaign do in terms of raising money and raising awareness? 

Is the NFL’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month a scam?

imjustsarahcate: feministdisney: “Think before you Pink.” I was hoping this image would come up on my dash and I could reblog it from someone with more expertise, but I haven’t seen it outside of facebook yet. Some things to keep in mind: Make awareness about the individual and their struggles with cancer, NOT about “boobies” and “saving breasts.”   Many breast cancer survivors DO lose their breasts and positing awareness as a movement to “save their breasts” diminishes our need to focus on supporting the people.   Whether or not they chose/need to undergo a mastectomy is not really your business or concern. “Saying that we should work to cure this disease because it threatens breasts is really upsetting. For starters, it suggests that women are worth saving because they’re attached to breasts, rather than the other way around. But worse, it tells any woman who’s had a life-saving mastectomy that she’s given up the thing that made people care about her survival. What a punch in the stomach.”  -Randal Munroe, of XKCD Think twice about supporting companies that seem more concerned about using Breast Cancer Awareness and its ever-increasing popularity to sell their product, rather than concerned about actually supporting and assisting those struggling/those who will battle with breast cancer/with finding a cure For alternative organizations to support, Kate Madonna Hindes recommends Breast Cancer Action. “They are INCREDIBLE and do work that focuses ALL on prevention.” For further info: The Trouble with Pink (Kate Madonna Hindes) 5 Ways to Move Beyond Pinkwashing to Really Fight for a Cure on Huffpost Unraveling the Ribbon on Bitch Magazine I don’t know why the commentary didn’t go with this when I reblogged it the first time, but it’s the major part of why I wanted to reblog it in the first place so yaytumblr.

imjustsarahcate:

feministdisney:

“Think before you Pink.”

I was hoping this image would come up on my dash and I could reblog it from someone with more expertise, but I haven’t seen it outside of facebook yet.

Some things to keep in mind:

  • Make awareness about the individual and their struggles with cancer, NOT about “boobies” and “saving breasts.”   Many breast cancer survivors DO lose their breasts and positing awareness as a movement to “save their breasts” diminishes our need to focus on supporting the people.   Whether or not they chose/need to undergo a mastectomy is not really your business or concern.
“Saying that we should work to cure this disease because it threatens breasts is really upsetting. For starters, it suggests that women are worth saving because they’re attached to breasts, rather than the other way around. But worse, it tells any woman who’s had a life-saving mastectomy that she’s given up the thing that made people care about her survival. What a punch in the stomach.”  -Randal Munroe, of XKCD
  • Think twice about supporting companies that seem more concerned about using Breast Cancer Awareness and its ever-increasing popularity to sell their product, rather than concerned about actually supporting and assisting those struggling/those who will battle with breast cancer/with finding a cure
For further info:
The Trouble with Pink (Kate Madonna Hindes)
Unraveling the Ribbon on Bitch Magazine

I don’t know why the commentary didn’t go with this when I reblogged it the first time, but it’s the major part of why I wanted to reblog it in the first place so yaytumblr.

(via cancerrific)

Hope does not consist in crossing one’s arms and waiting. As long as I fight, I am moved by hope; and if I fight with hope, then I can wait.

—Paulo Freire (via whiskeyspring)

theweekmagazine:

Apparently, the average breast cancer tumor is 4 centimeters in size when removed, and has been growing for 12 years. 

In preliminary trials, this smart bra — which costs less than $1,000 — detected cancer up to six years before a tumor was even visible, giving doctors a better shot at treating the disease before it develops into something more deadly.

Keep reading

prettyinpinkterminator: Too much? When people use the excuse that they don’t want to go through the temporary pain of a mammogram, I tell them that is nothing in comparison to the permanent pain of a mastectomy. It may not be a perfect tool but it is one of the best we have. People have to be vigilant about their health. You and I have learned this the hard way.

prettyinpinkterminator:

Too much?

When people use the excuse that they don’t want to go through the temporary pain of a mammogram, I tell them that is nothing in comparison to the permanent pain of a mastectomy. It may not be a perfect tool but it is one of the best we have. People have to be vigilant about their health. You and I have learned this the hard way.

They wanted to create a world where the words “breast cancer” weren’t stigmata. And the original pink ribbon campaign didn’t start as a canny branding move to rake in profits for major corporations, but rather as a symbol of solidarity. Survivors wore the ribbons as open marks of their survival, to identify themselves not just to other survivors, but to society in general. A signal that they were alive, not going anywhere and determined to talk about the disease they’d experienced. But slowly, the pink ribbon came to mean something else. Rather than being a symbol of survival and strength, it became more generally a symbol of support, and then it was appropriated by firms that wanted to slap pink ribbons on their products for more profits. The Komen campaign realised it had a goldmine on its hands and it started aggressively protecting the pink ribbon brand. As the organization grew in size and power, it became harder and harder for activists to fight the commodification it promoted and the unhealthy business relationships it had with firms that wanted to exploit the ribbon, along with survivors and activists interested in directly addressing breast cancer.