For most of us, when we think of October we think of fall leaves, campfires and pumpkin spice. When we see the color pink, we think of little girls, lace, frilly fru-fru. Unfortunately, for some of us, the month of October and the color pink represent the fight of our lives. 

Breast cancer touches almost all of us in some way or another. We have experienced the devastation or the triumph of this disease and it does not discriminate.  Some types are more invasive than others but none of them are any less scary. Men are also not exempt from having breast cancer.  

I personally have had more friends and family diagnosed with breast cancer than I can count at this moment. Two years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed at age 88 with invasive ductal carcinoma. Her lump was the size of a plum. Due to her age and health, hers was untreatable and she passed away 5 months later.  Other than a lump one would have never known she was even sick. That’s the scary part.  

So many women like my grandmother do not get mammograms as they should.  Some don’t because they don’t know what to look for.  Some can’t because insurance companies won’t pay for them (unless they are medically necessary) before the age of 45. Others are just too scared so they wait. Unfortunately, for many of these women, by that point it’s too late and what could have easily been prevented turns into a potentially deadly situation. Ladies, I beg you to please arm yourself with knowledge about your breasts. Do regular self-exams and at the first sign of something questionable, go see your doctor. 

In Odenville alone there have been countless women that have been diagnosed with breast cancer. You will meet some of these ladies and learn more about their journey over the next couple of weeks.  

Christi Parsons – Owner of All God’s Creatures Petting Zoo 

Christi has always been vigilant about performing breast self-examinations, so she was justifiably concerned after noticing an unusual thickening of the skin on her breast on Thanksgiving day 2015 while on vacation with her family. Christi had surgery in late December of 2015 and was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in January of 2016.  A second surgery was performed in February to see if it could be removed without a mastectomy and her lymph nodes were tested at that time as well.  Not only were they not able to get it, the size had nearly doubled from what they took out in December.  

At that time the decision was made to go right to chemo since it was growing so fast. Christi underwent five months of chemo. The first round was every two weeks for four treatments, then every week with another type of chemo for 12 weeks. In September they took the left breast and she was officially cancer free. She started radiation in November that was every day. Christi had 33 treatments with her final one being the last weekday of 2016.  

The relief was short lived.  

The Tuesday after Christmas, Christi woke up with horrible symptoms: dizziness, seeing double and a feeling of being under the influence. She had an MRI and was admitted to the hospital. Christi had suffered a stroke caused from the medications she was treated with. In May of 2017, she had another mastectomy to take the right breast as a precaution because her chances of occurrence were so high.  

These days Christi is cancer free, but has follow up visits with oncologists every six month for the next five years as a reminder of all she has been through. Christi says, “If anything unusual is going on with your body, get it checked. A co-pay may seem like a waste to have it seen about, but is it worth risking your life not going?”