Buckle up ladies, Puketober is upon us
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Right there with you. Someone on our local social media shared the image of a firetruck painting pink driving around neighborhoods to "raise awareness."
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I always wonder, awareness of what, and who is it aimed at? Don't all females know they have breasts? We're quite aware of them, thank you. Likewise, wouldn't a person have to be living under a rock to not know about breast cancer? Is seeing a pink cheerful sign on a fire truck or dumpster really going to encourage anyone to get checked? How about signs aimed at men, who are probably less aware that they can get it? How about information, with no damn pink, on metastatic disease and fundraising for cure research and to cover treatment costs? I always feel so bad that the "awareness" crap is aimed at the breasts and not the people. We can live without breasts. But those with Stage IV/metastatic aren't worried about breasts, they've got bones, liver, brain, and other vital body parts to think about.
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Yes, Alice! And since this thread is in the stage IV forum, we are definitely aware
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I agree AliceBastable
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Oh no! It is almost October. Bright eyed volunteers in PINK T-shirts at a table outside the local Safeway asking "Hi, what do you know about breast cancer?" A donation box, ribbons and T-shirts for sale.
Run away. Run away.
I have seen ads with MBC T-shirts in a sort of apricot colour. I hate pink but I might wear apricot. Maybe MBC'ers should wear black tutus and a black T-shirt with "MBC KILLS" Okay, maybe that is a little too dark for most folks.
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The pink thing got overkilled for sure. But what I really hate now is the finish bell. I rang it once with my friends and took the rad techs treats and said thanks. I was relieved to finish and felt like maybe the nightmare was over. Well fast forward under 3 years and now I have to walk by it all the time to get another never ending treatment. The first time I was hit with a wave of white hot rage. I want to smash the bell with a sledgehammer! I finished another round of radiation and made the techs cookies. No bell.
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MKestral, I agree about the bell. I had to walk by it on the day I got diagnosed with stage IV, about three years after finishing chemo and ringing the bell. I actually broke down completely and the poor nurse trying to give me my first fulvestrant shot didn't know what to do. I didn't know being back in that infusion center would break me, but it did.
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I'm sorry, I didn't notice the thread location. I apologize for posting.
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I came across this a few days ago, looks like they are re-running a design product ad from last October.... Its not even October yet and already.... I'm all for humor but I thought this was really insensitive to say the least, particularly the skeleton part with the butterflies in the eyes and the ribbons in the bones etc.
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@ RhosgobelRabbit ~ insensitive is probably the kindest word I have for it. 🤬
I’ve found myself over the last 2 weeks or so being a little more grouchy, a little less patient. It finally hit me that Puketober is just about upon us. I don’t know that there is a word strong enough to accurately portray my disdain for it.
I have to admit, I do kinda enjoy telling the 1st cashier to ask “do you want to donate to help bc patients?” that “I donated a tumor, I think that’s enough.” I really don’t like wishing my life away, but I’m never sad to flip the calendar to November when all of the pink crap goes back under the rock it crawled out from under for another year
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Well, I plan to enjoy the month of October despite the pink nonsense. Autumn is a lovely time of year. I'll wear my "Don't Ignore Stage IV shirt", carry my "It's a Disease not a Marketing Opportunity" tote bag, and if I can get away with it, color any pink ribbons I see on posters 30% black (for stage iv) and put on a blue dot (for the men with bc). And I will be open to opportunities to discuss reality vs. silly hoopla and empty "support".
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ShetlandPony: Brava. Maybe I need to carry a black Sharpie with me
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finally over it - last year I ran my hand down the side of where my breast was on the right side and said "Already donated thank you" when a pink haired lady asked me if I wanted to donate. Still can't get over the t-shirt. Other Stage IV's saw it and said in the comments they thought this was awful and the maker of the shirt just replied with a link to buy the shirt, profits over people. Ugh.
Shetland, I'm armed with my don't ignore t-shirt and my metastatic ribbon mask this year, I love fall, but still can't yet find a way to get past the aura of pink that seems to surround October, October just makes me angry, I don't yet know how not to be angry about it yet,but I like your ideas. I guess I really hate October because this month in particular we are forced to educate the ignorant on a grander scale. I get sick of having to do it sometimes.
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i had my cast on my broken arm swapped today & they used fiberglass & i had a choice of color but they didn't have my fave color - purple. They did have pink & any other season I'd have probably chosen it but not when I need to wear it all through Oct ...
I was just thinking that even in stage 4 we are not all on the same page... "cop a feel" charity in the UK for ex was started by someone with mbc. Their name & whole comms approach is not one I'm on board with at all (their headquarters are called boob towers...) I guess we all come at this quite differently.
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Men are buckling up, too. We're tired of the same old, same old pink awareness campaigns that let women know they can get this disease. What would awareness on this be, 100%? Meanwhile awareness that this is a genderless disease and that a man can get it, too, is running at around 30%. Guys are therefore diagnosed later and have a poorer prognosis. Feel free to share this article:
https://advancedbreastcancer.net/living/male-breas...
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moth: I went back and tried to find your post where you mentioned breaking your arm. How and when did that happen? Just one more crappy thing to have to deal with.
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Elderberry: I think I psted in the My husband My life thread. It was September 19th. The whole story is in my blog ( link is in my signature line). I just had my cast swapped for a lighter one and I'm getting used to it nowl but still kicking myself for being so careless. thx! xo
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moth: I read your blog. Good grief!! I guess I should say at least you didn't crack your skull as well? I had ketamine for a cadioversion. Coming out of it was weird. Sounds were all jumbled then I saw double. Really double. Two identical people walking side by side. Furniture and walls were stretched out like a Dali painting. It took awhile to go away. I cannot say I enjoyed it. This from someone who enjoyed LSD. I guess I am getting old. Ha ha. I liked your comments to the staff. It reminded me of the time when I did crack my head on a cement floor. The doctor came in and said "I am going to do some skill tests" to which I replied "As long as it doesn't involve the Periodic Table of Elements"
Bones will heal in the time it takes to heal but I hope it is speedy and you have a few fingers free.
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Here in Europe they put really nasty photos of lung tumors on cigarette packets along with huge print of SMOKING MAY KILL YOU. Those pictures are so gross you really dont even want to look at a discarded packet in the street even. I feel like some awareness campaign could get folks out of the "oh so breast cancer isnt that serious if its pink" denial through a more shock approach of what MBC is and how harsh the treatments really are. Sure early detection is great go get your mammogram etc but can someone point me to data indicating that bc awareness rates have changed over time or have they leveled off? People generally seem on autopilot about BC at this point - perhaps its time to shift the conversation from 'awareness' to 'education'. Or target the messaging better - awareness for younger ladies, lord knows I usually tuned out the pink because that was an "old lady disease" and was more worried about cervical cancer because that was something drilled into your head about getting an annual pap and all your friends did it at college so it felt like the first grown up thing to do!
Moth - Coppafeel's approach is very British and while I agree that the terminology used is rather crass, its just how it is here. Lots of women call the breast diagnostic clinic the 'one stop tit shop' and mammograms are every 2 or 3 years here and I dont think the women going to their screening mammograms is near on the level of the US either. The gal who started it passed the charity on to others to run about two or three years ago now, but she is still hanging in there - 12 years with de novo MBC.
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And so it begins… sigh
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I just designed and ordered this. Certainly not for everyone, but definitely for me! It's in the colors of the SF Giants, I suspect folks may assume it has something to do with baseball, lol. The back says: #allthatpinkshitcangofuckitself
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LOVE IT
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SF-Cakes - OMG, i almost posted on here yesterday that I want a shirt that says #NOT DEAD YET and...IS NOT PINK!
How do I order one???
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Cafe Press does custom order.
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Prior to mbc, pink was sort of my signature color for a few years. I would wear a splash of it when I wanted to make a statement. It looked good with my coloring and I could really rock it. Once mbc entered the picture, for a long, long time I seldom if ever wore it. Now I wear it occasionally but never in a way that would indicate I'm tryna represent bc awareness.
Yesterday being the last day in September, I wore a shirt with pink in it with a sweater in bright pink. Today I went to get bloodwork and had nothing pink on. The paperwork I give the lab clearly says metastatic bc on it, and I did not want anyone there to bring up Pinktober thinking I was all in to it. While in the waiting room, the TV showed the Today Show's over-the-top hoopla with all the anchor women wearin' o' the pink, and people holding up huge letters spelling out something about bc and tons and tons of pink balloons. Hoda was leading the cheering, altho she didn't have pompoms or do any backflips or splits. Just yuk.
What I dislike about the overabundant adulation for breast cancer awareness month is people believe the war on breast cancer is being won by emotion. They think bigger, better and louder cheering finds cures. All they have to do is clap a lot and wear lots of pink and voila! Cured! It's like the Peter Pan children's tale when Tinker bell drinks poison and then when everyone claps for her enough, she lives! People think that's the way to cure bc. Because, hey, it doesn't require much thought, can be done on the spur of the moment, it's easy and painless and kinda fun.
It also reinforces society's insistence that a vital role for all women is to be a cheerleader. Not a leader. You don't see men out there doing rah rah rah for prostate cancer awareness.
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sf-cakes,
I love that T-shirt! I’ll pass on the back since my oldest grandchild can read and the one in kindergarten is very proud of his growing reading skills. 😉
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When I finished my radiation, the doctor and techs congratulated me. I skipped out of the office with my mask stating that I would return!!
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I must have that shirt. SO badass......
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🙌🏻 LOVE the shirt!
When I first opened fb this morning, I saw a friend post something about “beating bc”. She was stage 1, IDC. I really hope and pray the beast doesn’t come back, but it made me cringe as she talked about “beating bc” and “beating the monster”. I sure hope it’s true for her. Of course I didn’t say a word.. I just hope she’s right and doesn’t join the club people REALLY don’t want to join. #isitnovemberye
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I've started to see “save the tatas" posts on Facebook - one special one showing women with pink balloons attached to their shirts. Instantly unfriending all of them.
A male acquaintance who is in his late 50's posted the disgusting meme—-the immediate fury I felt almost brought me to tears.
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