National Women’s Health Week

Author: Shannon Miller

I may not have been feeling perfect for Mother’s Day but spending it with family sure did help. We had brunch with Nana and Papa and I think Rocco ate more than all of us! I’ve been warned by other mother’s that boys will eat you out of house and home but I thought that didn’t start until the teen years. Luckily he loves healthy food, his new favorite treat is crushed ice.

Today is my first true week without chemotherapy and I’m so excited to be getting closer and closer to that day I don’t wake up completely nauseous. Of course, life goes on and last night I remembered I had another exam scheduled for today from last year before my diagnosis.

I had a follow up appointment for a mammogram this morning. It was interesting trying to work around my port which was placed fairly low on my right side.  During my pregnancy your body goes through so many changes and I had a bit of a knot which turned out to be nothing. However, I wasn’t able to get a mammogram while pregnant so I followed up after having Rocco to confirm everything was okay and to get a baseline for the future. Today’s exam was a follow-up to that and I’m very happy that everything looks good!

It’s easy to become gun shy with these exams. Even to the point where you don’t want to go because you don’t want to know. I’ve been there, too. Of course, now I’m almost eager to go to these appointments because I have witnessed firsthand that the early you catch these things the more options you have. It’s scary; it can be embarrassing, even uncomfortable. But I’ll tell you that none of the exams you go through are nearly as uncomfortable as surgery, chemo, heart attack, stroke, and so many other issues that can be avoided through early detection.  So keep on it.

This week is National Women’s Health Week. Take the Pledge today and make your health a priority!

Get more information on the National Women’s Health Week web page.