Cancer scare causes life re-evaluation

By Ashley Ritchie

Choosing to write this article was an incredibly tough decision for me.

Before I wrote it, I wanted to tell my story to as few people as possible. I did not want to worry anyone so I kept my mouth shut.

However, as I sat staring at my blank computer screen at a loss for column ideas, I thought about my experience the previous weekend. It was then that I realized that I needed to share it with all of the women on campus and hopefully motivate them to examine their own lives. So here it is..

I woke up at about 6:30 one morning last week to a sharp pain in my chest. Unsure of exactly where it was coming from and why, I got out of bed to examine it closer in the mirror. I stared in the mirror for a while and tried to uncover some kind of bruise or redness on my chest that could be causing this excruciating pain, but I was left dumbfounded. I then decided to apply the breast self-examine techniques that had been drilled into me in my high school health classes. It was then that I found something.

A lump in my breast was what had caused the sharp pains and now appeared to have much more in store for me. Immediately, being the hypochondriac that I always am, I panicked and burst into tears. I was dying, I knew it. I called my parents, which caused them to panic too. They advised me to go to the doctor immediately, but Cowell was not open on the weekends and I did not have a health insurance card. Therefore, I would either have to wait for Monday or figure out something else.

I then made the outlandish decision to drive home to see my doctor. To make a long story short, the doctor told me that what I had was nothing to worry about. It was just a false alarm. My doctor did assure me though that I made the right decision in coming to ease my mind. But as I left the doctor's office, despite the incredible relief I was feeling, I realized how much emotional stress I had put myself through thinking that I could have cancer. It just goes to show how much of a hypochondriac I am. I actually told my roommate that if I were to die, I wanted her to have all of my clothes! Of course, I was kidding, but in the back of my mind I think that the fear of dying was haunting me. I guess that with all of the tragedies lately, death has become so much more of a harsh reality.

I suppose that the reason I chose to share this private information with hundreds of strangers is because of how invincible we think we are; that we're too young to get such diseases as cancer. Even though this type of cancer is more prevalent in older women, it does not mean that women our age are not susceptible to it. In a study done in 1997 by the California Department of Health Services, 52 women in California alone, between the ages of 25 and 34, died of breast cancer. This may not seem like a lot, but this is just one state and one age group of women. Those are 52 women who probably thought they were too young to have breast cancer too. I want to increase the awareness for women all over campus and encourage them to practice monthly self-examines. You may feel uncomfortable; but if you ever do find something, early detection can save your life.