.3R.

Our event has been featured on the 3R website!

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Trillion Thanks to the people at 3R for showing love.
Lets get the word out girls.

.quoted by.

"During chemo, you're more tired than you've ever been. It's like a cloud passing over the sun, and suddenly you're out. You don't know how you'll answer the door when your groceries are delivered. But you also find that you're stronger than you've ever been. You're clear. Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now it's instantaneous."

Melissa Bank
Author

Breast Self-Examination

Hey ladies, it's been awhile! Our bad as we've been crazy busy finalizing details for the big day (which is less than a month away!) Hope everyone's well and not letting the Monday Blues get to ya :)

We've been talking about how early detection is the key and today (courtesy of PRIDE Foundation) we've got info on how to self-examine your breasts and what being 'breast aware' is all about.

What is it?

BSE is a visual and physical examination for any changes in the breasts and underarms which you or a trusted person can perform on you.

When should you do it?

Age 20 – 39

• Do Breast Self-Examination (BSE) once a month, between the 7-10 day from the start of your period
• Do Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) once every 3 years, though some recommend that you do it once a year upon reaching 30 years old.

Age 40 and above

• Do monthly BSE. For women who have reached menopause, do it on a specific date of the month.
• Do CBE and mammogram once a year

How to?

Being breast aware means knowing how your breasts usually look and feel. Look for changes in the:

Breast size and shape, pain and lump

• An increase in size of one breast.
• One breast has suddenly shifted position/height.
• Unusual thickening of the breast skin.
• A painless lump in the breast or armpit.
• Unexplained pain in the breast with no lump.

Skin

• Swelling, redness or distortion of the breast skin.
• Puckering or dimpling in the skin of the nipples or breast (skin texture similar to an orange peel)
• A sore or ulcer on the breast skin that does not heal.

Nipple

• Sticky or bloody nipple discharge.
• Scaling, crusting or erosion of the nipple.
• Inversion or retraction of the nipple or area surrounding the nipple (areola)

Performing regular BSE is one way to increase your familiarity with your breasts. The key to BSE is to spot changes in your breasts. Look for changes that persist after your menstrual cycle or any changes that concern you.

Standing Up

Stand undressed in front of a mirror. Look at your breasts and check each breast for anything unusual, such as puckering, dimpling, scales or changes in size, shape or symmetry. Remember to look beneath each breast, using your hands to lift the breasts if necessary.

Look

Look for breast changes in three positions:

1. Visually inspect your breasts, arms at the side, while facing forward and while turning from side to side.
2. Then, clasp your hands behind your head and press them forward. You should feel your chest muscles tightening, allowing you to see the contours of your breasts. Turn from side to side so you can see the outer surfaces.
3. Next, inspect your breasts while pressing your hands firmly on your hips and bending forward slightly, pulling your shoulders and elbows forward as well.

Feel
Standing erect again, raise one arm, and use the pads of the three middle fingers of the opposite hand to feel the breast. You can use lotion or powder to help your fingers glide easily over the skin, or you can do the raised-arm part of the exam in the shower with soapy skin.

Lying Down

Lie down with a pillow under your left shoulder, and put your left hand behind your head.

Feel
Feel your left breast with the pads of the three middle fingers of your right hand. Start at the outer edge and work inward toward the nipple. Then squeeze your nipple gently to look for discharge. Do the same thing to your right breast with a pillow under your right shoulder. Be sure to include the area up to your collarbone and out to your armpit.

Feel the tissue by pressing your fingers in small, overlapping areas about the size of a 10sen coin. To be sure you cover your whole breast, take your time and follow a definite search pattern - wedge, circle or lines, to help you perform BSE more thoroughly.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor

.Fast Facts.

• Breast cancer risk increases with age and every woman is at risk.
• Seventy-seven percent of women with breast cancer are over 50.
• The first sign of breast cancer usually shows up on a woman's mammogram before it can be felt or any other symptoms are present.
• Early detection of breast cancer, through monthly breast self-exam and particularly yearly mammography after age 40, offers the best chance for survival.
• It is unfortunate in Malaysia that nearly 40% of the new cases identified each year were already in the very advanced stages of the disease.Early detection saves lives!
  
• You are never too young to develop breast cancer! Breast Self-Exam should begin by the age of twenty.

Resources:
National Cancer Institute
Komen Foundation
PRIDE (pink ribbon deeds) Foundation

"Early detection is key.
And if I hadn't found my lump early,
I don't know what would have been.
I am still here and I want to encourage women
to do that on a regular basis."

Olivia Newton-John

.myths.

Hey everyone!

In order to keep up with the "Start Acting" part of our tag line, the team has been researching day and night on Breast Cancer facts, stats, truths, myths, prevention... basically everything related to Breast Cancer. In the midst of all that poking around and info-hunting, we've got for you some breast cancer myths busted (thanks to Foxnews).

Read on and spread the word!

Five myths about breast cancer:

• There's no history of breast cancer in my family so I won’t get it.

“That’s not true,” Dr. Marisa Weiss, an oncologist and the president of breastcancer.org, said previously. Although women with a family history are at a higher risk for the disease, environmental factors, drinking, smoking, medication and diet can all influence a woman’s chances of getting breast cancer.

Knowing the history of breast cancer on both sides of your family is also important. Just because a woman doesn’t have a history of breast cancer on her mother’s side, doesn’t mean she’s at a decreased risk. A paternal family history of breast cancer also increases a woman’s chances of getting it.

• I have breast cancer, so I have to get a mastectomy if I want to stop the spread and prevent the cancer from coming back.

Very few women diagnosed with breast cancer actually need a mastectomy, said Zuckerman. “In fact, most of the women who get mastectomies don’t need them,” she said. “And for women to lose their breasts, in addition to the normal emotional turmoil that they go through having breast cancer, is harmful emotionally and physically.”

Specifically, Zuckerman said that about 75 percent of the women who get breast cancer each year will not need mastectomies. Many women with stages 0, 1 or 2 breast cancer respond well to treatment that includes a lumpectomy with radiation and chemotherapy, she added.

"Women with early stage breast cancer usually do not need a mastectomy and will benefit from chemotherapy almost always," said Zuckerman. "Women who get a lumpectomy will need radiation and that's the difference. Women who get a mastectomy will not need radiation, but with a lumpectomy you always need radiation."

• Young women are just as likely to get breast cancer as older women

Both Weiss and Zuckerman agree that this also is not true. Women older than 50 are most at risk for this disease, explained Zuckerman.

“Breast cancer in women younger than 30 is so rare, and this is one of the things that concerns me,” she said. “I think the media focuses on young women, because it’s so shocking when someone in their 20s gets cancer. But what you end up with are women in their 20s and 30s who are terrified that they're going to get cancer and women in their 50s who think they don’t need to worry about it, when the opposite is true."

Of the nearly 200,000 women who will get breast cancer next year, half will be over the age of 61, said Weiss. About 25,000 women will be under the age of 40.

“It’s still a significant number, but when you compare it to the overall number of women who get breast cancer, it’s a small percentage,” she said.

• Breast cancer is fatal

“Breast cancer is not fatal in and of itself,” said Zuckerman. “What makes it fatal is if it goes into other parts of the body and gets into the lymph nodes, lungs and other organs,” she said.

“Also if it gets into the blood or the bones, it can kill a person. That’s the risk of metastasized cancer. That means it has spread and once it hits the lymph nodes, it can become out of control.”

Zuckerman said early detection is the best way to prevent cancer from spreading.

• Men don’t get breast cancer.

“This is certainly not true,” said Weiss. “Men do get it.”

The American Cancer Society estimates that about 2,030 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men this year, and about 450 men will die after getting the disease.

Still, breast cancer is about 100 times more common in women, and women whose fathers are diagnosed with breast cancer are at an increased risk for the disease just as they would be if their mothers are diagnosed with it, added Weiss.

.updates.

hello all you lovely people,
we've got event details sorted out for ya!

Who?
brought to you by Fabulous Events and Pride Foundation

What?
Breast Cancer Prevention Event titled "Go Pink! Start Acting"

When?
16 August 2009 (mark those calendars!)

Where?
Main Entrance, New Wing, One Utama

*watch out for the next update :)

Till then,
Have A Fabulous Day <3