October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as most people know. The 13th - one out of 31 days - is dedicated to awareness of metastatic breast cancer, despite the fact that almost one out of three women with breast cancer will be diagnosed at some point with metastatic breast cancer. Metastatic is defined by its prefix meta- which means beyond, and -stasis, which means stopping or controlling.
Breast cancer in the breast does not kill. What kills is cancer metastasizing to organs such as the lungs, liver, lymph, and brain among others, and to the bones. About 10% of initial diagnoses are metastatic. The others come weeks, months, or years after initial diagnosis and treatment. Metastasis comes to women of all ages and all stages of cancer at initial diagnosis. It is shocking how many are women in their twenties and thirties, with small children, or robbed of the opportunity to have children at all. It is also shocking that metastasis comes to survivors who were extremely early stage at diagnosis, and who were ostensibly successfully treated to the point of being "cancer free."
The goal of this site is to introduce you to some of the many, many women living with this insidious disease. We want to share the impact that both the cancer and its treatment has on our lives. We want to share breast cancer's reality. We want to do this in a way that is free of any obligation to be "positive" or "fighters" or "inspirational," expectations that have become the norm for people with cancer. That said, we are people with senses of humor, work lives (in some cases), families, daily happinesses, and powerful advocacy skills (for ourselves and for others). You will notice that some of us look ill with cancer and treatment and some of us don't. We are all still living with Stage 4, and happy to be alive.
We'd also like to provide easy links to organizations whose funds go to metastatic breast cancer research, in the hope of someday finding a cure for the breast cancer that actually kills.
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