There’s No Other Way to Explain My Pink

 Luke 8:10 NKJV - And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand. On Tuesday, October 20, 2015, The American Cancer Society changed its breast cancer screening guidelines to begin screening woman on an annual basis at age 45 instead of age 40. Their website states that these guidelines were put in place to detect breast cancer early and when treatment can be most effective (www.cancer.org). I’ve read the statistics of breast cancer diagnosis by age and I agree that in the past most new cases of breast cancer have occurred in older women. There has been an increase in women being diagnosed at an earlier age. My concern is that this new guideline doesn’t take into account the thousands of women who are under the age of 45 that are diagnosed yearly with these ugly disease. Marketers dress breast cancer awareness swag in pink to make it appear more appealing, but there is nothing pretty about this disease. I was inducted into the “Hall of Pink” in April of this year. In my case there wasn’t a sign or a symptom, there was simply a suggestion and yes that suggestion came straight from God.  I was 39, recently divorced and trying to establish a new sense of normalcy for my life. As I went about my normal, daily activities, God spoke clearly to me and said; “Melissa, go get a mammogram.” I didn’t hesitate and because of my act of trust, the cancer was found very early and it has been removed. I now try to live each day more aware of the power that is available to me when I trust God and believe that his words for my life are true. So that is my story but for many others it doesn’t happen that way. Many women and men walk around with no symptoms of breast cancer, although the disease may already be attacking their body. African-American women under the age of 45 are more likely to get the disease and die from it than any other female ethnic group. With as much fundraising and research taking place because of this disease, I don’t understand why the screening guidelines would move in a direction opposite of the increasing number of women who need to be screened. It would seem that more would be done to catch it early with the hope of eventually eliminating it. Delay the screening means delaying diagnosis. As a society, we have to become our own advocates. It’s vital that we eat healthy, exercise and take an active part in managing our health care needs. I highly recommend the book, The Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi. Be well and stay in peace!