I am rapidly approaching the age my mother was when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was forty-three then, and here I am now, nearly forty. Apparently she had been watching a television show about Ann Jillian, an actress who survived breast cancer. At the end of the program, there was a brief explanation about how to give a self-examination. My mother thought, “I’ve never done that,” and so she gave herself one. There was a lump she hadn’t noticed before. My mother had never had a mammogram. Parallels My life has paralleled my mother’s in some ways. She … Continue reading →