Colors Galore
I have been asked if the color peach applies to all gynecologic cancers since pink applies to the 'other' private part of a woman- the breasts. Nope.
The color peach represents endometrial/ uterine cancers
Teal: ovarian cancer
Teal/white: cervical cancer
Purple: vagina/ vulvar cancers
Lavender: all kinds of cancer
I proudly wear a bracelet daily... lavender or peach. It represents a part of who I am... a cancer survivor. I have a peach ribbon on my backpack. A few people have asked me about the ribbon. One person said she is so used to seeing pink all the time. It was good to spread awareness that way.
Showing posts with label peach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peach. Show all posts
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Eff Cancer!
Last week was the lovely Eff Cancer party. Mike and I did not know what to expect. We wanted it to be a way to get positive support from my friends to help me get through this battle against cancer.... but we also wanted to educate others. I was in Salt Lake City this past week for a training and met some people who looked at me blankly, "What's endometrial cancer?" I met a woman who has optic nerve cancer. I have never heard of this particular cancer but it was like I met someone who knew the emotional ups and downs that came with having cancer. Cancer can exist in any part of the body. I have been meeting people sharing their own stories or the stories of their loved ones. It has been humbling to hear those stories.
Our wonderful friends who stayed with us overnight took it upon themselves to decorate the place for the party. Mike set the lights to be peach-colored. The whole place looked peachy! I wanted to put up some facts about endometrial cancer and treatments just to educate people. Mike and I love games. The day before, my friends from San Diego surprised me at a brunch- I did not know they were coming. We were talking about games. What can we play? I was the one to come up with the idea of "Pin the Donkey" game and have people pin where my cancer is. I was laughing about it. They figured that if I would not be offended then it would be a good thing to laugh about it. The first few days Mike and I started to joke about cancer a bit. It can be therapeutic to laugh about our own misfortunes. The "Pin the Uterus" game idea was one of those "laughter is the best medicine," moments.
The party was an impromptu. Mike decided to do a talk and did a Q/A session. It was a nice discussion. I was grateful to those who came from San Diego, Florida, Ohio and New York. The locals also braved the ice storm to make the party. Here's the video link of the party: https://youtu.be/F6bkLBwlbTo
We will continue to educate others and invite any support we can get. :-)
Our wonderful friends who stayed with us overnight took it upon themselves to decorate the place for the party. Mike set the lights to be peach-colored. The whole place looked peachy! I wanted to put up some facts about endometrial cancer and treatments just to educate people. Mike and I love games. The day before, my friends from San Diego surprised me at a brunch- I did not know they were coming. We were talking about games. What can we play? I was the one to come up with the idea of "Pin the Donkey" game and have people pin where my cancer is. I was laughing about it. They figured that if I would not be offended then it would be a good thing to laugh about it. The first few days Mike and I started to joke about cancer a bit. It can be therapeutic to laugh about our own misfortunes. The "Pin the Uterus" game idea was one of those "laughter is the best medicine," moments.
The party was an impromptu. Mike decided to do a talk and did a Q/A session. It was a nice discussion. I was grateful to those who came from San Diego, Florida, Ohio and New York. The locals also braved the ice storm to make the party. Here's the video link of the party: https://youtu.be/F6bkLBwlbTo
We will continue to educate others and invite any support we can get. :-)
Sunday, February 22, 2015
The Peach Campaign: The Need to Raise Awareness about Uterine Cancers
It was my friend, Trina, who taught me that peach color is used to represent uterine cancers. She has been wearing a peach ribbon in my honor whenever she runs in half-marathons since learning of my diagnosis.
When I found out I had endometrial cancer, I realized I did not know much about this type of cancer. I knew much more about breast cancer largely because the pink campaign is so strong. It has raised awareness about breast cancer. I knew of other cancers like melanoma, bone marrow, brain and esophageal because I knew people who survived those cancers. Endometrial cancer was a new territory for me.
There was a documentary made about gynecologic cancers: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nedthemovie/ in hopes to raise awareness about 'below the belt' cancers which include endometrial cancer. I have not seen the film yet but some of the women in the online support group that I am part of shared some tidbits.
1. Equal number of women die from gynecologic cancer as men die from prostate cancer. However, gynecologic cancers receive less than 50% of the funding than prostate cancer does.
2. At a large conference of gynecologists, a gynecologic oncologist asked how many of them heard of the pink campaign. ALL of them did. Many of them donated to the pink campaign causes. Very few in the audience knew about the Foundation for Women's Cancer and none of them have donated to the funding for gynecologic cancer research. Sadly, those are the doctors that women depend on to monitor for early detection of gynecologic cancers.
It certainly helped me understand why Dr. Busch thought my period changes were just normal. Dr. Busch probably did not know anything about identifying warning signs of gynecologic cancers.
I learned about the Foundation of Women's Cancer through my support group (http://www.foundationforwomenscancer.org/) and have found their website to be full of great resources. Here's some information for you all to review: http://www.foundationforwomenscancer.org/wp-content/uploads/Facts-about-Gynecologic-Cancers.pdf.
Today Mike and I were shopping today looking for peach-colored ribbons, balloons, and paper. We went to several stores and could not find any peach-colored balloons and ribbons. I commented that finding peach-colored stuff is as hard as finding women who had endometrial cancer before menopause. It ain't a peachy ride. We'll figure it out one way or another.
Postscript: Thanks to Amazon.com... we found peach balloons and ribbons. :-)
When I found out I had endometrial cancer, I realized I did not know much about this type of cancer. I knew much more about breast cancer largely because the pink campaign is so strong. It has raised awareness about breast cancer. I knew of other cancers like melanoma, bone marrow, brain and esophageal because I knew people who survived those cancers. Endometrial cancer was a new territory for me.
There was a documentary made about gynecologic cancers: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nedthemovie/ in hopes to raise awareness about 'below the belt' cancers which include endometrial cancer. I have not seen the film yet but some of the women in the online support group that I am part of shared some tidbits.
1. Equal number of women die from gynecologic cancer as men die from prostate cancer. However, gynecologic cancers receive less than 50% of the funding than prostate cancer does.
2. At a large conference of gynecologists, a gynecologic oncologist asked how many of them heard of the pink campaign. ALL of them did. Many of them donated to the pink campaign causes. Very few in the audience knew about the Foundation for Women's Cancer and none of them have donated to the funding for gynecologic cancer research. Sadly, those are the doctors that women depend on to monitor for early detection of gynecologic cancers.
It certainly helped me understand why Dr. Busch thought my period changes were just normal. Dr. Busch probably did not know anything about identifying warning signs of gynecologic cancers.
I learned about the Foundation of Women's Cancer through my support group (http://www.foundationforwomenscancer.org/) and have found their website to be full of great resources. Here's some information for you all to review: http://www.foundationforwomenscancer.org/wp-content/uploads/Facts-about-Gynecologic-Cancers.pdf.
Today Mike and I were shopping today looking for peach-colored ribbons, balloons, and paper. We went to several stores and could not find any peach-colored balloons and ribbons. I commented that finding peach-colored stuff is as hard as finding women who had endometrial cancer before menopause. It ain't a peachy ride. We'll figure it out one way or another.
Postscript: Thanks to Amazon.com... we found peach balloons and ribbons. :-)
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