I Must, I Must, I Must Increase My Bust!

My man, is a boob man, plain and simple. I asked him what made him notice me, when we first started going out, and he said “your boobs, all we used to talk about at lunch when you walked past was how big they are” Any chance he has to look at a rack, he will. Any woman that walks past with a nice rack, he will tell me about. I have a fair few friends who are in love with theirs to. Flashing cars, taking photos of them at every opportunity (you know who you are!) or complaining that they are too small.

Then we see these women on TV, in Magazines, in adult movies, with these insanely big, unnatural crazy boobs. We were all born differently, some big, some small, some barely there, some hanging to the knees and I can understand some people need for enhancement. I really can. But I cant say that I really enjoy looking at a fake rack. If they are done properly I can appreciate the human ability to engineer a perfect set of boobs...but then there are the ones that don't move and that people cant feel...i just don't understand it.

But being the owners of these much desired body part definitely have its downsides. Currently 36 women in Australia are diagnosed with breast cancer every day. It is also the most common form of cancer among women, accounting for 28% of all cancer diagnosed in Australia in 2006. It is also projected that by 2015 in Australia, the number of new breast cancer cased among women is estimated to be approximately 15 409 for that year. In 2006, the number of women that died from this horrible disease was 2, 618. But its not just women that suffer from the disease with 25 males also dying from this disease in the same year, however males tend to have poorer outcomes due to delays in diagnosis. The world wide mortality rate was a staggering with 458, 503 deaths. Its just heart breaking.

We all know someone who has been affected by it. There have been a few people in my life that have been hit with breast cancer, a few of my work colleagues, a few family friends and my mum’s best  friend. Its always hard to find out that someone is suffering from this illness, but it is also inspirational to see the change in that person, almost instantly. Immediately the little stuff doesn’t matter anymore, all that matters is getting better and then its living life to the fullest every day. Someone wise once told me that its always a struggle to stop the disease from defining who you are, but you cant let your guard down and you cant get scared, you have to look it in the face and take it on with every breath and every bit of life that you have to pull through on the other side unscathed.

I did a little bit of research for this blog because I felt that I owed it to all the inspirational people that are either going through treatment, or surviving, or the people that are looking down on us with love. I was interested to find that smoking increases your risk of breast cancer, with the greater the amount of smoking and the earlier in life that the smoking begins, the higher the risk. I also read that not having children  or not being able to have children and undergoing hormone therapy can also heighten the chance of being diagnosed.

There isn’t really anything that will prevent  you from getting it, but there are things you can do to lessen the chance of it happening to you. Your risk of being diagnosed can be lessened by exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, drinking less alchocol, quitting smoking, living a physically active life, and breast feeding your children. Sounds pretty simple. But what about the people where their is a genetic risk of contraction? Early detection will always be your greatest prevention device. The earlier it is caught, the earlier is can be fixed.

I don't claim to be a doctor and im not telling you what to do, all of the information that I have put into this can be found through a google search. But I want you all to start thinking about it...the consequences, the stories, the journeys, the organizations fundraising year round for important research and programs to help sufferers.

One of the options with diagnosis is getting them both cut off, effectively removing all breast tissue and reducing the risk of it returning. Although, it wont necessarily stop you from getting cancer in another part of your body. I have a very close personal friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer a little bit before christmas. In our department at work we had another lady diagnosed a week before so it was a bit of a shock to us. She had the breast the cancer was in removed to be sure that they got all of it. She then went through chemotherapy but the treatment wasnt as long as some because they managed to find it early. The treatment was still long and hard, and her spirit through the whole thing was so inspirational. Her desire to be active in life again, and her positive view on everything made me really rethink the way I was dealing with things in my own life. It didnt seam as bad knowing that she was going through what she was.

She then elected to have reconstructive surgery, so that she could feel complete again, and be more comfortable with her body and herself. The way they did this was to make a casing out of muscles in her back for the implant, which sounds insanely painful. This was done initially only to find out that because of the scar tissue over where her breast was removed, the implant that she elected to have would not fit. There were a few complications in surgery which resulted in having to go under twice, infection, drains in her back, longer off work and ending up with one boob bigger than the other. That was about 6 months ago and she recently told me that the doctors have given her the all clear (and she has decided to) undergo further surgery to even out her boobs..for her confidence. She feels that she hasnt really been able to be herself and has been dressing differently and acting differently so that people dont notice. But i love her and i highly value her vision of the world and her confidence. She is an amazing influence and inspiration in my life and is deffinately a mother figure to me. Im not too sure what i would do without her advice.

I was also really close to my mums friend. She was positive and bubbly and and amazing woman. She would light up a room when she walked into it and make everyone feel comfortable. She was diagnosed, and fought, and survived breast cancer. It changed her. Made her live every day to the fullest. She lived for her friends and her family. She was a survivor! She got very close to the 5 year anniversary of her cancer clear when she started slowing down a little bit, doing things and not remembering. Her family finally convinced her to get a scan. She was diagnosed with brain cancer, was sent immediatly to Brisbane for treatment. A quick deterioration meant that we had lost her within the week. It was devistating. She was young and vibrant and beautiful. The world is a sadder place without her. But her legacy lives on with the community groups she voulenteered with and her family that bring nothing but hope and happiness into your lives. Cancer will always touch someone that you love, it might change them, it might take them away, but they will always live on through you, in your day to day life, in your actions. They teach you that life is a gift that is worth living with every inch of your being. You need to give it everything that you have at every opportunity to make it count. I will never forget her.

So with natural chest beauty comes the possibility of illness. With engineered chest beauty comes the possibility of pain, scarring, complications, dodgy surgery, infection. In this instance im not talking about the ladies that opt for a double mastectomy and then chose to have a reconstruction to feel comfortable with themselves and their bodys, or the girls who are less than an A cup and feel that they need this to live a normal life. Nor am i saying that I disagree with implants completely. I just feel as though society has created this ideal for women and if we don't have these gigantic, firm, perfectly sitting boobs then we are less than perfect.

When I first got with Mr Man I was VERY concerned about him seeing me without a bra on. You see with boobs as big as mine, and refusing to support them initially means that I have a subsequent sagging situation, and while it doesn’t mean that they are at my knees, or my bellybutton, they deffinately aren’t sitting where I would like them to be. He assures me that they are perfect  but that didn’t stop my insecurities about the topic.

Its a tricky one, I mean they are MEANT to come in all different sizes, but I was conditioned to believe that bigger and perky was better, when infact it didn’t really matter at all. Makes me cranky that I was hung up for so long on something that really didn’t mean all that much in the long run.

I have talked about, a million different things, all in a huge massive gigantic blur, but I guess I just wanted to say that, we aren’t perfect, no one, no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise, is perfect. I keep saying that we were made difference, and we were. One boob is bigger then the other, and did you know...that it has been scientifically proven, that no two NATURAL breast are exactly the same...on your body and in relation to everyone else in the world. My boobs...are not the same as ANYONE elses, no one else was born with the genes to make boobs like mine. That makes me a little bit happy and a little bit more confident. They cant be compared to the tv boobs, or the magazine boobs, or the surgically enhanced boobs. They are mine...and I am proud of them and I want to be sure that nothing happens to them that will affect my way of life.

So I will manually check them every week and I will get advice on when to start getting them checked by a professional. You might laugh at that but in all the stuff I have been looking at it has been saying that the general age of patience is getting younger and younger. Also keeping in mind that I recently found out that a girl that I went to school with who was a couple of years below me, was recently diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. So before you say “it cant happen to me” do the research, look at the statistics, go to the websites and read the stories.

Make the changes now that will save your life later. EMBRACE your boobs and be proud of them, but make sure you check them so that you will be around to see them touch your knees!! ( . ) ( . )