Polly's A-Breast...

Does anyone remember the post I did on breast cancer a while back? Well, just to cap things off my friend Jean did one last week on much the same topic. In her post she tells us about two women who intend to run 60 Miles or Bust ...

If anyone's interested in completing this challenge in the Dallas Breast Cancer 3 Day Walker; just click on the picture to go to the registration site.


Well of course I clicked on the link, and then another link, and well, you know, it's the age old story; one thing led to another and the rest is pretty interesting and amusing. As I was surfing I came across Squad 81 who quite frankly are all as mad as hatter's . If you don't believe me check out their video and website; they appear to be part of the advertising campaign for Company 81 menswear who have sponsored 60 Miles or Bust.

To return to my own blog posts on this subject I revisited Two Tits And A Vote this morning, just to see how the story finished up.
Ultimately Alison; the girl whose breast got the whole thing going in the first place DID eventually get her ultrasound.

It is rather more than unfortunate that it took months of calls, blogging, radio interviews, petitioning, etc to get her that far. Thankfully; after all that anguish it all turned out well enough: she hasn't got the BIG C.

To my knowledge we, in the Midlands of Ireland still do not have any breast care facilities available to us locally; making it necessary to travel long distances to attend already over subscribed facilities in Dublin.

A huge round of applause is well over due for Sabrina Dent who activated in the form of the Two Tits And A Vote Campaign; we'll all have to hope that it achieved something for Irish breasts in general. Let's face it, most of us have them and these day's most of us know of at least one person whose breasts have been devastated by cancer...

My own story is quite simple. As a very much younger woman; working in an operating theatre with breast surgeons, I discovered a blue vein on my Right breast. Knowing that this can be one of the first signs of trouble; cancer's generally have an increased blood supply to their surrounding tissues, I performed a self examination.

To my horror I discovered a hard, pea sized lump and worried about it. One very sunny afternoon weeks and weeks later; lying under the sun on a grassy bank a friend of mine; who happened to be a clinical psychologist persuaded me to visit one of my surgical colleagues for a consultation.

For an educated woman, I sure was stupid! By allowing myself to be paralyzed by fear and the hope that it would resolve itself spontaneously; I had allowed the possibility of cancer to take hold of my mind and body. During the intervening weeks of silent anguish, my 'cancer' could and probably would have killed me.

Thankfully I was one of the lucky one's, and I thank God regularly for that! My lump turned out to be a cyst; nothing more than a harmless fluid filled bag of tissue which eventually disappeared once I fed my boys for a total of three years, between them. Upon my most recent examination all evidence of this little blue nasty seems to have disappeared; leaving me with a clean bill of health.

Meet a lady whose story couldn't be more different from Alison's or my own; that is Susan Reynolds who tells us her story in detail in her Boobs On Ice blog. Unlike so many of the women in this area; ie the Midlands Region of the Health Service Executive; Susan diagnosed and operated upon in a total of 9 days following her initial self examination. While the future remains bleak regardless; due to the type of cancer she has, her attitude and determination remain resolute.

Which ever way you look at it; it is a sobering thought. The only advice I would give to anyone unfortunate enough to have to face this situation is a) check the girls out on a regular basis and b) don't sit and wait, like I did because it won't go away all by itself unless you are exceptionally lucky.

For advice on self examination and breast cancer generally; there is a wealth of information available at the tip of your finger tips, don't let ignorance be the death of you and check 'em out!
OR ELSE...........

Polly Peirce
Purveyor of Fine Hand-made Irish Greeting Cards & Wedding Stationary

Good Morning, Good Morning!

Dear God, What on earth have I done to upset you today?

Welcome to the real word and the bemused rantings of the disparate housewife...

I dare say that from time to time most of us have uttered words to that effect; I most certainly have, as recently as this morning. DG was truly my knight in shining armour today, in so far as he took BB down to the village & the school bus. Such a small thing can have great impact on the life of Polly P, ie I get to doze for another few minutes under the luxuriously soft goose down quilt I got from Santa last Christmas.

Sometimes, however, such niceties unwittingly open the door to disaster. This morning, for instance, everything should have been going swimmingly well except we were running late; looking for the disappearing schoolbag. To make matters worse our lovely neighbours were in the process of moving cattle and had blocked the road for the duration.Thankfully Mrs MiF is one of the kindest of teachers and appeared to be quite forgiving of our situation, and LB did at least bring a healthy lunch to school!

Of course, were I a proper Mum this situation would simply not have occurred. The offending article would have been located the previous evening and packed accordingly; along with clean school uniform, underwear and shiny shoes. Unfortunately this is not the case in our house. Hopefully no-one noticed my nightgown; hanging beneath my inside-out cardigan, over my combats, or for that matter the fact that my dessert boots were trailing their laces behind me as I crossed the school yard...

Immediately upon my harried return I set about ransacking my own home; an act made necessary by the fact that I am no longer a domestic goddess, rather an exasperated wretch of a slob & layabout. Perhaps I exaggerate the extent of the disorganisation within the confines of my country cottage, but at times I do feel quite beyond despair.

Meanwhile; as a measure of my desperation urgent telephone calls were made to several unsuspecting innocents; firstly there was BJK - after all it's not unusual to be (loved by anyone...) down there of an evening, completing after school assignments [very posh phrase for homework] ,
next was the poor man at the Nissan dealership [my little black baby required serious fixing twice in the past week and is still on its hols there], then our lovely headmaster Mr HD; [who promised to check that the offending bag hadn't absconded to the classroom during the hols] and finally the poor beleaguered mother of LB's friend, [who wasn't in but got the OH to ring me back]. I'm out of breath after all that; phew, what a long sentence!

Needless to say there is a limit to anything, and soon I reached mine. Let's face it; two hours of ransacking the house over and over again is enough for anyone. It's well to tell that I am an amateur, as a professional burglar would have located said bag in less than three minutes; along with anything of value!

Anyway, feeling just a little crest fallen, at my failure to prepare my baby for school properly I decided that I should nourish my ailing body. LB had flatly refused to eat microwave porridge this morning, and so, in an effort to be frugal I reheated the sticky offering for myself.

Served up with a tablespoon of homemade strawberry syrup and a well deserved cuppa rosy lee (tea), all signs of self-reproval instantly vanished; it was delicious! Heartwarming & healt'y too, (around here we like to pronounce our T's wherever possible).

I then decided that I had a business to run and fought my way towards the computer at the end of the darkly strewn hallway. Having steadfastly ignored the rule that one should never take out more than one can comfortably put away in one hour; the house remains like a bombsite. Nevertheless, I was able to reach my destination with relative ease! Yeah, right...

With one flick of a switch I was transported to another world. The age of computer science really has changed the face of humanity; I had seventy four new e-mails awaiting delivery. Imagine the face of the poor postie, had he delivered as many snail mails, whatever about his legs straining under the sheer weight of it all!?

Bye y'all!

Polly Px Polly Peirce
http://www.freewebs.co/vincacards/index.htm