IzzaBoutChu! My Life

 I hope that I do not offend anyone with what I am about to say....but I am sick and tired of these health awareness months.  Years ago, I was told that I had cancer of the breast and that I had 6 months to live....I have told this story in one of these blogs...you can go and read it if you are interested.  I am all for screenings...for follow ups...they can save lives.  So, please don't misunderstand what I am about to say...but enough is enough.  Have you any idea how many health awareness-es there are for each month?!  Just go to this site and you will get a taste for what they are trying to shove down our throats:   http://healthfinder.gov/nho/nho.asp.  Last month was all about cervical cancer....but did you know that it was also about glaucoma, birth defects, radon, stalking, thyroid, & folic acid?  I thought that this month was about heart issues.  But did you know that it is also about AMD/low vision, prenatal infection and dental care?  There are so many health causes out there that it is making my head spin.
     There was a time when I would absolutely dread October.  I was so tired of being reminded about breast cancer.  But now, there is the color involvement: Pink for breast cancer...red for heart awareness.  What ever happened to going to the doctors and having him/her order the tests that need to be done throughout the year?  Why do we have to be berated by these organizations and the media month after month?
     I am all for raising money for these causes too....but we have a breast cancer awareness crop every year here in Daytona Beach.  The person who organizes this event has a sister who was a victim of this disease.  I go to this crop every year with my friends...we are all for the cause.  We all donate prizes towards the cause.  We all have a good time...but then there is the lecture....please....PLEASE go and get a mammogram!!! PLEASE!  it goes on for a while.  When my doctor tells me to go for a mammogram...I go.  I don't need the media, signs, television commercials, and good intentioned people to plead with me to go.  It is my body.  I take care of it....and that is that. 
     Later this year, we are going to get berated about our intestines.  Then it will be skin cancer.  It just makes me wonder if it really raises awareness or does it actually induce fear?  At first, when they started these awareness campaigns, it was a reminder.  Then they started hiring people to handle these ad campaigns.  They stated showing pictures of people who died because they didn't do what they were supposed to do concerning screenings.  To me, that is inducing a fear tactic.  Did you know that fear can cause cancer?!  Did you know that health screening can detect cancer....but they do not prevent cancer?!
          I remember a very healthy young man...30 years of age....went to the doctors for a physical.  While there, he pointed out a dot on his knee that was the size of a period...literally.  It was dark in color and concerned him enough to point it out.  The doctor told him that he didn't think that it was anything serious...but that he would send in a sample for screening.  It came back positive.  He had cancer.  He was told that he caught it early enough that it shouldn't cause him any problems.  This young man died 6 months later...and he was even treated early on at a cancer institute.  He caught it early...got the screening...was given positive feedback.....but his time was up.  I know many other stories that are similar.  I have family in the health profession...they all say to get the screenings...in hopes that it can be caught and corrected....but nobody really knows whether or not it will really work.  In most cases, I think that it does work.  So, again, I am not saying not to do these screenings.  But, I just wish that the media would be honest about what the outcomes could be so that people don't go for these screenings thinking that they will be saving their lives.  They may be...or not. 
     So, in closing, I want to reiterate that I am all for screenings when a doctor prescribes them...or if there is a family member who has a disease and that means that you may need to introduce this information to your doctor because it might make you more susceptible.  But, once we do everything that we are supposed to do, I for one want to sigh a sigh of relief and let it go for one more year.  I don't want to dwell on it.  I don't want to hear all of these advertising campaigns telling me that the test that I took may not have been adequate.  I don't want to hear about so and so's relative dying because they didn't get a screening.  You can get the screening, catch it "in time" and still die.  When it is our time to go...it is our time to go. I don't want to feel that dread of wondering...did they miss something?!  Instead, I want to look forward.  I want to walk forward.  I don't want to sit and dwell in propaganda.
     Life was meant to be lived to its fullest.  I don't think that God wants us worrying about what might be wrong with us.  We are raising a generation of hypochondriacs because of all of this media in our faces.  Kids are worrying about their parents.  They are getting this stuff at school....being told to remind their parents to have these tests done...and they worry and they shouldn't have to worry.  A child should not be given the responsibility of egging their parents to get tests done.  It is fear....the fear of losing their parent.  It induces guilt within the parent to do something...and it causes the parent to worry about who is going to raise their child(ren).  Why are we worrying about things that may never happen?!
     We need to have a plan in the even that it does happen...a will...a living will....provisions for the children.  We need to be as prepared as we can be in case we ever hear that "C" word in the doctor's office....but until that happens...we should not have to live in fear of what might be.  That is the enemy at work.  Instead, we need to have faith that God will handle everything...whether we live or whether we die....God is in control....and we need to continually remind ourselves about that.  Our sovereign God, the Father of Issac, Jacob, Abraham, and our Savior Jesus Christ...IS IN CONTROL!!!  So, let's be responsible...and do whatever we are supposed to do...get your screenings, eat right, exercise, take your supplements...and then leave the rest...especially the worrying...up to God.  Lay it all in His Lap....and then YOU go and have a happy, worry-free day.  
     Now...go and get that screening that you have been putting off.  Look at who is calling the kettle black...LOL!  I am due to do some of this too.  :-P