Autumn

This is my very favorite time of year in Minnesota. Each day is filled with the changing of the leaves; crisp evenings combined with still warm days; mosquitos going to wherever they go in the cooler weather; football and hockey games; and the squirrels in my yard becoming more active than ever as they use every precious moment finding and hiding food for the winter. It’s the time for warm spices filling the house and our bellies via hearty soups and stews.

It’s also the time for my annual physical from top to bottom and having come through it all with a clean bill of health, I realize just how lucky I am. As the years tick by on my time here on earth, good health becomes more cherished than ever before; especially when I think about all those who are struggling with health issues in my small circle of friends and family. It’s astounding really that I know so many people who are fighting a cancer battle. Some recently diagnosed, and some who have been in the fight for years, but they are all fighting to make sure they witness one more autumn.

Several years ago, my mother was part of our county’s American Cancer Society. Two things from her time volunteering for the ACS have stayed with me all this time. The first … that one in three people will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. One in three! Tonight, look at the faces around the dinner table and consider one of them a cancer patient. It could happen to any of us. It’s both a sobering and frightening thought, isn’t it?

The second thing that stuck with me from my Mom’s time working with the ACS was their slogan. “The five most dangerous words. Maybe it will go away.” How many times have you felt a little off and should have gone to the doctor, but said to yourself, “Maybe it will go away”? Sure, it might have indeed gone away, but what if it hadn’t? What if you gave up on your chance to get help when something could have been done?

Medical testing can be invasive, painful and costly. It can be embarrassing and time consuming and take you away from work and family when our lives are already busy each day, but it can also save your life!

My most recent physical included a colonoscopy, mammogram and pap. Three of the gold standard tests that any woman should have because they save lives and catch cancer when it is more treatable. Yet many of us find any reason to skip going in for these tests. Do you hate mammograms because it’s painful for all of 10 seconds? What is that 10 seconds compared to dying? Do you hate pap smears because they are embarrassing and invasive? How embarrassed will you be to explain to your children that you were too embarrassed to get a test that could have saved their mother? Is the prep you have to do for a colonoscopy too “icky” to drink? Exactly how icky is it going to be when you discover you will have to wear a bag for the rest of your life because the doctor took out your colon just so you could live?

Sacrificing a couple of days to drink a gallon of horrible tasting medicine, spending a lot of time in the bathroom and a couple of hours at the doctor has given me peace of mind for another year. Awkward as it can be telling people about what you went through with the testing, telling people you have cancer must be so much worse. Getting your recommended preventive testing done on schedule is the simplest way each of us can ensure we stay healthy or have the treatment we need before cancer becomes a death sentence.

Each autumn as the leaves in my river valley become a palette of red, orange and yellow, I will take a couple of days to ensure that I am here to see it again and I encourage each of you to do the same. Do it for those you love and care for and encourage them to do the same. Make each autumn a celebration of good health and a reason to party.

Still not convinced to schedule that colonoscopy? Look around that dinner table once more and do it for them. Don’t be that one in three.

Wishing you all good health and happiness and to those who are fighting the cancer battle, know that I am praying for you every night!

Be well, my friends…

~ BAL