Once your wife is diagnosed with breast cancer, it seems like that's all you hear about about every place you turn -- breast cancer. You start noticing how often breast cancer is mentioned on TV, in the news, in advertisements and conversations with friends. It also seems like nearly everyone you talk to has been or is impacted by breast cancer.
During three conversations today breast cancer came up; one friend's wife had just visited her sister-in-law who had a double mastectomy, another's husband had recently been check and cleared for breast cancer (yes, men do get breast cancer too), and another recently lost a mother to the disease.
Whenever some news teaser pops up about a story covering breast cancer news, it grabs your attention. Usually when you tune into watch it, the piece turns out to be nothing, something you already knew or just doesn't apply to your spouse's situation.
With the breast cancer topic seemingly appearing everywhere, you start to get uncomfortable, worried that each instance mentioned is just another reminder to prevent your wife from getting a break away from the topic. You think, can we just get through one hour without breast cancer coming up again? You'd like life to return to normal where breast cancer wasn't something you're dealing with.
But right now is the new normal. It's how it is right now and ignoring the topic doesn't make it better or go away. In hindsight, all of those breast cancer reminders are good, as they serve to keep the topic in front of others who might need something to remind them to do their monthly breast examine, or get an x-ray from their doctor, or get that lump checked out.
