Pink Overload — Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Let's get this out of the way right up front...I'm not a "girlie" kind of woman. I've always been a tomboy, you can count the number of times I've worn a dress this year on one hand, and I almost never, ever wear <shudder> pink. But I do have something that binds me in sisterhood to thousands of other women—I'm a breast cancer survivor. So at least once a year, I grit my teeth and embrace the pink to raise awareness about a disease that affects over 200,000 more women every year.

My Breast Cancer Awareness design  focuses on "three" in honor of women (including myself and Joan Lunden) who've battled the more rare and more virulent form of the disease known as triple negative. The accent nail is a three-layered pond design and the rest of the nails are three-layered jelly sandwich.

The polishes I used for this design are:

• Sinful Colors - You Just Wait (translucent holo gold/rose)
• Essie - Tuck It In My Tux (translucent shimmery white)
• China Glaze - Hang Ten Toes (hot pink)
• Sally Girl - In Love (rose gold/pink glitter)

Besides the usual "get your mammogram" message (seriously, get your mammogram) let me offer some advice as someone who's been in the trenches of the breast cancer battle.

1. If you have dense breast tissue, insist on a sonogram in addition to your mammogram. My cancer might have been diagnosed 6-12 months earlier if I'd had a sonogram.
2. It's a myth that triple negative only occurs in women with the BRCA gene. I don't have it and neither do 90% of the triple negative survivors I know. However, you should be tested for the BRCA gene, especially if your mom, grandmother, or aunt has also had breast cancer.
3. If you are diagnosed with triple negative, even if it's in an early stage, choose an oncologist who favors an aggressive treatment plan (surgery, chemo, and radiation). To date, there is no drug that can help reduce the chance for recurrence of triple negative (like tamoxifen that's used with regular, hormone-receptive breast cancer) so it's important to get rid of it all up front.
4. Much of the information you see on the internet about triple negative is scary and depressing, but remember this: it's more responsive to chemotherapy than other types of breast cancer and the longer you stay cancer free, the less likely you are to have a recurrence.
5. Survival rates for triple negative get better every year and continue to rise as new treatments are discovered.

If you feel like throwing some donation money our way, please visit the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation and click on the "Donate" button—any amount would be greatly appreciated.