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Along with sewing and photography, I'm passionate about fitness, wellness and women's health. Specifically about Women's Breast Health.
While I was pregnant with Miss L, my doctor found a 1 inch tumor in my left breast. I was only able to do minimal testing at the time due to my pregnancy, and had to wait to do another more extensive (mammogram, etc) until after I had given birth. Since I was only 4 months into my pregnancy when it was found, you can imagine how stressful and un-enjoyable the last 5 months of my pregnancy were.
Shortly after Lily was born, my husband nearly lost his job and, in an effort to avoid any income-less time, found a new, lower paying job which didn't include health insurance. With a new baby, a tumor, and no health insurance, I struck out to find the cheapest and easiest way to get a mammogram once and for all.
Being 24 years old, I was turned down by many places. I was told that I couldn't have a mammogram until I was done nursing, and even then I had to wait until 6 months post weaning. I was told that I was too young, and it was "unlikely" that my tumor was cancerous. I was aware of the likelihood that my tumor could be something bad. But I was also aware that breast cancer in the under-30 crowd is one of the most vicious and fast developing forms of breast cancer there is. I was also aware that a friend of mine had lost her sister before she ever reached her 20th birthday due to a particularly terrible case of Breast Cancer. With a 3 year old and a newborn, I wasn't about to take any chances, and I certainly wasn't going to wait 12 MORE months to find out what was growing inside my body.
I contacted Susan G Komen and found out what locations in my area offered free/low cost mammograms. I contacted them and ended up going in to a local Breast Health office for a sonogram and mammogram. They did the sonogram first, in hopes of not needing to do a mammogram. The sonogram showed that after 5 months of pregnancy, 5 months of nursing, and 2 months of being weaned, my tumor had not grown at all. This was an extremely good sign because, as I noted before, Breast Cancer in younger women is EXTREMELY fast growing.
Lily is now 15 months old, and I plan to go have another sonogram done when she's 1.5-2 years old, just to keep tabs on it, but for the time doing I'm happy and healthy and feel so fortunate that my story turned out the way it did.
This year I will have health insurance again. FINALLY. We are are finally back on our feet after the job switch-up, and I'm ready to do something to support a cause that is now very close to my boobies... errr.... heart ;)

in November 2009, I will be walking the Susan G Komen 3 Day in Dallas, Texas.
I will spend 3 days walking 60 miles in support of Breast Cancer Research. With this walk, I have to raise $2,400 in order to participate.

So what I'm asking is this... if anything from this site has been helpful, If you've enjoyed my tutorials, or made use of my patterns.... if you have gotten any enjoyment out of anything I've shared on this site, and you feel so inclined, please hop onto my 3Day site, and donate $5.00. I try to provide lots of free patterns and tutorials. I do not WANT compensation for the time/effort put into them. But I would never turn down a little bit of fund-raising support! Thank you so much for ANY help you can provide!