Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Let me be clear......October is breast cancer awareness month. I feel I need to clarify because of a past scenario.

My late husband, Benny, was a dentist. I worked by his side for over half my life. Our office was obviously a huge part of our life, and we decorated it for the seasons, for holidays.

One year I had a brilliant idea, we should "pink" the office, especially ourselves........meaning our gowns, gloves, and masks would be pink. The only hurdle was convincing my big, burly, masculine husband to wear said pink gowns, gloves, and masks.

So, I laid out my plan, including the fact that breast cancer had hit my family, hard. I concluded with, "it's important to me". With that, my loving husband, big, burly, bearded, sometimes seemly gruff to others, the one and only Benny "by God" Bell, tilted his head and said....."whatever you want".

(And, that folks is a prime example of what love is all about!!)

So I ordered the supplies, then had to giggle as I unpacked them, and stocked them in the operatories in preparation for the first October day in the office.

We had signs around the office about "Pinking the office" to raise awareness, but there are a lot of people who don't pay attention to signs, so eyebrows were raised when I called patients back. Doniphan is a small town, it used to be that everybody knew everybody, and everybody who knew me knew I was not an all pink girly type.

The eyebrows went even higher when the good doctor entered the operatory..........😁

Pinking of things is all about raising awareness..........of breast cancer.

This went on for days, provoking comments, laughs, and the sharing of stories about how this disease had impacted our patient's lives. We had a memory/honor tree in the waiting room where people could place the names of their loved ones lost, and the ones fighting.

In my life there seems to almost always be comic relief of some sort.

One day a long time patient, another big, gruff guy with a reputation for.......uhhhhhh, admiring the female physique shall we say, showed up for his appointment. I seated him, told Benny which operatory, which procedure was set up, etc, then because we were so busy Benny went in by himself to anesthetize the patient, while I was taking xrays on another.

As I was zooming down the hall, I heard the first patient chuckle at big bad Benny in his pink outfit. Bless his heart, Benny was in all seriousness trying to explain......and I heard him say......."Well, we are trying to do our part, so all of this is in honor of breast awareness month" ummmmmm!!!!!!!!

I skidded to a stop, couldn't keep from laughing, and said, "Actually, all of this is for breast CANCER awareness!

I don't think you guys need anything raising your awareness otherwise."

So, be aware, and take care of yourself, and loved ones.

Sending prayers to those who are missing loved ones, and those in the battle!!