When I logged into Facebook today I noticed a whole bunch of people on my list were posting one-word status updates, all colours. Then I noticed only the ladies were doing it. Then I noticed guys leaving comments asking them what it was about, and the ladies were almost all at least a little cryptic about it. So I asked my friend Google, who told me it was a meme in which women are to say what colour bra they happen to be wearing at the moment; the meme was supposed to raise breast cancer awareness. All I can say is:
WTF?
It seems a lot of people found it tee hee cute, but how many people know more about breast cancer now because of it? All I know is what colour bra half the women on my list wore today. Even worse is that people were cryptic about it. I even read somewhere that someone who wanted their friends to do the meme threw in a line about confusing men. Well isn’t that cute! Let’s deliberately confuse half the population, to raise breast cancer awareness!
Ok, I’m not actually upset about all that. That would be silly, so don’t anyone get their pink polka-dotted bras all knotted up. And if some women out there actually did end up at least thinking about breast cancer because of that meme, that’s great. But is that going to be the end result in most cases? Seriously, I applaud any effort to raise awareness of cancer, but…What I really want to say here is: If you want to do this, do it right.
For someone to participate in that meme, all she has to do is remember what colour bra she put on this morning. That’s it. If she has somehow forgotten, she might look at her bra and say ‘Well shit look at that I put the fuschia one on today!’ But how many are going to start pawing at their own breasts, looking for telltale signs of breast cancer? No, like I said, if you want to do this kind of thing, do it right.
By the way, I don’t know crap about breast cancer, so I can’t tell anyone how to ‘do it right’. I love holding breasts in my hands as much as the next guy (well, depending on who the next guy is), but they’re not MY breasts, and like I said, I don’t know crap about breast cancer anyway. So what to do?
Well, one thing I can do is try to raise awareness of testicular cancer among the fellas out there. And guess what, fellas? I don’t care what colour underwear you’ve got on right now. I don’t even care whether you’re wearing boxers, briefs, tighty-whities or those litte bikini brief things. I don’t care, because it doesn’t matter. All I care about is this: do you know how to check yourself for signs of testicular cancer?
Um…
Yeah, go ahead, laugh it up. But bear in mind that testicular cancer is the most common cancer in males age 15 to 35. That’s an American statistic, but in Canada it’s probably about the same. TC is still pretty rare compared to other cancers, and is way less common among Asian men, but you know what? Its relative rarity here in Malaysia means fewer men have even heard of it, so I’ll bet a lot of cases go unchecked way longer than they should because of an almost complete lack of awareness (not to mention cultural stuff that may or may not inhibit men from talking about their balls with doctors and whoever else). I’ve heard a few stories about Malaysian guys who got testicular cancer; too many of those stories didn’t have very happy endings, compared to stories from home. Anyway, no matter where you are, I think it’s a good idea that you have some awareness of testicular cancer.
Since I’m no doctor, I’ll just point you to some websites where you can find information about testicular cancer:
What is testicular cancer?
Testicular Cancer at Medline Plus
The National Cancer Institute
And, saving the best for last:
The Testicular Cancer Resource Center
That last site is awesome. It even has a section called ‘The Humorous Side of TC’. Even if you never find out you have TC and end up saving your own life because you had proper awareness of it, you’ll at least know some good jokes about testicles. Trust me, when everyone’s telling jokes and you’re searching your memory for a few good ones to contribute, nothing beats testicle jokes.
Anyway, after taking a look at those websites (you will take a look, won’t you fellas?) I hope you’ll take the time to do a self-examination. A detailed description can be found here. If you’re easily bored by details, then at least do this: Grab your balls. If you don’t find any hard, pea-sized lumps on what should otherwise be the smooth surface of your testicles, you’re probably OK. But check again some other time. And READ THE LINKS I JUST POSTED, ESPECIALLY THE ONE ABOUT THE SELF EXAM. Oh, and just as the ladies out there (and the men who love them) know that all breasts are kind of lumpy, you fellas should bear in mind that you don’t actually have two smooth eggs in your scrotum. There’s all sorts of plumbing in there, so it will feel kind of lumpy. You just have to know where the lumps should be, where they shouldn’t, and whether there have been any changes in where your lumps are. Anyway, just check the links.
Why?
I do appreciate the fact that you’ve read this far. In case you’re wondering why I’m going on about this stuff, and you don’t know my background, this is where I should point out that in 2002, when I was 28 years old, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I had a lump that turned out to be an epididymal cyst, which I went in to have removed; when the doctor opened me up he found lesions on my right testicle. He removed the testicle as well. That wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision: the testicle had atrophied and he was going to remove it anyway, with my consent. But still, having one of my nuts sliced off was not something I was looking forward to. Anyway, the lesions turned out to be malignant tumours, and the next thing I knew I was being told I had seminoma. (That sucked but it sure beats non-seminoma, which grows and spreads much faster.) I was assured my cancer probably hadn’t spread, but CT scans revealed it had in fact spread to my retroperitoneal lymph nodes. To kill the cancer I underwent radiation therapy, during which I would lie motionless on a table while a big machine shot beams of radiation into my abdomen. I did this 20 times, the beams hitting exactly the same spots each time thanks to seven tattoos a nurse had put on me to use as a map. After that I just did my best to recover, though in hindsight moving to a developing country a stone’s throw from the equator two weeks after completing the radiotherapy may have complicated things a wee bit. Still, I think I’ve done pretty well, thanks to a positive attitude and a supportive family. And I’ve got a wonderful little boy, and another one on the way. Life is good. But there’s always the possibility the cancer will return; I’m also more likely to get other types of cancer, such as leukemia, thanks to the radiation I was exposed to. So far so good, though. I just need to stay positive and stay INFORMED.
Oh, and ladies, you can help! This is not just a man thing, no ma’am! You see, YOU might be the one who finds the lump. Or maybe your man finds one, or has symptoms that at least one of you suspects might be signs of testicular cancer, but he’s all macho and doesn’t want to see a doctor. Seriously, you can help. We need you, ladies. If it makes you feel any better, we’ll do our best to help you check for breast lumps. We’ll do that, won’t we fellas?
In the meantime, anyone reading this can help, simply by sharing what I’ve just written with their brothers, sons, fathers, friends, cousins, colleagues, or anyone else who could benefit from at least a little awareness of this thing called testicular cancer. And if anyone out there happens to know anyone here in Malaysia who has testicular cancer, or has been through it, please put them in touch with me. I think I want to start a support group.
Anyway, sorry if I’m being pushy or preachy about this stuff, but really I think most guys out there need a good boot in the arse to get them to be aware of testicular cancer. If you think that sounds a bit harsh, I can tell you it sure beats a kick in the balls.
Update (2010/01/11): Some people I know actually did share this (thanks so much!); the comments I’ve seen elsewhere seem to be somewhat evenly split between something like ‘Yeah, he’s got an excellent point!’ and something like ‘He’s over-reacting, and besides, it seems this meme did work because it even got him thinking about cancer.’ Well, to those who disagree with what I’ve written here, please understand that despite the facetious tone of my post, I don’t mean any disrespect. There’s nothing wrong with the meme itself; that is, it’s no worse than other memes that are seemingly pointless but somewhat entertaining, memes I find myself taking part in too. My main point of criticism is that I just don’t think this particular meme really did much, if anything at all, to increase awareness of breast cancer. Even if it did, it could have been more effective, perhaps with a shortened link to real information about breast cancer appearing in every one of those status messages. And I should point out that the meme didn’t get me thinking about cancer either. I think about cancer often. In fact, what got me thinking about my current idea to set up a testicular cancer support group here in Malaysia was not that meme, but rather a whole bunch of other things: visits to hospitals to visit people I know with cancer; stories I’ve been told about people with cancer; and thoughts about my own cancer adventure and what it must be like for Malaysians with testicular cancer. Anyway, the meme didn’t get me thinking about cancer, but I’ll admit this: it did spark this post. If that’s going to be taken as proof that the meme was a success, that’s fine, because the winner here is cancer awareness either way.
Tagged: cancer, links, Malaysia, testicular cancer
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3 Comments
I wonder why TC is so much less common in Asian men. Do you know if the difference is genetic or related to lifestyle?
It seems the jury’s still out, but one compelling explanation I’ve read is that a certain carcinogenic compund called Ochratoxin A may be the culprit. One article says “Ochratoxin A develops in mould that grows in grains and coffee beans and is found in animals that consume mouldy grain, especially pigs.” Supposedly this could explain why certain population groups have higher incidences of the disease. My knowledge of the subject extends no further than “Hey, check it out, I survived testicular cancer,” but the Ochratoxin A theory looks like a winner to me.
Thanks for this Jordan. I honestly found it helpful. It’s not something I’d Google about so it’s pretty useful to come across all this information in your blogpost.
As for the bra meme… Not sure if you’ve heard of this, but it spinned off several annoying ones i.e. Ladies, lets drive the men crazy. If you prefer rainy days, type “I like it wet”, if you prefer thunderstorms, type “I like it hard and loud” etc etc. My FB inbox was riddled with these things, I ended up creating some enemies for pointing out that what started out as a ‘breast cancer awareness exercise’ ended up as a cock-teasing exercise.
Oh well.