In her honor...

So, I thought it'd be nice to share with you all the story of my grandmother's breast cancer experience, since, after all, she's one of the many women we'll be walking for!

My mom's mom, Ruby Sperling, is better know to me as "Oubu" (pronounced ooo-boo). And as the eldest grandchild, I take full credit for this nickname. My family tried relentlessly to get me to say "Ruby" when I was learning to talk, but it just wouldn't come out right. Who knows what sort of sounds did come out, but I guess the most decipherable was "Oubu", so that's what they went with!

Oubu was 39 when she forced her doctor to take the lump in her breast seriously. After insisting on being referred to a surgeon, surgery was scheduled to have the lump removed. After a radical mastectomy (they removed the breast down to the rib cage & lymph glands under her arm) they took skin from her upper thigh & grafted it over the area. She was in the hospital for about a month due to complications, inculding blod clots in her leg. She was finally released from the hospital after being told her left arm would eventually swell to be larger than the right, and that she would never be able to lift her left arm higher than a 90 degree angle. But she was stronger than they imagined- that doctor wouldn't believe his eyes if he had seen her lifting her beautiful baby granddaughter (me, of course!) up over her head 20 years later!

It's truly amazing how far medicine has come since my gradmother was battling breast cancer, but we still have a long way to go! So ladies... let's walk it out, walk it out...