{"id":43293,"date":"2023-11-21T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=43293"},"modified":"2023-11-21T16:38:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:38:16","slug":"pink-out-a-reminder-that-proactive-prevention-saves-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=43293","title":{"rendered":"Pink Out a reminder that proactive prevention saves lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rhonda Allen knew the importance of mammograms. As a VA Cancer Care nurse navigator, she\u2019s a staunch advocate for preventative breast health screenings, encouraging and reminding her patients on daily basis to make them a priority.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, in 2017, she failed to take her own advice. \u201cI neglected to schedule my own mammogram for three years, and when I finally had it, my results were not good,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>
Rhonda Allen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Within days of her mammogram, Allen was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a rare and very aggressive form of the disease. \u201cMy forecast wasn\u2019t good, but I knew more than anything I wanted to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0American Cancer Society<\/a>, one in eight women and one in 100 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death among all women.<\/p>\n

Early detection and awareness events at VA medical centers, often billed as Pink Out programs, educate Veterans and employees on the facts and access to life-saving preventative screening options<\/p>\n

\u201cEducating Veterans on breast cancer awareness extremely important.\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe want to promote early detection by educating women and men of the early signs and symptoms of breast cancer, and the importance of mammograms and MRI\u2019s,\u201d said Tracey Payton, North Texas VA nurse and Breast Cancer nurse navigator. \u201cMany of our patients aren\u2019t aware VA offers breast ultrasounds, genetic counseling and testing, diagnosis and treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employees of North Texas VA<\/a> consider every week and month to be an opportunity to hold Pink Out awareness events that increase awareness and save lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinuously educating our Veterans, their families and our staff on breast cancer awareness is extremely important,\u201d said North Texas VA radiologist Dr. Soume Foshee. \u201cWith mammography screening and other significant advances in treatment, breast cancer is not nearly as life threatening as it once was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly six years out from her breast cancer diagnosis, Allen is a survivor\u2014and an active health care system advocate for timely preventative screenings. \u201cThese Pink Out information events are especially important to me as a nurse and VA employee. The support we give and receive is important to many of us as we\u2019re not just employees and clinical professionals. We\u2019re also survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rhonda Allen knew the importance of mammograms. As a VA Cancer Care nurse navigator, she\u2019s a staunch advocate for preventative breast health screenings, encouraging and reminding her patients on daily basis to make them a priority. Unfortunately, in 2017, she failed to take her own advice. \u201cI neglected to schedule my own mammogram for three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[393,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breast-cancer","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43296,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43293\/revisions\/43296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}