My fifteenth college reunion was this past weekend. It was very fun and very good to see old friends after so long. Wheaton (and the weather) rose to the occasion and I very much enjoyed my weekend away from home (T stayed home with the boys).

But we discovered something kind of surprising, but really — in retrospect — not all that shocking. I’m not the only member of class of 1993 to have had breast cancer and a mastectomy. While I had saline implants and did chemo and Michele had DIEP and is on tamoxifen, we both faced some of the hardest, scariest months of our lives fighting a common enemy. I’m so happy that we’ve both kicked cancer’s ass but good.

Of course, we’ve heard of the 1 in 8 women you know will have breast cancer in your lifetime statistic, but to find two cases of pre-menopausal breast cancer in the population of a not-large class from a small New England liberal arts college? That gave me pause, and I have to say, I’m a little scared for the rest of the class of 1993! According to my very poor mathifyin’, statistically, there’s still quite a lot of fellow classmates (both men and women, as men can also get breast cancer) who someday may be in their own battles with breast cancer. Michele’s cancer was found during a routine mammogram and I found my lump myself; I’m hoping that the future potential patients have similar experiences and will also catch it (relatively) early.

On a happier note: Michele, will you please let me know how I can support you and Greg in your 3-Day Walk? And of course share how it goes. Erin and Sue are really angling hard to get me to do a 3-Day with them in 2009, but I’m nervous…that’s a LOT of walking!