I remember exactly where I was when I got the call from a “Good
Morning America” producer. I was about to interview Marie Monville, the
wife of the Amish school shooter, in the bucolic setting of Lancaster,
Pa. She was speaking out about the senseless horror that happened in the
most unlikely of places.I was focused on what was about to be an emotional interview regarding life after tragedy, when our producer asked me if she could make a sensitive request: “Amy, next week we’d like you to do the first ever live television mammogram for ‘GMA’ Goes Pink day. You’re 40, the age women should start getting mammograms. Would you even consider it?”
It felt like a strange thing to consider given where I was and what I was about to do, but oddly now, it all feels connected.
For the past 20 years, sadly, a large part of my job deals in tragedy — other peoples’ tragedies — but never my own.
That day, when I was asked to do something I really didn’t want to do, something I had put off for more than a year, I had no way of knowing that I was in a life-or-death situation.
Sitting in that kitchen with Marie Monville, I had cancer and didn’t know it. In fact, I would have considered it virtually impossible that I would have cancer. I work out, I eat right, I take care of myself and I have very little family history; in fact, all of my grandparents are still alive.
So in the days to follow, if several producers and even Robin Roberts herself hadn’t convinced me that doing this on live television would save lives, I would never have been able to save my own.
So on Oct. 1, I had my first mammogram, in front of millions of people.
After breathing a big sigh of relief once it was done, my breath was taken away only a few weeks later.
I thought I was going back in for a few follow-up images, only to find out in a matter of hours that I had breast cancer.
I was alone that afternoon, never thinking to bring anyone with me, never thinking that day would be life-altering. My husband was on a business trip and my parents live across the country, but that night everyone flew into New York City and we started gearing up for a fight.
On Thursday, Nov. 14, I will go into surgery where my doctors will perform a bilateral mastectomy followed by reconstructive surgery. Only then will I know more about what that fight will fully entail, but I am mentally and physically as prepared as anyone can be in this situation.
And while everyone who gets cancer is clearly unlucky, I got lucky by catching it early, and there are so many people to thank for making sure I did. Every producer, every person who urged me to do this, changed my trajectory.
The doctors told me bluntly: “That mammogram just saved your life.”
I was also told this, for every person who has cancer, at least 15 lives are saved because people around them become vigilant. They go to their doctors, they get checked.
I can only hope my story will do the same and inspire every woman who hears it to get a mammogram, to take a self exam. No excuses. It is the difference between life and death.
Voice fans: I know it’s a tad early in the game, but is season 5 shaping up to be the most interesting season of the highly rated reality competition yet? After the reveal of last week’s top 12, it’s apparent that this season is already breaking two important trends. One, with only four female singers remaining, is it safe to say we can expect The Voice to be a male one? There hasn’t been a male winner since season 1′s Javier Colon and season 2′s Jermaine Paul. Factors of probability aside, has there ever been a season with male singers of this caliber of talent? Week to week, I find myself scurrying from Matthew Schuler’s indie-rock power-ballad camp to favoring James Wolpert’s versatile vibrato, to even rooting for clutch player Will Champlin, who many times seemed a goner without a coach’s save. Now I’d wouldn’t be so careless to rule out Tessanne — who’s been a favorite this entire season — but it’s not going to be easy for the powerhouse diva to steamroll past these guys. This talent pool runs deep.
Secondly, in addition, to the dearth of ladies in the competition, there’s also a noticeable lack of a female country singer. As my colleague Samantha Highfill wrote in her analysis of season 4′s artists, The Voice looked like it was on the the fast track to becoming a single-genre show with the purpose of exclusively catapulting country singers. While there’s nothing wrong with discovering another country star, this departure can only signal good things for Voice viewers. It will force Blake to rejigger his coaching sensibilities, give more screen time to idiosyncratic voices, and make it more fun to watch without the looming threat of winner déjà vu.
cc : sumber
