Be There for Them

Do you ever pay attention to the billboards on your commute?  Some are useless.  I pass one everyday that shows what song is currently playing on a local country music station.  Some are meant to invoke curiosity.  There is one on my commute put up by the Wyoming state tourism bureau.  It has a couple of buffalo and Old Faithful spouting in the background.  There are local college billboards, local business billboards, and radio station billboards.  None of them really distract me, I glance at them and zip pass them.  There is one, however, that always catches my eye.  In huge words on the top of the billboard is 'Be there for her.' and it shows an adult male with his young daughter.  Below the people is the words 'get a colonoscopy'.

My family, on my dad's side, has a history of colon cancer.  As I got older, the subject within our family became more prevalent.  Mainly because my paternal grandfather died at an early age of cancer.  As with any disease, it all comes down to genetics and is passed down from generation to generation.  It's not something to be proud of, obviously.  I don't remember hearing 'and guess what kids?!  When you grow up, you're prone to cancer!  It's all part of your heritage!'

When I was living down in Kansas, I told my doctor about my family history with colon cancer, and I was in my mid-20s at the time, and he said not to worry about it until I was in my 40s.  Because that is right around the age when men without a family history should start to get tested.  I looked at him and thought 'Seriously?  Have you seen this family history?'  Shortly thereafter, we moved to Minnesota and my new doctor looked at my family history and I told him that my dad's doctor said all of his kids should get a colonoscopy by age 30 to get a baseline.  He agreed.  Simple as that.  It helped that his family also has a history of colon cancer.  He understood. 

So, two years ago, shortly after my 30th birthday, after much berating from my mom, I got a colonoscopy.  I say berating in a loving manner because it seemed like the day after I turned 30, she was telling me I had to get one.  I knew, I just had to plan it out with work and all that fun stuff.  I took a few days off of work.  It came back clean.  I did not have any polyps and I was cleared of having another one for five years.  That's how easy it was.  It put my mind, my wife's mind, my family's mind all at ease.  

Here is a link from the American Cancer Society with some facts about colon cancer.  Some scary facts are that 50,000 plus people are expected to die from colon cancer in 2014.  Roughly 130,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014.  This disease is very preventative and treatable if you take the time to deal with it.  Just like any other disease, you have to be aware of your family history.  You have to be aware of your heritage.  You have to be willing to deal with it.  It's an uncomfortable topic, but if you have a family history of colon cancer (or any cancer/disease), get tested.  Get over your fear of having a scope inside of you for a short period of time.  It's better to have that than cancerous polyps in your body.  Am I right?  Of course I am.    

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Take that prostate cancer!

Art of Manliness raised quite a bit of money for prostate cancer research. A little over thirty one thousand dollars! People pounded the pavement for donations and that is quite impressive. I've said it before and I will say it again, I could not keep a moustache for a month. Ever actually. At work we had several men grow out their beards for Novembeard, which was awesome. I feel that next year it should be taken to the next level and get everyone on board to raise money for a local charity or for local research.

The chops

I gave myself some mutton chops last night for Novembeard. It made me smile when I was doing it. It is just kind of a goofy thing to do. I'm probably going to keep them longer than the month, and why not? I took a quick picture of them while I wait for my plane to leave Flint, MI.



It's back to work in the morning, which will be quite painful just because of the day long travels I am enduring today. Nothing quite like sitting in a car for five hours and then flying from Michigan to Illinois to Kansas to drain your energy.

Novembeard

November is right around the corner, and we all know what that means.....November! The month in which men grow facial hair in recognition of men's health and prostate cancer awareness. Now, the formal version of November goes alike this:

Step one: Shave your face. All of it.
Step two: Grow a moustache.
Step three: ...that's it.

Keep the stach for the month to show your support for the men in your life you may have lost, or just men in general.

I have taken this and twisted it a little bit. I have called it Novembeard. I don't think I would ever rock a moustache, so I go with a beard. Generally speaking, I keep my beard year round. Last year, I grew out the beard for the month and then some. It was mountain man-like. Here's a picture from last Thanksgiving.
This year, for the month of Novembeard, I'm going to shave a little bit of my beard and go with the mutton chops look. Look it up, I can wait.....





It's pretty awesome right? Show your support for men's health. Grow some facial hair for the next month. Even if you can grow a little bit. Do it because it's fun. Do it because it's a great social stance for health awareness. Do it because growing facial hair is manly.

No Shave November

November has been renamed. I am just learning about this. Apparently it started in 1999 by a group of men in Australia. It has since grown and is recognized throughout the world. Names that have been invented are 'No Shave November', 'Movember', and 'Novembeard'. It is a movement in male solidarity for men's health. The main cause is prostate cancer (even though prostate cancer awareness month is September) for men, but other causes as well (think testicular cancer). I love this! The original thought to Movember is to grow a moustache, but I am not about them so I will just let my beard grow out for another thirty days.

I am in an awkward spot though. I grew my beard out for Halloween with the thought of trimming it up after. However with my learning of No Shave November I am thinking of letting it grow for another month. Much to the chagrin of Andrea I am sure. She already complains about it. It is true that I am getting a little sick of how long my beard is right now, but it is for the cause!

So, any male that has read this (whether you read this on a regular basis or you just stumbled across it) make sure you take care of your health. If you are older than thirty and you have not had a prostate exam, GO GET ONE! Thirty years old is generally the age in which men should be getting these exams unless you have a family history of prostate cancer, in which case you should be getting them sooner.

Just something to think about.