Boobie HNT

This will be one of my more serious posts, even for HNT. And it's not often (ever?) that I let the Mystery Guest get top billing. Today, it's worth it.

It's that time of year that the 6th Annual Blogger Boobie-Thon takes place. October 1-8, 2007. For those less informed among you, Boobie-Thon was started as a way to raise money for breast cancer research.

Says Melissa Connolly, 2007 coordinator, “If someone’s going to ogle my goods, they can at least make a donation to save boobies and lives!”

The main page is work safe, with links to take you to covered boobies and bare boobies. To get to the bare boobies, you need to make a $50 or more donation to one of the charities listed on the site. You then receive a password to the bare site. All this starts on Oct. 1st.

When I first heard about this in 2005, I thought, "Gee, what a great idea! HNT on an expanded level!" Since then, it's become much more than a tittie-fest. I think it's a statistical impossibility for an individual to not know someone affected by cancer. A friend, a co-worker, a relative, someone we've met online. In any and all cases, IT SUCKS. One year ago, I can honestly say that it had not yet crept into my life. What a difference a year makes. Dad was found to have bladder cancer (since excised, and he's doing fine, thank you). A friend in real life was found to have a lump in her breast (which was found to be benign, thank God).

And then there's the bloggers. Just a day or two ago, the 15 y.o. daughter of a former HNTer had brain surgery to remove a tumor that quite possibly is cancerous. Another one has made numerous mentions of her thyroid cancer which seems to have returned. Another has leukemia. But October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we have a couple within our community who have been diagnosed with it. Mermaid Girl is a young, single mother who was diagnosed earlier this year. She has surgery scheduled for a couple of weeks from now, where, as she says, they'll probably take a large portion of both breasts. The girl is not yet 30.

And then there's the woman known as Evening. She used to blog under a different name. She has shared the most intimate feelings and details as she learned about her cancer early this year, her incredibly brave decision to undergo a double mastectomy, and her amazing, ongoing recovery. She had to make her site private, but she's more than willing to invite you. Just email her at: tmevening@hotmail.com





She has held nothing back in her descriptions of her fears and inhibitions. She has continued to participate in HNT (only missing one, maybe two, weeks). She has posted post-surgery pictures to show the results of her surgery. She is continuing with her breast reconstruction. Most of it was done at the same time as the mastectomy, but she's recently received implants to improve her shape, which is still a work in progress. And she's still waiting to get nipples. That sounds so weird, but it's a fact of life. She's got no nipples. Yet. And there's scars. Ugly scars. But life-giving scars. Want to see? Click on the pictures up above. She wants others that might have to go through this to see that surgical techniques have made things far less monstrous or disfiguring as even she feared. She was also afraid that she might scare people with the pictures. So here is your warning--AN ATTRACTIVE, SCARRED, STILL SOMEWHAT MISSHAPEN, NIPPLELESS WOMAN IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CLICK-THROUGH! But she's alive. (Sorry--the reconstruction pictures have been taken down. If you really need to see them, you can probably email Evening and request them. She might send them to you.)

Breast cancer doesn't discriminate. It likes all races, all genders, and will ravage the bodies that it infests. There are constant strides being made in finding a cure. But there's plenty yet to be done. Check out Boobie-Thon. Consider a donation to get yourself to the bare boobies site. You'll see some HNTers over there. OsShirt was even seen there last year! Or if there's another place you'd rather send your money, do it! There's plenty of groups out there that will be happy to take it! To get you into the mood, Evening asked some people to send her some boobie shots as a little taste of what you might find on the official site. You can check them out at Beautiful, Beautiful Boobies. Hopefully, someday we'll have to come up with a new reason to show off our boobies!

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Well, in keeping with the spirit of things, here's my man boobie. Up close and personal.

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Guess what? It's all boobies over at "...the Other HNT"! And NSFW, as usual...

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Continuing the boobie theme...Tricia has come up with some Blogger templates show support for breast cancer awareness and issues. Examples below. If you're ready for a new look for your site, if even for just awhile, then you might consider one of these! Contact her for the template code--she's even willing to help you out if you're unsure what to do!