Elizabeth's One Year of Remission

Best way to celebrate a year in remission! That was a wonder day. I was so honored to be able to spend the day with Elizabeth, Lamy(her lamb) and her family. Elizabeth is the youngest survior in the Relay for life Wylie/Sashe/Murphy.

Kayla Wharton
Mrs. Texas America 2012

Mrs. Oklahoma Pageant

Society of Women Who LOVE Shoes

Relay For Life of Wylie/Sachse/Murphy's - 2012 Survivor Birthday Celebration

A special day to celebrate with all the surviors!!

Miss Live Oak County Pageant

I judged the Miss Live Oak County Pageant. The young ladies did anamazing job! What a tough choice. Congrats to the new Miss Live Oak County Queen.

Samantha and Mrs. Texas

Leslie and Mrs. Texas

Mrs. Texas America Pageant 2012

Evening gown

Swimsuit

Top Fifteen

Top Five

Mrs Texas America 2012

Mrs. Texas America

A dream come True
I was crowned Mrs. Texas America 2012 January 21 in Corsicana, Texas. I competed against 24 beautiful women from cross the state of Texas. I will compete for the title of Mrs. America, the date and place have not been set.
I had my photo shoot the day after the pageant. That was so much fun! I have the most amazing team preparing me for Mrs. America!
I am so excited for a wonderful year as Mrs. Texas America 2012.

Kayla Wharton

Mrs. Texas crowned

Mrs. Texas crowned

Mrs. Dallas-Fort Worth

On November 12 I was crowned Mrs. Dallas-Fort Worth America. I will be competing for the title of Mrs. Texas America on January 21, 2012 Palace Theater in Corsicana, Texas. I am available to assist you with upcoming fund raising events, activities, and public service campaigns. The Mrs. Texas Competition the official state preliminary for Mrs. America. I will compete in interview, fitness and evening gown at the Mrs. Texas Competition.
I am available to assist you with upcoming fund raising events, activities, and public service campaigns. I would like help to be an emcee at your event or as an “Official Hostess” for an upcoming event. You may wish to have me as a spokesperson for your next fund-raising campaign. I can ride in parades,sign autographs, shake hands, and attract a crowd like you’ve never seen before! I am available to offer my assistance.

My platform is "Perfectly Pink" reducing your chances of breast cancer.

I wanted to repost this on my blog because I am so excited. It is less than a week away when I arrive to the competition in Corsicana, Texas. I would love for everyone to come cheer me on as I compete for the title of Mrs. Texas.

Kayla Wharton

Toys For Tots

General Toys for Tots

What Kind Of Impact Does Stress Have On Breast Cancer?

Although some studies have shown that factors such as traumatic events and losses can alter immune system functions, these studies have not provided any evidence of a direct cause-and-effect relationship between stress and breast cancer. An area currently being studied is whether or not stress reduction can improve immune response and slow progression in women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Kayla Wharton

Randy To The Rescue

Bras For A Cause

Raising money for breast cancer!

Former Miss Venezuela dies of breast cancer aged 28

I wanted to share this story. This is why I have choose my platform "Perfecly Pink".
I want to educate as many people of ways to lower their risk of breast cancer.
If you ever feel something that is different in your breast go to the doctor and get it checked dont let it go.

Former Venezuelan beauty queen Eva Ekvall has died from breast cancer aged just 28.
The mother-of-one died on Saturday in a Houston, Texas hospital after a two year struggle with Breast Cancer. She was married to radio producer John Fabio Bermudez and had a two-year-old daughter, Miranda.

Famous in her teenage years for her beauty, Ms. Ekvall went on to become a news anchor, author and one of her home country's greatest cancer charity advocates.
Born to an American father and Jamaican mother, she was working in a clothes store in Caracas when she was spotted by a modeling agency scout.
'To me that was ridiculous,' she told the Guardian earlier this year. 'I thought I was overweight. I just couldn't be a model.

'But one day I got fired so I took a cab and went to the modeling agency. Once they saw me … they said they had the next Miss Venezuela right there.'
Aged 17, she was crowned Miss Venezuela in 2000.
She was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in February 2010, and underwent eight months of treatment including chemotherapy, radiation and a mastectomy.
She had noticed a lump in her breast months earlier but thought her body was changing due to her pregnancy.
'I was very angry because I should have known,' she said at the time. 'My aunt had breast cancer twice and my grandmother died from breast cancer. And I just let time go.'

'In the beginning I wasn't sure if I looked good or not. Then I realised that wasn't the point. I wasn't supposed to look good, I had cancer.'

In her book, Ms Ekvall described her joy at having a daughter, writing 'that happiness, although [Miranda] may not know it or understand it, keeps me alive today'.
'Sadly, cancer had the last word,' writer Leonardo Padron told Globovision.

Legacy: Ekvall and her book are credited with a rise in Venezuelan women having breast examinations
It is widely credited with raising awareness of the disease in Venezuela.
She knew her book would shock a nation where beauty queens are major celebrities and cosmetic surgery is commonplace.
'It's absurd that there should be a taboo about breast cancer in a country of breast implants, where women have few reservations about showing off their surgically-enhanced breasts,' she told BBC Mundo in March.
She is also credited with a reported increase in the number of women going for breast examinations.
But many Venevision viewers were unaware of her illness as she wore a wig and makeup.
'It's painful to look at yourself in the mirror,' she told the Guardian in February this year.
'Your face gets swollen. You lose every single hair in your body – your eyebrows, your eyelashes.
'You become some weird animal or something, you don't recognize yourself.
'That was scary. Especially because my job has to do with my looks. I had to look decent and not appear sick.'
She had demonstrated 'extraordinary calm and courage in her fight against cancer. SenosAyuda, a Caracas-based breast cancer awareness group, said in a tribute on its website that the former beauty queen's legacy will help thousands of Venezuelan women in the future.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk
All information is from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Kayla Wharton

Toys For Tots Mckinney

MRI

Unlike a mammogram, which uses x-rays to create images of the breast, breast MRI uses magnets and radio waves to produce detailed 3-dimensional images of the breast tissue. Before the test, you may need to have a contrast solution (dye) injected into your arm through an intravenous line. Because the dye can affect the kidneys, your doctor may perform kidney function tests before giving you the contrast solution. The solution will help any potentially cancerous breast tissue show up more clearly.

Cancers need to increase their blood supply in order to grow. On a breast MRI, the contrast tends to become more concentrated in areas of cancer growth, showing up as white areas on an otherwise dark background. This helps the radiologist determine which areas could possibly be cancerous. More tests may be needed after breast MRI to confirm whether or not any suspicious areas are actually cancer.

For the breast MRI, you will need to pull down your hospital gown to your waist or open it in front to expose your breasts. Then you lie on your stomach on a padded platform with cushioned openings for your breasts. Each opening is surrounded by a breast coil, which is a signal receiver that works with the MRI unit to create the images. The platform then slides into the center of the tube-shaped MRI machine. You won’t feel the magnetic field and radio waves around you, but you will hear a loud thumping sound. You will need to be very still during the test, which takes around 30 to 45 minutes.

Who should have breast MRI for screening?

Yearly mammograms plus breast MRI screening are typically recommended for women who are at higher-than-average risk of developing breast cancer — in other words, at greater than the average 13% risk most women have over the course of an entire lifetime.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) recommends that all high-risk women — those with a greater than 20% lifetime risk of breast cancer — have a breast MRI and a mammogram every year. For most women, these combined screenings should start at age 30 and continue as long as the woman is in good health. According to ACS guidelines, high-risk women include those who:
• have a known BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation
• have a first-degree relative (mother, father, brother, sister, or child) with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation and have not had genetic testing themselves
• find out they have a lifetime risk of breast cancer of 20-25% or greater, according to risk assessment tools that are based mainly on family history
• had radiation therapy to the chest for another type of cancer, such as Hodgkin’s disease, when they were between the ages of 10 and 30 years
• have a genetic disease such as Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Cowden syndrome, or Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndrome, or have one of these syndromes in first-degree relatives
The American Cancer Society also recommends that women at moderately increased risk of breast cancer — those with a 15-20% lifetime risk — talk with their doctors about the possibility of adding breast MRI screening to their yearly mammogram. According to ACS guidelines, this includes women who:
• find out they have a lifetime risk of breast cancer of 15-20%, according to risk assessment tools based mainly on family history
• have a personal history of breast cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS), or abnormal breast cell changes such as atypical ductal hyperplasia or atypical lobular hyperplasia
• have extremely dense breasts or unevenly dense breasts when viewed by mammograms

Why breast MRI is not recommended for screening all women

Breast MRI is not recommended as a screening tool for women who are at average risk of developing breast cancer. Yes, breast MRI has been found to be more sensitive in detecting cancers than mammograms, which does seem like an advantage. However, a major disadvantage is that breast MRI screening results in more false positives — in other words, the test finds something that initially looks suspicious but turns out not to be cancer.

If breast MRI were adopted as a screening tool for everyone, many women would end up having unnecessary biopsies and other tests, not to mention the anxiety and distress. That is why current recommendations reserve breast MRI screening for high-risk women only.

All information is from breastcancer.org

Toys for tots pre-ride

Mammograms

Mammograms don’t prevent breast cancer, but they can save lives by finding breast cancer as early as possible. For example, mammograms have been shown to lower the risk of dying from breast cancer by 35% in women over the age of 50.
Finding breast cancer early with mammography has also meant that many more women being treated for breast cancer are able to keep their breasts. When caught early, localized cancers can be removed without resorting to breast removal (mastectomy).
The main risk of mammograms is that they aren’t perfect. Normal breast tissue can hide a breast cancer so that it doesn't show up on the mammogram. This is called a false negative. And mammography can identify an abnormality that looks like a cancer, but turns out to be normal. This "false alarm" is called a false positive. Besides worrying about being diagnosed with breast cancer, a false positive means more tests and follow-up visits, which can be stressful.
Women also need to practice breast self-examination, get regular breast examinations, and, also get another form of breast imaging, such as breast MRI or ultrasound.
Some women wonder about the risks of radiation exposure due to mammography. Modern-day mammography only involves a tiny amount of radiation — even less than a standard chest x-ray.

5 Important Things to Know About Mammograms

1. They can save your life. Finding breast cancer early reduces your risk of dying from the disease by 25-30% or more. Women should begin having mammograms yearly at age 40, or earlier if they're at high risk.

2. Don't be afraid. Mammography is a fast procedure (about 20 minutes), and discomfort is minimal for most women. The procedure is safe: there's only a very tiny amount of radiation exposure from a mammogram. To relieve the anxiety of waiting for results, go to a center that will give you results before you leave.

3. Get the best quality you can. If you have dense breasts or are under age 50, try to get a digital mammogram. A digital mammogram is recorded onto a computer so that doctors can enlarge certain sections to look at them more closely.

Other tips:
o On the day of the exam, wear a skirt or pants, rather than a dress, since you’ll need to remove your top for the test. Don’t wear deodorant or antiperspirant, since these can show up on the film and interfere with the test results.
o Avoid scheduling your mammogram at a time when your breasts are swollen or tender, such as right before your period.
o Discuss your family history of breast and other cancers — from both your mother's AND father’s side.
o If you don’t receive any results within 30 days, call your doctor to ask for the results.

4. Mammography is our most powerful breast cancer detection tool. However, mammograms can still miss 20% of breast cancers that are simply not visible using this technique. Other important tools — such as breast self-exam, clinical breast examination, and possibly ultrasound or MRI — can and should be used as complementary tools, but there are no substitutes or replacements for a mammogram.

5. An unusual result requiring further testing does not always mean you have breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, about 10% of women (1 in 10) who have a mammogram will require more tests. Only 8-10% of these women will need a biopsy, and about 80% of these biopsies will turn out not to be cancer. It’s normal to worry if you get called back for more testing, but try not to assume the worst until you have more information.
All information from Breastcancer.org

"Perfectly Pink"

Mrs. Dallas-Fort Worth America

On November 12 I was crowned Mrs. Dallas-Fort Worth America. I will be competing for the title of Mrs. Texas America on January 21, 2012 Palace Theater in Corsicana, Texas. I am available to assist you with upcoming fund raising events, activities, and public service campaigns. The Mrs. Texas Competition the official state preliminary for Mrs. America. I will compete in interview, fitness and evening gown at the Mrs. Texas Competition.
I am available to assist you with upcoming fund raising events, activities, and public service campaigns. I would like help to be an emcee at your event or as an “Official Hostess” for an upcoming event. You may wish to have me as a spokesperson for your next fund-raising campaign. I can ride in parades,sign autographs, shake hands, and attract a crowd like you’ve never seen before! I am available to offer my assistance.

My platform is "Perfectly Pink" reducing your chances of breast cancer.

Five Steps for Self- Exams

Step 1: Begin by looking at your breasts in the mirror with your shoulders straight and your arms on your hips.
Here's what you should look for:
• Breasts that are their usual size, shape, and color
• Breasts that are evenly shaped without visible distortion or swelling
If you see any of the following changes, bring them to your doctor's attention:
• Dimpling, puckering, or bulging of the skin
• A nipple that has changed position or an inverted nipple (pushed inward instead of sticking out)
• Redness, soreness, rash, or swelling

Step 2: Now, raise your arms and look for the same changes.

Step 3: While you're at the mirror, look for any signs of fluid coming out of one or both nipples (this could be a watery, milky, or yellow fluid or blood).

Step 4: Next, feel your breasts while lying down, using your right hand to feel your left breast and then your left hand to feel your right breast. Use a firm, smooth touch with the first few finger pads of your hand, keeping the fingers flat and together. Use a circular motion, about the size of a quarter.
Cover the entire breast from top to bottom, side to side — from your collarbone to the top of your abdomen, and from your armpit to your cleavage.
Follow a pattern to be sure that you cover the whole breast. You can begin at the nipple, moving in larger and larger circles until you reach the outer edge of the breast. You can also move your fingers up and down vertically, in rows, as if you were mowing a lawn. This up-and-down approach seems to work best for most women. Be sure to feel all the tissue from the front to the back of your breasts: for the skin and tissue just beneath, use light pressure; use medium pressure for tissue in the middle of your breasts; use firm pressure for the deep tissue in the back. When you've reached the deep tissue, you should be able to feel down to your ribcage.

Step 5: Finally, feel your breasts while you are standing or sitting. Many women find that the easiest way to feel their breasts is when their skin is wet and slippery, so they like to do this step in the shower. Cover your entire breast, using the same hand movements described in Step 4.

For more help on doing self breast exams please go to the website www.breastcancer.org


all information from Breastcancer.org

What is your shade of Pink?

"Percfectly Pink"

Mammography Technique

When you have a mammogram, a skilled technologist positions and compresses your breast between two clear plates. The plates are attached to a highly specialized camera, which takes two pictures of the breast from two directions. Then the technologist repeats the technique on the opposite breast. For some women, more than two pictures may be needed to include as much tissue as possible.
Mammography can be painful for some women, but for most it is mildly uncomfortable, and the sensation lasts for just a few seconds. Compressing the breast is necessary to flatten and reduce the thickness of the breast. The x-ray beam should penetrate as few layers of overlapping tissues as possible. From start to finish, the entire procedure takes about 20 minutes. A diagnostic mammogram generally takes more time than a screening mammogram because it takes more pictures from more angles.
Mammography involves minimal radiation exposure. In fact, the amount of radiation exposure from modern-day mammography machines is much lower than it was in past decades. The American Cancer Society notes that the dose of radiation received during a screening mammogram is about the same amount of radiation a person gets from their natural surroundings (background radiation) in an average 3-month period.
If you’ve had breast surgery for another reason, such as a benign biopsy or surgery to reduce the size of your breasts, the radiologist will want to know where those scars are in case the scar tissue has to be distinguished from another kind of breast abnormality. If you've had breast cancer surgery, small metal balls will be taped on your skin to mark your scar. Your scar defines the site with the highest risk of recurrence.
At least one radiologist reads the mammogram. A radiologist is a doctor who specializes in analyzing imaging studies of the body to diagnose disease or other problems. Having two radiologists read your mammogram reduces the chance of missing a problem by about 10-15%. Some centers routinely have your mammogram read twice, but this is expensive, and most insurance companies won’t pay for it. You can also get a “second opinion” on your mammogram by having the images analyzed by a computer. This is called computer-aided detection (“CAD”). Special computer software reviews the images and marks any areas of suspicion. The radiologist then examines each area and decides if it needs further evaluation.

All information from Breastcancer.org

"Perfectly Pink"

"Perfectly Pink"

Every 15 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer.
Even more shocking is that this number is the same it was 20 years ago.
Doctors and scientists are working hard to produce breakthrough findings that will make strides toward this lofty goal of ending breast cancer.
We can come together and declare an end to breast cancer.
If we vow our own commitment to staying healthy, being informed, and educate others, we stand a chance at accomplishing this goal.

"Perfectly Pink"

2011 Komen Dallas County Race for the Cure

2011 Komen Dallas County Race for the Cure

Saturday, October 15, 2011
NorthPark Center

Please come join me at the race. I am walk because my mom is a two time Breast cancer Survivor.

General Race Information

The Komen Dallas Race for the Cure® is an annual 1K and 5K fundraising walk/run event held at NorthPark Center. It is a co-ed race and great fun for the entire family. The Race is in its 29th year and is part of a national 5K series sponsored by Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The goal of the event is to raise funds, heighten awareness and educate people about breast health as well as to recognize and celebrate breast cancer survivorship. The Race is the largest fundraising event for local breast cancer screening, treatment, education and research in Dallas County. Last year our affiliate granted $1,912,000 into the immediate Dallas community for these vital services. $679,829 was directed to cutting edge research at the national level.
For more information go to: www.komen-dallas.org