I'm taking a break from talking about Rice Krispies and tiny little colds today to talk about something much more important, something you may not know about, something I didn't know about until I stumbled across a blog called Toddler Planet the other day. Toddler Planet is written by WhyMommy, a wife, mother of two and a patient fighting a rare type of breast cancer called inflammatory breast cancer -- something she was diagnosed with just a few months after having her youngest son. IBC is different because it often doesn't show up with a lump and its symptoms are similar to mastitis. It is fast-spreading and deadly, and WhyMommy has asked bloggers to spread the word, to steal the post you'll see a few lines down from here. To join Team WhyMommy, which is what I'm doing right now.

Seventeen years ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer (she's cancer-free today, thank you very much), but I had no idea this version of the disease existed. (I'll talk more about her and WhyMommy in my Triangle Mom2Mom post next Tuesday.) What I did know, from my mother's experience, is that cancer often reveals new bonds of support outside your own family, people who didn't know you before you were diagnosed. That kind of community is what WhyMommy has found in the blogosphere, where hundreds of people have joined her team. Below is the post she wants you to read. I recommend that you don't stop there. Visit her site to read about her journey, which she tells with candor and beauty.

From Toddler Planet, July 23, 2007:

We hear a lot about breast cancer these days. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes, and there are millions living with it in the U.S. today alone. But did you know that there is more than one type of breast cancer?

I didn’t. I thought that breast cancer was all the same. I figured that if I did my monthly breast self-exams, and found no lump, I’d be fine.

Oops. It turns out that you don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer. Six weeks ago, I went to my OB/GYN because my breast felt funny. It was red, hot, inflamed, and the skin looked…funny. But there was no lump, so I wasn’t worried. I should have been. After a round of antibiotics didn’t clear up the inflammation, my doctor sent me to a breast specialist and did a skin punch biopsy. That test showed that I have inflammatory breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that can be deadly.

Inflammatory breast cancer is often misdiagnosed as mastitis because many doctors have never seen it before and consider it rare. “Rare” or not, there are over 100,000 women in the U.S. with this cancer right now; only half will survive five years. Please call your OB/GYN if you experience several of the following symptoms in your breast, or any unusual changes: redness, rapid increase in size of one breast, persistent itching of breast or nipple, thickening of breast tissue, stabbing pain, soreness, swelling under the arm, dimpling or ridging (for example, when you take your bra off, the bra marks stay – for a while), flattening or retracting of the nipple, or a texture that looks or feels like an orange (called peau d’orange). Ask if your GYN is familiar with inflammatory breast cancer, and tell her that you’re concerned and want to come in to rule it out.

There is more than one kind of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer is the most aggressive form of breast cancer out there, and early detection is critical. It’s not usually detected by mammogram. It does not usually present with a lump. It may be overlooked with all of the changes that our breasts undergo during the years when we’re pregnant and/or nursing our little ones. It’s important not to miss this one.

Inflammatory breast cancer is detected by women and their doctors who notice a change in one of their breasts. If you notice a change, call your doctor today. Tell her about it. Tell her that you have a friend with this disease, and it’s trying to kill her. Now you know what I wish I had known before six weeks ago.

You don’t have to have a lump to have breast cancer.

P.S. Feel free to steal this post too. I’d be happy for anyone in the blogosphere to take it and put it on their site, no questions asked. Dress it up, dress it down, let it run around the place barefoot. I don’t care. But I want the word to get out. I don’t want another young mom — or old man — or anyone in between — to have to stare at this thing on their chest and wonder, is it mastitis? Is it a rash? Am I overreacting? This cancer moves FAST, and early detection and treatment is critical for survival.