I have concerns about Angelina Jolie’s lifestyle and I still respect her healthcare decision.

I acknowledge the possibility that she made her announcement because she loves attention and I still respect her healthcare decision.

I have researched the problem of over-treatment of breast cancer and I still respect her healthcare decision.

I know that hospitals have money-making as well as helping people goals and I still respect her healthcare decision.

I disagree with the priorities and politics of the Komen Foundation and I still respect her healthcare decision.

I believe that the obsession with Angelina Jolie’s youth and beauty is detrimental to girls and I still respect her healthcare decision.

I am angry with Myriad Labs for patenting genes and I still respect her healthcare decision.

I could go on and on but I will end with this. I have been planning to write a post describing my decision to have a right-side rather than a bilateral mastectomy. I know the title of the post and I already have my research references lined up.

Why haven’t I written it?

I haven’t written it because I don’t want to invite feedback that is not respectful of my personal healthcare decision. And even more importantly, I do not want to unintentionally give any of the breast cancer people out there the message that I am questioning your personal healthcare decisions because mine were different than yours.

We are all people and all individuals. We can make different decisions and still respect each other. It doesn’t matter whether we are in the “pink crowd” or not.  Breast cancer prevention and treatment options are still gray. I made my treatment choices. Time will tell whether I made the right decisions but to me, they seemed the best decisions I could make based on the information that was available at the time. We are individuals, we have brains, and we have the right to make decisions that we believe are best for us.