I remember watching a family cross-country ski down the street and I remember trudging a mile in the snow with my bag to get home. I remember businesses being closed and the appointment for my taxes being cancelled.

But I also remember screaming. I remember my shovel full of snow and debris and magazines. I remember the sound of the backhoe as it moved mound after mound of snow trying to find three people buried below.

I didn’t hear the ‘whoomph’ everyone else heard.  I told my mom that the avalanche must be much farther up the Rattlesnake than I was because I hadn’t heard anything. Several minutes later, my boyfriend’s roommate Catie came to tell me that snow had slid off Mount Jumbo on Holly Street, a mere two blocks away, and an 8-year-old boy was trapped underneath.

Soon we’d learn there were three victims, but we didn’t wait for that. We ran through thigh-deep snow where the sidewalks should have been. We’d have run in the street where the snow was only knee-deep, but vehicles slid precariously along the unkempt side streets the city hadn’t had time to tend during the storm.

Our nation is in the midst of a health care crisis and many feel overwhelmed by the rising costs of insurance and doctor’s visits. During this government limbo, it is imperative not to lose sight of the importance of preventative medicine.

January is Cervical Cancer Awareness month. Cervical cancer seems rare when compared to the prevalence of prostate, breast and lung cancers, but the statistics are nothing to sneeze at. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institute of Health, there were an estimated 12,340 new cases of cervical cancer in 2013 and 4,030 deaths from the disease.

NCI statistics show the number of deaths from cervical cancer has been dropping by about 2.5 percent each year for the past decade and that 68 percent of patients survive five or more years after being diagnosed with the disease.

Preventative medicine is to thank for growing survivial rates. Health care coverage that offers annual exams and cancer screenings saves lives.  

Like mine, for example.