Published: October 10, 2005 03:05 pm            

Cancer scare changes view of life

While most of us believe we are immortal, or at least that we will never face a life-threatening illness, I found out this summer that neither assumption is true.

One of my former pastors used to say that God only guarantees us our next breath, and that truth came home to me when I received a call from my gynecologist on June 24.

My yearly mammogram was abnormal and I would have to have another one.

I received this unexpected news at work – “Something isn’t right, this is bad” – and felt as if I had been thrown into a deep, dark hole with no way out.

This was late Friday afternoon, and I had an appointment for another mammogram Monday morning.

Late Monday morning, my gynecologist was calling again. I needed to get an appointment for further examination immediately.

By that evening, I had an appointment for Wednesday with Dr. Dianna Craig at Windber Breast Care Center.

My journey to find out if I had breast cancer had begun. The speed at which the appointments were set up terrified me.

Why were things moving so fast unless I was going to receive the worst possible news?

All I could think was “This can’t be happening to me. I can’t have cancer in my body.”

Accompanied by a friend I never knew cared so much, I went for my Wednesday appointment, not knowing what to expect.

To find out if I had cancer, I would need a biopsy.

This could be done as ambulatory surgery in the hospital or as a less-invasive procedure without anesthesia – a stereotactic core biopsy – at the breast care center.

It turned out I could have the second procedure that same day, so I decided I might as well get it over with.

Biopsy results on July 1 – a week after I got the call that something was wrong – were inconclusive. There wasn’t enough tissue to make a definitive diagnosis.

On July 12, I had ambulatory surgery to take out more tissue.

On July 14, Craig told me I did not have cancer and all foreign matter was removed with a clear margin.

For the first time in 20 days, I received news that made me smile.

In my case, the problem was caught before it had a chance to turn into something bad.

Craig said the key to early detection is to follow recommendations set by the American Cancer Society – a yearly clinical exam, a monthly self-exam and a yearly mammogram.

She stressed that an abnormality found on one could be overlooked on another.

“Don’t write that lump off,” Craig said. “Women think if they feel fine, it can’t be anything. You have to look at the whole picture. If it all doesn’t gel, look into it.”

One woman told Craig she felt a mass, but her mammogram was OK, so she didn’t say anything. Six months later, she came to Craig for a biopsy and was diagnosed with cancer.

“It doesn’t just depend on the mammogram, which gets about 85 percent,” Craig said. “No one of these methods is accurate enough.”

On the other hand, women sometimes become overconcerned when they do feel a lump, either staying away from their doctor for fear of cancer or going to their doctor scared to death.

“Eighty percent of lumps are not cancer,” Craig said.

Craig cited heartening statistics that come as the result of women getting their mammograms and catching abnormalities early – while the number of diagnoses of cancer are up, the death rate is down.

“We’re getting more cancers before they’re bad and have taken over,” Craig said. “Getting checked is the key. Here’s another good statistic – women with breast cancer have a survival rate of 95 to 96 percent if it hasn’t spread beyond the breast. You have a good chance to live a normal life.”

For those women who think they can’t possibly have breast cancer because no one in their family has had it, think again.

“Fifty-seven percent is genetic,” Craig said. “Most occurrences of breast cancer are spontaneous. So just because you’re young and healthy, don’t think ‘It can’t be me.’ ”

Craig stressed there is no reason for a woman to go without a mammogram in Pennsylvania, even if she can’t afford it.

Through a mammogram voucher program funded by the Susan Komen Foundation, needy women can have a mammogram, doctor visit and biopsy paid for.

“We’ve caught some cancers and saved some lives through this program,” Craig said.

The foundation can be contacted at (888) 687-0505.

If cancer is found, the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000 will cover the cost of chemotherapy.

For information, call (800) 215-7494.

“We want to do all we can to catch cancer as early as we can,” Craig said.

After I got the good news from Craig, I still had two appointments to go – a radiation oncologist and a medical oncologist.

There was still the possibility I might need minimal radiation and medication to eradicate anything remaining.

On Aug. 4, I received good news from Dr. David Stefanik of UPMC Cancer Center, John Murtha Pavilion, 337 Somerset St., Johnstown.

I would not need radiation because there was no cancer to radiate.

An article from the Journal of the American Medical Association provided by Stefanik stated the majority of women with abnormalities noted on screening mammograms (95 percent) do not have breast cancer.

On the other hand, having a normal mammogram result does not rule out the possibility of having breast cancer, because false-negative results do occur.

The article also stated that breast cancers detected by mammography screening are smaller than tumors detected between mammography screenings or tumors found outside of screening.

“Early detection of breast cancer saves lives,” Stefanik said. “Mammography is the most important route to early detection.”

News from Dr. Michael Voloshin, a medical oncologist at UPMC Cancer Center, wasn’t as clear-cut as no cancer, no radiation.

He advised me it was my decision whether to take tamoxifen, a drug usedas follow-up therapy in treating early stage breast cancer and to reduce the chance of developing breast cancer for women at high risk.

Because of the side effects of tamoxifen and the fact that what I had wasn’t cancer, I’ll wait and see if anything else develops before deciding to take it.

For now, I’ll take each day as it comes and thank God for every one of them.

Sometimes the mundaneness of ordinary life still drags me down, and tension and stress threaten to overwhelm me.

Then I remember the gift, the miracle I’ve been given. Nothing in my life can ever be the same.

I’m trying to get my priorities straight, doing things I never would have attempted before, enjoying myself as I haven’t in years.

Now instead of “Well, I don’t know. I’ve never done this before,” I say, “Sure, why not? It sounds like fun” or “This is something I need to know about.”

When I bought some all-occasion note cards earlier this year that read “Friends are God’s way of giving us hugs on special days,” I never imagined I would be sending them to thank my friends for prayers.

Thank you, my friends, for upholding me in prayer and literally holding me up when I couldn’t go on.

I will never know this side of heaven whether what was in my body was noncancerous to begin with or if God made it so before the final diagnosis.

What I do know is that God saved me for a reason. I’ve been told that by more than one person as the good reports unfolded. I can’t wait to see what it is.

My former pastor also used to say “The sun is shining, and I’m breathing. It’s a great day.”

Amen.

        

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