Breast Cancer: Battleground Stories
A slip of paper with the information below was handed to me by
one of the brave women I had the pleasure of knowing during the
meeting of a local support group. She said, "Whatever you do,
make sure at least one person reads it."
"Of all the cancer related deaths, breast cancer is the
second cause of death after lung cancer among women. This
disease strikes the male population as well. An estimated 40,200
women will die of breast cancer this year, but many may be
spared by early detection. Some medical providers may be
offering low or no cost mammograms. Some referrals for
information: Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization 1 800 221
2141 National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations 1 888 806
2226 www.medicare.gov National Cancer Institute 1 800 422 6237
Komen Breast Cancer Foundation 1 800 462 9273 or 1 800 IM AWARE
American Cancer Society 1 800 227 2345"
I had asked a friend to ask the group to let me sit in on one
of the survivor meetings. When the group accepted my presence,
we met in a comfortable lounge with five wonderfully vibrant
women and two robust men, all ranging in ages from twenty-eight
to sixty-four who had come together to talk about their battles
of survival and their innermost feelings. They told me that they
were twenty-two people but a few couldn't make it to this
session. Having two men in a group like this was unusual because
men refuse to tell their problems in a group setting, especially
about a disease like breast cancer that is known to be a women's
malady.
Celia, the first one who spoke, was twenty-four when her cancer
was detected. Now, she is forty. She said, her cancer comes back
uninvited every few years. She is currently under treatment
again. There were times when she wanted to do away with herself
to save her parents the heartache and trouble. She still has
awful nightmares. The night before she had a hippopotamus
chasing her into a lake filled with milk. Celia is a very bright
woman. She doesn't easily give in to depression and has an
indomitable spirit. She said what she tells here to the group,
she'd never tell to her family or to her doctors. The group has
always understood and respected each other's confidence. During
her first round of treatments, Celia got to know one of the male
social workers. It was the best time in her life, although she
looked awful with no hair and an uncontrollable nausea. He
became her lover while she was in treatment. She said, he held
her while she vomited, took off from his work to be with her on
her bad days, and waited for her at the door while she was going
through chemotherapy. As soon as she was given a clean bill of
health, he left her; she was devastated.
"Why is it," she asked the group, "Some men love women only when
they are in despair?" Then she answered her own question,
"Saving the damsel in distress syndrome! It inflates the male
ego."
I couldn't help but reflect that this affair had hurt Celia more
than the illness. Still, she tried to have a positive attitude
and considered herself a survivor, even though her cancer had
returned again.
Eileen, the bubbliest in the group, was forty-one when the
cancer was discovered. There was no breast cancer in her family.
She was an athlete who ran every day and played singles tennis
twice a week. She ate a low-fat diet with practically no red
meat. Moreover she had a mammogram done when she was thirty-five
and then another one when she turned forty. Both those
mammograms' reports were clean. Fortunately she examined herself
frequently. Several months after her last mammogram she
discovered a lump in her right breast. Three months later she
went in for a follow up and had a biopsy. The diagnosis was
benign but the doctor called her back in three months.
When she went back, the same spot showed some scar tissue. She
wasn't afraid because she trusted in her first biopsy. She said,
at the time, she had a 'this can't happen to me' attitude.
This time, however, things were very different. The breast
cancer was in her body, but Eileen wasn't going to give up. She
obtained all the information she could get her hands on. She
says she went through a wide range of feelings. The strongest
emotion she felt was anger. She went around the house kicking in
the doors.
Eileen is one of the lucky ones. She is healthy at the moment
and has finished her last reconstructive surgery. "Thanks to
advances in medicine, my figure looks better than ever," she
said jokingly.
Martha has raised two children to adulthood after her cancer was
discovered fourteen years ago. She has a wonderful, supportive,
sunshiny attitude and she is a joy to be with. She has just
retired from a twenty-five year teaching career.
Martha says she wasn't always like this. She went through all
the emotions and then some. Now, she is learning to play the
guitar, something she yearned for all her life. She is also very
active in the affairs of her church. She prefers to believe that
she is living with the cancer with gusto and in spite of it. She
has done a lot to bring about cancer awareness nationwide. She
has even attended fancy parties without a wig. "I try
to make at
least one person aware per day," she said.
The oldest one in the group that day was Paul. Paul was already
suffering from skin cancer when the breast cancer was discovered
four years ago. He went to see a surgeon in another state
because this surgeon was one of the few doctors around who
specialized in male breast cancer. Paul has a wry sense of
humor. He described with motions the funny incidents of himself
getting a mammogram and of being pulled like taffy when almost
nothing was there to pull. He said all the bad feelings he had
experienced were already finished with "the other C", referring
to his skin cancer. So there was nothing left for this one. As
he put it, he has been through the "four horsemen": Mastectomy,
Chemotherapy, Radiation, Tamoxifen. He felt bad only when he
discovered his wife weeping secretly before the mastectomy. He
didn't let her know he saw her. One person in the group
suggested that maybe he should. He said he can't handle that.
Paul still cuts his own lawn and fixes things around the house
but talking to the family about fears--his or theirs--is not his
thing.
Sheila now believes that breast cancer is not a death sentence,
even though her cousin, who was also her best friend, was
diagnosed with this terrible disease around the same time as
Sheila was diagnosed. Her cousin is no longer alive. "She always
wondered what we did wrong," she remembered. She felt, when her
cousin died in a year and a half, her life had to come to a stop
also. She went under extensive counseling because of it, and she
discovered that her family, her children, and her life were the
most important things.
Nowadays, Sheila sees her battle as a blessing. She believes her
cousin would be living now if her cancer had been caught ahead
of time. She volunteers at the clinic in her free time,
especially counseling the newcomers.
When he too was diagnosed, Jonathan, the other man in the group,
had already lost a sister and a cousin to this "woman's
disease". He was furious. He blamed the medical profession, God,
his mother, his wife, his co-workers, the government, and
everybody in existence. After the surgery, he picked a fight
with the doctors accusing them of not paying enough attention to
him. Jonathan still felt that people were more compassionate to
women with breast cancer. He said he didn't blame them because
of the losses in his family but nobody knew how to give support
to frightened men. "I am not afraid of showing my feelings on
the subject but the medical profession is not ready for men with
emotions," he said. According to him the best way is what they
have now, the support group of survivors receiving encouragement
from each other. He said, "There would be more men here if we
could only get them to agree to talk about it."
The last one of the group and the youngest, Karen, found a lump
while she was in the shower. She immediately went to her doctor
and asked for a mammogram and an ultrasound. The results were
normal. They showed nothing nasty. Both the doctor and the
radiologist thought that the lump was fibrocystic.
After a few months, Karen still had the lump. So Karen went to
see a surgeon on her own. The surgeon also thought that the lump
was fibrocystic. After two more months when she found few more
lumps near the original lump, she forced the surgeon to remove
them. On the surgeon's recommendation, she went to have a needle
biopsy one early morning. Later that day the pathologist called
to inform her that she had breast cancer.
At first Karen cried. She cried until she had no more will or
strength to even stand up. Then she called her mother. Not
wanting to face reality, her mother said, "At your age? What are
you trying to pull?" Karen banged the phone down. That is when
her anger surfaced and she promised herself that she would fight
this tooth and nail. She told us that she owed her life to her
mother for making her angry enough.
Later, it was found out that Karen's cancer was the aggressive
kind. She had to go through mastectomy plus chemotherapy.
Karen's doctors are very cautious now. She is scheduled for a
bone scan in a few days. Karen has read practically all the
literature on the disease. She believes in her chances of
survival greatly because of the recent advances in medicine. At
the end, Karen recited a quote from her notebook, "The journey
back is no longer or farther than the forward run." She didn't
know who said it, but they all agreed it could have been any one
of them.
I can't help but admire the bravery of these men and women, and
not only of these seven but of those everywhere, fighting with
this dreadful disease. The ones I met were radiant, hopeful, and
with spirit. Their courage will always be an inspiration.
About the author:
Joy Cagil is an author on a site for Creative Writing
(http://www.Writing.Com/) Her training is in foreign languages
and linguistics. In her background are varied subjects such as
women's issues, mental health, and visual arts. Her portfolio
can be found at
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Breast Cancer Information from a Nonprofit Organization. |
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Founded to help offer free mammograms to underprivileged women nationwide. With a simple, daily "click" visitors help provide mammograms to those in need. |
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The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is dedicated to education and research on breast cancer causes, treatment and the search for a cure. |
www.komen.org |
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Breast Cancer Information from National Breast Cancer Foundation Inc |
Breast cancer information including early signs and symptoms of breast cancer, myths, early detection, breast cancer research and more from National Breast ... |
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A clearinghouse for the latest news and information on the prevention, detection and treatment of breast cancer. |
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Educational resources on using Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat and prevent breast cancer. |
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Breast Cancer Care is the UK's leading provider of information, practical assistance and emotional support for anyone affected by breast cancer or breast ... |
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Breakthrough Breast Cancer is the UKs leading charity committed to fighting breast cancer through research and education. |
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Search MEDLINE/PubMed for recent research articles on Breast Cancer: • Breast Cancer ... Select services and providers for Breast Cancer in your area. ... |
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Online and print journal covering topics of basic and clinical research relevant to breast cancer. Research articles are free to all users. |
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The National Breast Cancer Centre of Australia providing information about breast cancer for consumers and health professionals. |
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Charitable organization which raises money to advance research, education, diagnosis and treatment. |
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That is why you will see breast cancer patients wearing braces, ... [5] Men can also develop breast cancer, but their risk is less than one in 1000 (see sex ... |
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Help stop Breast Cancer by clicking daily - free! Supports efforts by The Breast Cancer Fund. |
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The ultimate goal of the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) is to raise enough money to fund a cure for breast cancer. As Australia’s leading national ... |
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Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization |
Support and information about the condition from this non-profit entity. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. |
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Information about breast cancer treatment, prevention, genetics, causes, screening, clinical trials, research and statistics from the National Cancer ... |
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What You Need To Know About™ Breast Cancer - National Cancer Institute |
Information about detection, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer. NIH Publication No. 05-1556. |
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Breast Cancer Campaign - Researching the cure |
Breast Cancer Campaign is the only charity that specialises in funding independent breast cancer research throughout the UK. |
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The National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund is a grassroots organization dedicated to ending breast cancer through the power of action and advocacy. |
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