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Stories
Lisa's Story
In 1999, one of Lisa's friends, an executive in a large company, said to Lisa, "You've always been a runner. In a few weeks we're having a 'Race for the Cure.' How about running with us?
With no thought that this would impact her personally--beyond the time she gave to the actual run--Lisa agreed to do it. She was only 33 then, and breast cancer wasn't on her mental screen. All the details of her personal history combined to make her blithely unaware that there might be a problem.
After the run, the participants were given a "Goody Bag," which included a VHS tape about self examination. For many months, Lisa's tape lay in a cupboard, untouched . . . until she watched it. Following the tape's instructions, she decided to perform her own breast exam. To her surprise, she found a small lump.
Still not especially worried, she went to her local gynecologist. The gynecologist reassured her. "With your age and no family history of breast cancer, you don't need to worry."
While somewhat reassured, Lisa wasn't entirely convinced-especially after she talked to other breast cancer patients, all of whom urged her to go see her doctor.
Now 34, Lisa made an appointment with her doctor. He scheduled immediate surgery to remove the small lump he found in Lisa's breast. Several days later he called to tell Lisa that the lump was cancer. The cancer was in the early stages and of low motility-meaning it wasn't especially aggressive. In a second surgery, her doctor expanded the site and took out the Sentinel node and several others. Again, Lisa was extremely lucky because there was no lymph node involvement. Lisa's treatment consisted of radiation, but neither chemotherapy nor tomaxifan.
Years later, Lisa admits that the affected breast still hurts occasionally-but not enough to qualify as real pain. She is resigned to the fact that this small inconvenience won't go away. Lisa wasn't put on a regimen of tomaxifan, which has been linked to birth defects because she wanted to have a baby.
Today, Lisa's baby is three months old. Miraculously, only the milk ducts in one breast were damaged by the radiation. She has been able to nurse her baby on the other breast.
"Without that Race for the Cure," she says, "I might not have had mammography for several years. By then my cancer would have been far more advanced." Lisa may have been lucky in another way. The seven months she delayed performing her self-examination made the cancer large enough to be felt. Had she done the exam immediately, she might have missed it.
Lisa is a teacher at Mater Dei High School, now living a full life with the confidence that she probably need not worry about a recurrence of the cancer she's already had.
Having lived through this surprise at such an early age, she has nothing but sympathy for the 18-year-old girl at her school who actually died of the disease.
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