Page 15 - Priorities #40 2008-March

support and Siobhan, George, Tim, Cathy, Casey, Josie and the monks were a great comfort.
My Mother had Alzheimer’s disease and I didn’t want Dad to tell her about the cancer. I
was concerned that it might make her more
afraid. However, the night before the operation Dad confided in her. Dad accompanied me to the hospital, stayed with me through the pre-op and waited during the surgery. When I awoke he was there to take me home. Forty-five minutes after I arrived home my Mother and Dad knocked at the back door. Mother had wanted to check on me and make sure I was O.K. It had been months since she had been in my home. A mother’s love is deeper than Alzheimers.
Thanksgiving came and went. In December, lab results showed that the lump was larger than first thought and that I had aggressive cancer. I was a stage 2 which meant that I would be given chemo. I opted for the more aggressive chemo as I wanted to hit the cancer as hard as possible.
I was scared and devastated. My oncologist, Dr. Fischetti, took me down the hall to the social worker. I remember his sweet nurse giving me a hug and saying that I will be just fine. The social worker was wonderful. She gave me Susan Love’s renowned “Breast Book,” sent a referral to the Cancer Society so that I could go to “Look Good Feel Better” class, and told me that the more in control you are, the better you feel. That evening I saw hair dresser and we ordered a wig.
I cried for a while and asked to have a week before the starting the chemo. Stephanie and Chris Hill sent me a “Live Strong” shirt, binder for organizing all of my medical records, and arm bands. Each member of the family has worn those arm bands and the Lance Armstrong theme is a great message for all of us. It’s a way of life.
One day when I was very weak from the chemo, Mother called, and I could feel her weakness over the telephone. It was as though we were on the same body rhythm. She told me that we just send love to one another from our hearts. That’s what
we’re here for. Then she told me she had wondered why she was still alive and now she knew. It was for me. She told me she thought I was beautiful even without hair.
My friend, Elisabeth, who performs massage and energy balancing, has worked with many cancer patients and worked in an office with oncologists for many years. Elisabeth made this journey so much better. She gave me encouragement when I waited for the diagnosis. She read my results and told me that if my worst fear came to pass, losing my hair, that it would grow back in and it would be beautiful and shiny. I saw her a few days before starting
the chemo and she told me to visualize welcoming the chemo into my body. The feeling of dread was replaced by peace as visualized the chemo cleansing
The way I found the lump was a comfort to me. I felt God had a hand in helping me fall on the place where the lump was resting.
my body of the cancer. I was grateful that there is this medicine that can get rid of the cancer. It was a great gift. Carolyn Dobervich pictured a pac-man that ate all of the cancer cells as it roamed through my veins and arteries every morning on her way to work.
A cancer diagnosis affects the entire family. I was concerned most for my children, Julie and Scott. Julie was living in Santa Monica and Scott was finishing his Senior year at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. They both had friends
whose Mothers are breast cancer survivors and they were there for them every step of the way. There are support groups that are listed with the American Cancer Society for family members. I enthusiastically recommend joining a group so that everyone can express their fears, ask questions and come to terms with what is happening.
Julie and Scott visited me as often as they could and Glenn, Laura and my granddaughter Rachel raised my spirits on Christmas morning. I found that your children bring much needed physical
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