Janie's Story: breast and pancreatic cancers

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Janie: a breast cancer survivor

Hi. My name is Janie. I'm 51 years old, now. I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 26. I certainly didn't know anything about cancer at that time, because when you're 26, you don't need to know anything about cancer. Or so I thought. But very quickly I learned a lot about it. Originally I found the lump myself. I was taking a shower one night and just found a lump. I talked to several of my girlfriends who had had a biopsy just go into the hospital and have a biopsy and go back home. So I thought, well, there's nothing to it, so I went to my gynecologist the next day, and he immediately sent me to a surgeon, that same afternoon, and two days later I was in the hospital having the biopsy. The surgeon came in and said that it was, they did a frozen section. Now keep in mind this has been 25 years ago, so they do things a lot different now than they did then, but um, he had to go back in, they had done a frozen section of the biopsy and it was malignant, so the next day they did what they called a modified mastectomy. They didn't do any chemo at that time. Several reasons. They, my age being one, and at that time I really didn't know a whole lot of questions to ask, so they just watched me real close. Then about four months later, I had a lump in the other breast. It may very well have been there all the same time. At that time they did not do any mammograms, I don't even know if that was in practice then or not. Kind of went through the same scenario. I found the lump, course once you have breast cancer, you're continuously checking you know the other breast for fear something's going to happen on the other side. But um and so I did, actually it was December 31 and we were going to a New Year's Eve party and I found the lump then, so I had to wait until January 2 to get to my doctor. But they did what they call a simple mastectomy on the other side. And at that time they examined both of the tumors. Previously they had examined one, when I had the initial surgery, but they still decided not to do chemotherapy. They said they thought both the tumors were self-contained and they were both the primary tumors. So they just decided to watch me real close. And of course, that suited me fine. I got along just fine.

Emotional Recovery and Helping Others

The surgery itself is not particularly a hard surgery to get over, as far as the physical aspects of it, but as anybody that's had breast cancer, you know that it has a lot of emotional tags that go along with it. Cancer still, even though we've done a lot, made great strides with cancer research, cancer still has a certain amount of fear with it that I think is a little different than the fear of a heart attach or a stroke. Cancer just seems to have more of a dread, it's the word. But looking back, everything worked out real well, because I don't know that I could have handled having both breasts removed at the same time. So sometimes things kind of work out for the best. The second time I had the surgery I kind of knew what to expect so I wasn't quite as frightened as I was the first time. But I had someone that came to see me the second time in the hospital and it was a lady with Reach to Recovery, which is a breast cancer support organization through the American Cancer Society. And she was a lot of help to me and answered a lot of questions that I really couldn't ask my doctor. So I made a vow then that once I completed my treatment or my surgery or whatever, you have to wait a year. So I became involved after a year with Reach to Recovery, and that was very rewarding for me. And the fact that I could help someone who had been through the same thing that I had gone through, but yet I could go in to their hospital room and I could say, I know what you're feeling, I have some of those same fears myself. So I got a lot of satisfaction and I was able to help people. And ladies were just so glad to talk with me and talk with someone that, because, you can answer questions like, well, will I ever be able to wear a bathing suit again, or will I ever be able to wear a see-through blouse again, and you tell 'em, sure. I never did wear a two-piece bathing suit much to begin with, so that wasn't too much of a problem. But one thing that's a little unusual about my case is I became pregnant about 2 1/2 years after I had had the surgery. Naturally I became very, very concerned, because breast cancer and estrogen and hormones and all that is all tied in together, and I just thought, Oh, great, I don't want to get halfway through this pregnancy and you know, it triggers something. So I went to my oncologist and talked with him, and he said, You know Janie, I can't guarantee you that you're not gonna get run over by a truck when you leave this office, so there's no guarantees with cancer. You just kind of have to know your body and kind of keep check and don't let anything go by. That you know your body, you know that you can feel something that may be just not exactly right, and go to the doctor. That will be the key for us to beat breast cancer one day, is early detection. But I got along just fine with the pregnancy. That child is 22 years old now, and is just doing fine. I got along very well with that. I did not have any other problems. After about seven years I did go through breast reconstruction and I tell ladies that's something that's just very, very personal, to you. If it matters to you, if it's something that you want to do. Then you do that. If it's something that you really don't care about, then you can do fine with mastectomy. They have prostheses, I guarantee you nobody would ever be able to tell. Like I say, I went seven almost eight years with wearing prostheses and I was just fine. I think it's kind of whatever you decide is best for yourself.

Meanwhile kind of just rocking along, everything was going just fine. I had some female problems so I had a hysterectomy in 1994, and it was right after the surgery, I became just real ill and I had to be put back in the hospital and they did some x-rays, and my oncologist came in and I thought, well, what are you doing here? And they had found a mass on my pancreas. Well, after several tests and a couple of days he came back and told me it was, in fact, pancreatic cancer. The tumor that was on the tail end of my pancreas. And I said, this can't be, I've already had cancer twice. This I mean could this possibly be breast cancer? No, in fact, it wasn't. I still have the pancreatic tumor. It's a very rare kind of pancreatic cancer that does not secrete through the bloodstream. I have several lesions that's on my liver. So like I said, this is the year 2000, that was in 1994. I did chemotherapy, so that was something I kind of had to, I had to talk with other ladies who had breast cancer and they were going through chemotherapy, and I couldn't really say well, I know what you've been through with chemotherapy, because I had never had it. So, it's kind of like as I say I had to learn, not only was I talking the talk but I had to learn to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. So I was very frightened, even though I knew a lot about cancer. I had been on the American Cancer Society Board, I had worked with doctors and surgeons and so I knew a whole lot more than I had you know 20-some odd years before that. But it still was the same feeling again of you're having cancer, that same fear just what do we do from here, so I did nine months of chemotherapy, and I think I did very well. I got along fairly well with it. I don't think anybody will tell you that chemotherapy is a picnic, it is stressful for you. But they have done great, great things to try to eliminate the side effects. And I think the benefits far outweigh the cons or the pros far outweigh the cons as far as the chemotherapy goes.

What I have Learned from my cancer experience

I guess if I could say one thing that I have learned from my experiences with cancer, would be that you don't take life for granted. I don't think I ever have been close to death, but I thought that I was, on at least three occasions. I did think that I was very very critically ill. And I think that that changes you. I think if you've ever thought that you were close to death or that you felt like your life was being threatened, I don't think you're ever the same person. All of a sudden what was important yesterday isn't important today. I think you learn to not take things so seriously, or not let things worry you that really don't matter. I think you have a different focus on what really is important, what our time here on this earth and just exactly how short it is and you learn to, or I have learned the value the things that money can't buy, and that is the things that are important. I still go to my oncologist every three months. I have a CAT scan once a year. I did have a CAT scan every six months in the beginning, but there's been no change in the pancreatic tumor since I finished the nine months of chemo, it's shrunk just slightly. But basically it's just kind of sitting there, so I have learned not to, I don't dwell on that fact. I do have some problems from the pancreatic cancer, but by and large I'm just doing real good. I'm sure if you looked at me you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with me. But as far as anything I could change, I don't know if there's anything that I could have changed. I think breast cancer is just something that's real sneaky. It just comes along and I don't know if research really shows exactly what causes breast cancer. I'm sure not. If we knew what caused it, we could eliminate it. There are some things in your life as far as eating habits and exercise that you can do which is just an overall general healthy approach.

Keeping a positive attitude

It seems like you wouldn't say well, what difference would it make about my attitude? Why does that matter, cause it seems like, well if you're gonna get well, you're gonna get well, no matter what your mind thinks. But that's not true. Cancer, more so than any disease, you have to keep a positive attitude. You have to look for the positive attitude, you have to look for the positive, you have to just take one day at a time, and always try to keep positive people around you, let your friends, let your family help you, but don't listen to negative things. You do the best that you know how to do for your situation. You listen to your doctor, you ask questions, you take control. If you think that you would like to research and then you find out because the more you know about cancer and the more you know about your disease, the less afraid you will be. That has been my experience, the more you know, because I think it's the unknown that scares us, so if you kind of dig in there and find out all you can, I think that is something that has helped me.

The one thing that I would like to say is that cancer is not a death sentence any more. There are people living with cancer, there are a lot of cancer survivors. And just don't give up, just keep focused on your health, keep focused on the best things that you can do for yourself, and you take control of your situation. I think that if you do not have any struggles in your life, then you don't become stronger. It's kind of like an athlete, if you don't exercise and you don't train, then or if you don't have any stumbling blocks along the way, then you don't get stronger, your character is not stronger, and that's not to say, I would certainly, if I'd had my rathers, I would rather have not had cancer. But since I have, it has made me a better person, it's made me a stronger person, and it has made me value things like I said before that money can't buy.