Marcie had lunch recently with her friend Sally (not her real name), who had been diagnosed with breast cancer a week earlier. Her story is worth repeating.
Sally had been on vacation with friends at a lake in the Northeast. On an otherwise peaceful morning, one of Sally's more energetic friends invited her to go kayaking. Not wanting to mix vacationing with exercise, Sally politely declined. Her friend eventually wore Sally down, and the two of them did, in fact, paddle away for a few hours.
A couple of days later, Sally was feeling that pain with which most of us of a certain age are all too familiar - the you-haven't-used-those-muscles-in-a-very-long-time pain. In this case, it was the shoulders that were throbbing. In search of relief, Sally rubbed away at her upper arm, shoulder and neck, and then as her hand slid down to just below her collar bone, she felt something odd below her skin - a bump that hadn't been there before.
Not one to mess around, Sally immediately scheduled herself for an exam at the new Women's Center at the nearby hospital. After a mammogram and an ultrasound, Sally heard the news so many women dread. There are two suspicious lumps, and they need to be biopsied. It would be a week before the biopsies could be performed, Sally was told. She knew that wait would be agonizing. "Is there any chance of getting in sooner?" she asked. The nurse went off to look at the schedule and came back a few minutes later. "We had a cancellation. How about right now?"
As you know from the introduction, the news was not good. Sally's doctor told her she needed to meet with a surgeon, and as of this writing that meeting is still pending. But this is not the end of this chapter in Sally's story.
Sally did as many of us do between diagnosis and that first meeting with the oncologist or surgeon. She hit the internet. Anxiety ensued. She talked to a number of people, including one friend who happens to be a literary agent. One of that agent's clients is Geralyn Lucas, the author of
Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, a terrific book that became an Emmy-nominated Lifetime movie. Geralyn ended up calling Sally.
"You are an amazing woman!" Geralyn told Sally. "You just saved your own life." Sally hadn't stopped to consider that. "But what about my friend? Sally asked. "She's been through a really hard time, and I'm afraid this news will be really hard for her to take."
"Bronze the Kayak, call your friend and thank her!" was Geralyn's reply. "I give speeches all over the world, and I can't tell you how many people tell me they wish they had done exactly what you did."
Sally got it. Yes, it was dumb luck and an overly-energetic friend that lead to her discovering the bump on her chest. But it was her own response - not ignoring or putting off the testing she needed - that has given her the best chance of survival. Sally's fight is just beginning, but she's already evangelizing the lessons she has learned. She's planning to talk about her experience this week in a staff meeting at her workplace, which is 95% women, mostly in their 20's to 50's, exactly the group that needs to be reminded to self-examine and to pursue anything that's not normal.
You go Sally (not your real name)! You've already done more to help others than most of us will ever do. Now it's time to focus on you... and your bronzed kayak.
I am excited at the possibility, small as it may be, that one of these drugs will be the key to reversing the progress of my cancer. We know that my last chemotherapy was able to stabilize things, so that's our fall-back if the trial doesn't work. I'm a little concerned about how long I will have been off chemo if that does happen, but the upside is worth the risk to me.
