Not Just One in Eight Stories of Breast Cancer Survivors and Their Families

Barbara Stevens Breast Cancer Really Is a Wake-up Call! Survivor Profile: Age at diagnosis: forty-three (7/28/93) Date of interview: support team 1/97, Barbara 2/2000 Type of breast cancer: infiltrating ductal Size tumor: 1 cm; stage I No positive lymph nodes Surgical procedure: bilateral mastectomy (one breast prophylactic) Reconstruction: both sides, not immediate Estrogen receptors: borderline positive; Progesterone receptors: negative Who's Who: Barton Stevens, her husband; Betty Weiss, her friend Stephanie Johns, her friend; Irene Rosenblum, her friend Rosalind (Roz) Jacobs, her aunt [see chapter 4] Gerald (Jerry) Jacobs, her uncle Amy Falk, her cousin (Roz and Jerry's daughter) Shirley Stevens, her mother-in-law William Stevens, her father-in-law Elyse Horvath, Betty's daughter and Barbara's friend Before the Beginning Barbara:At the age of forty-nine my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was twenty-one. I have asked my husband, Bart over the years, ""Was I a good daughter?"" because I have blocked so much of her cancer experience from my mind. He reassures me I was. I am still embarrassed that never once did I call my mother during her ten-day hospital stay when she had a Halsted radical mastectomy. Nor did I visit. I am sure she was hurt, but she never said a word. I have no memories of our family discussing my mother's cancer experience other than one in which my father commented, ""The skin graft goes this way. I thought it would go the opposite way."" Life went on. I suppose that was how families coped in 1971. It's odd. Even though from that point on I was followed closely by my mother's surgeon, had yearly mammograms, and lived for years with an albatross around my neck knowing it was only a matter of time before I got breast cancer, I never really stressed about it. Do I buy into the thinking that a person creates their own disease? Yes and no. I certainly did nothing to assist my body in staying healthy. I abused my body: I ate horribly, did not exercise and smoked a pack of cigarettes every day for twenty years until I quit at the age of thirty-five. By the time I decided, at the age of forty-one or forty-two to take responsibility for myself, the damage had already been done. Shortly after my forty-third birthday in July of 1993, my own cancer journey began. Bart, her husband: Barb and I did visit her mother once in the hospital, but she just does not remember. Barb wanted to talk to her mother on the phone while she was in the hospital, but her mother wanted to be left alone. That is how she copeda?by withdrawing. I won't say that I expected Barb to get cancer, but it was certainly a strong possibility with her family history and it was a concern. THE BEGINNING Barbara: I will state up-front that I do not believe in coincidence. I will also state that I believe I have always had guardian angels watching over me. Several months prior to finding my lump I woke up one morning and said to myself, You need to learn how to meditate. I found a teacher and was taught Kundalini yoga meditation which incorporates physical and breathing exercises. While rolling around on the floor as I did the physical exercises I felt a lumStevens, Barbara F. is the author of 'Not Just One in Eight Stories of Breast Cancer Survivors and Their Families' with ISBN 9781558748323 and ISBN 1558748326.